Factors affecting consumers’ acceptability of fiber drink products

Abstract The objective of this study was to evaluate factors that impact consumers’ acceptability of fiber drink products. The influence of both the sensory and non-sensory factors on the liking of fiber drink was investigated using 121 consumers (mean age 20.3 ± 3.2-year-old). Six commercial fiber drink samples were investigated in this study with different flavor and characteristics. The CATA (Check-All-That-Apply) method was implemented for descriptive measurement of the fiber drink samples and consumer acceptance was measured using 9-point hedonic scale. The result showed that both sensory and non-sensory characteristics were able to impact liking of fiber drink samples. The sensorial characteristics of bright color (p< 0.001), sweet aroma (p< 0.001), fruity aroma (p< 0.001), berry aroma (p=0.043), sweet taste (p< 0.001), and fruity taste (p< 0.001), were shown to significantly impact liking. In contrast, attributes of darker (p< 0.001) and green (p< 0.001) color, texture of sandy (p=0.002), clumpy (p< 0.001), puree (p=0.009) and gel-like (p< 0.001) were significantly decreasing liking. For the non-sensory attributes, factors associated with health and wellness have significantly impact liking with artificial (p=0.018) and nauseated (p<0.001) showed to negatively impact liking. This is the baseline study to understand factors impacting the acceptability of consumers in fiber drink samples and can be used to develop fiber drink products with the most acceptable profiles based on consumers’ evaluations.