Methodology for combining sensory properties with additional information in consumer acceptance studies of food products

The project focuses on method development for better understanding of consumer acceptance of food
products with added values related to health benefits, environment and user-friendliness. The main goal is
to develop and make available statistical methods that can be used to identify the important factors for
consumer acceptance, their interactions and their optimal combinations. This will be achieved through the
following contents: 1) Statistical method development with focus on the combined use of experimental
design and multivariate analysis 2)Development of an easy-to-use open source software package 3)
Industry based method development, 4) writing scientific papers, giving courses and producing a PhD
degree in Sensometrics. The industrial effect will be 1) lowering the costs of product development, 2)
reduced product development time 3) higher hit rate of new products and 4) better predictions of product
potential. Since most relevant Danish and Norwegian stakeholders are participating together with an
interested international network in Netherlands, Australia and South Africa, the project will add to the
already ongoing process of turning Denmark and Norway into one of the major international players for
handling sensory and consumer data.