FOCUS GROUP RESEARCH ON SENSORY LANGUAGE USED BY CONSUMERS TO DESCRIBE MAYONNAISE

Abstract

ABSTRACT A focus group study was performed to investigate the sensory vocabulary used by consumers of this product, together with general habits of its consumption. A total of 59 housewives distributed among six groups from three different cities in Argentina participated in the study. Differences in the groups across cities were small. Four groups would have been sufficient to generate the information and four was an adequate number of samples to aid in descriptor usage. The total number of descriptors used by the 6 groups were: appearance 65, color 39, aroma 44, flavor 50 and texture 70. A list of the most frequently mentioned positive and negative descriptors is presented. There were contradictions between the recall of reasons for consuming a sample and the sensory description of the same sample. The focus group method allowed obtaining the general profile of an ideal mayonnaise: pale yellow, shiny, with a mild flavor of lemon and egg, creamy in texture and easy to spread.