November 4/Orissa, India/News of Science -- "The success of any novel food product is largely determined by the consumer acceptance of its sensory quality. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the sensory attributes of lactic acid-fermented sweet potato (SP) pickles with the prospective consumers to develop a statistical model for predicting consumer acceptance decisions," investigators in India report.
"The pickles prepared from beta carotene- and anthocyanin-rich SP varieties in 8 and 10% salt (NaCl) solutions were evaluated for their sensory attributes, i.e., appearance, color, texture, aroma and sourness, by 100 rural consumers from the Orissa state of India during 2008. The consumers liked SP pickle made in 8% NaCl solution. The logistic regression modeling of the sensory and consumer attributes revealed that the sourness (Wald statistic = 11.328, P = 0.001) and aroma (Wald statistic = 8.374, P = 0.004) of the SP pickle determined the consumer acceptability. Analysis also showed that the highly educated consumers were most likely to accept this SP pickle (Wald statistic = 5.038, P = 0.025)," wrote P.S. Sivakumar and colleagues.