Italian consumer segmentation according to sensory and hedonic responses on real foods

This study, part of the larger Italian Taste project, aimed at exploring the association between liking and sensory perception in four real products: pear juice (PJ), chocolate pudding (CP), bean purée (BP) and tomato juice (TJ). In each product, a target sensation -sourness, sweetness, saltiness and pungency- was modulated by adding four levels of citric acid in PJ, sucrose in CP, sodium chloride in BP and capsaicin in TJ. The subjects involved (N = 2317; 59% females, aged 18–60) were characterised for demographics, taste functions, familiarity with and liking for different food/beverages categories. For all products, target sensations (TS) are perceived clearly different (from weak to strong on gLMS) in the four variations. Liking increases with increasing sucrose concentrations in the CP, decreases with increasing amounts of citric acid in PJ and of capsaicin in TJ while BP shows a maximum in intermediate concentrations for sodium chloride. Differences for gender, age and residence region were found: females and those living in the South or Islands assign lower liking scores in all products. Furthermore, liking scores for BP decrease with age while increase for TJ. For each product, Pearson coefficient distribution was used to estimate liking/TS intensity relationship. Three clusters were identified: liking increases with decreasing of TS perceived intensity (C1), not linear trend of liking (C2) and liking increases with increasing TS perceived intensity (C3). For each product, identified groups were characterised according to gender, age, geographic area and other collected variables. In each product, groups are differently characterised even with different size. Nevertheless, a general rule can be seen for all products: C1 subjects perceive TS more intensely than others. It therefore seems that those who perceive a sensation at higher intensity tend to like less the product.