European strawberry yogurt market analysis with a case study on acceptance drivers for children in Spain using principal component analysis and partial least squares regression

This study describes a European market analysis of strawberry yogurts using Quantitative Sensory Profiling (QSP), a Givaudan Roure (GR) developed descriptive analysis method. Flavor trends among the products were determined by country, yogurt producer, and marketed age-group using principal component analysis (PCA). From the PCA data generated, new strawberry flavors were developed along the creamy-vanilla, juicy, green-floral, and berry-ripe-banana dimensions. These new flavors, along with the three market leaders for strawberry yogurt in Spain, were analyzed by trained panelists using QSP and hedonically by 160 consumers between the ages of 6 and 16 years. Partial least squares regression (PLS) and correlation analysis identified the positive consumer-liking drivers for strawberry flavor to be vanilla, creamy and balsamic attributes while wild and floral notes decreased liking. Texture attributes of creaminess and homogeneity were positively correlated with consumer liking while syneresis of the product detracted from the acceptability. Two GR developed flavors were significantly preferred over the currently marketed products. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.