Consumer testing

Consumer testing is the next crucial aspect in product development. Consumer testing can be done in three ways:

1.  In-house laboratory testing  
2.  Home testing and
3.  Institutional testing

1. In-house laboratory acceptance testing represents the most controlled environment in which to conduct acceptance tests. Within the laboratory testing area, one can control a number of environmental variables (odour, light, temperature, humidity etc) and a number of stimulus variables (serving temperatures, portion size etc). In-house testing utilizes either laboratory personnel or consumers brought in for the tests. 
 
2.  In home testing, the selection and maintenance of a consumer panel is a key issue. The co-operation rate from consumer home panels is approximately 50 percent. It has been found that co-operation is best in households with:

a)  more  than two members
b)  a younger housewife and 
c)  more education.

But home testing presents a practical problem, that is, the process of data collection is not done under the supervision of the investigator. Therefore, validity of the procedure and resulting data cannot be directly assessed. 

 3.  The institutional food service setting,  on the other hand, provides an excellent opportunity to collect food acceptance information. It is preferable to collect the foodacceptance ratings from the consumers as they are eating, or just after they have completed eating. Collection of direct consumer acceptance ratings  also provides the researcher with an opportunity to observe  the food system in operation and to interact with consumers. Food acceptance data is collected by using feedback forms that are filled by the consumers. For their effective use the feed back forms should be brief and clear; it should take only 1-2 min to fill out. Secondly, the format of questions should provide nformation which can be acted upon. Data collected on a number of food products showed that the card or form with different scales for different food attributes was most effective and useful. One example of a feed back form used in the consumer testing of ow fat cake is given here.should take only 1-2 min to fill out.

You would have made note of the fact that food acceptance data is collected by the consumers by using feedback forms. There are a few acceptance tests normally carried out to evaluate product acceptability. What are these tests and how they are conducted?