Measurement of consumers’ sensory discrimination and preference: Efficiency of preference-difference test utilizing the 3-point preference test precedes the same-different test

Abstract

In fast moving consumer goods industries, effective and robust sensory discrimination and preference methods need to achieve various business objectives, such as product reformulation. A new preference-difference test was designed in this study as more effective and reliable method. In this method, 3-point paired-preference test was performed before conducting same-different test. The performance of new method was compared with performances of difference-preference test and conventional pairedpreference test. Each of 256 female consumers participated in all three test methods in a counterbalanced order for discriminating two types of strawberry flavored carbonated drinks. McNemar test and Thurstonian modeling/signal detection theory (SDT) were used to compare the effectiveness of same-different tests. SDT analysis and a significance test using the concept of ‘identicality norm’ were applied to compare robustness of preference tests. The results of these analyses indicated that preference-difference test could not only provide better discrimination but also showed more robust preference results.