Consumer preference of Chinese traditional fermented fava pastes

The present study was designed to investigate the consumer preference and the quality attributes of five brands of Chinese traditional first-grade fava pastes, following which their quality differences were evaluated in order to identify the key drivers or factors, which can be applied to explain the behavior of consumer preferences. Consumers ranked these samples based on the 9-point method. An obvious preference for sample P1 was observed with 35% of participants settling on extremely liked option, giving the said sample the highest overall preference score of 7.8 ± 0.2. Further sensory and physicochemical properties, and volatiles were conducted to identify the major drivers of the consumer behavior. Sensory evaluation showed that sample P1 also produced the highest overall sensory score (85 ± 3). Though all the samples exhibited similar physicochemical attributes, significant differences were observed in the species and the concentration of volatile compounds. Accordingly, the content of free amino acids (FAAs) and low-molecular-weight (MW) fraction (≤5 kDa) represented the trend that fell in line with sensory score. PLS2 correlation analysis indicated that physicochemical indices and volatiles could be used to explain the consumer preference, which was likely to be synergistically affected by FAAs, protein, amino nitrogen, dietary fiber, Ca, P, Fe, δ-Ε, and some volatiles, especially the positive drivers of FAAs and low MW proportion to sample P1. The work would not only provide valuable information for grading of fava pastes in the industry but also guide actual producing toward the expectation of consumers, especially increasing those positive drivers.