ABSTRACT
275Success of new technology in the food industry—whether new production techniques or new ingredients in processed foods—ultimately depends upon consumer acceptance of the final product.
Isolated soy protein represents such a new technology in the food industry, especially in Western diets. Used in various new and reformulated traditional food products, this ingredient has variously met with success and failure—adoption into consumers' regular diets, or rejection after trial.
How do we assess consumer reaction? How do people select their food? What factors determine whether or not consumers will accept a new food? What have food industry companies learned that will help them use new technology to produce foods that consumers will find appealing as well as beneficial?
Provision of adequate dietary quantities of protein has attracted major focus from modern food producers. Other chapters of this volume detail those trends, and the parallel increasing demand for protein in developing countries. This chapter demonstrates that isolated soy protein is technically superior to other protein food ingredients in fulfilling protein requirements and in functional performance, and is well accepted by consumers.
The authors discuss the biological, psychological and sociocultural bases of the process of human food selection—the information requirements, expectations, evaluation and decision making processes. They then identify the factors that influence acceptance or rejection of foods with vegetable protein ingredients. These include conceptual evaluation, sensory expectations, identification, convenience, flavor, texture, health benefits, digestibility, social significance (prestige), perceived value, place in the diet and price.
Using these principles, the authors review consumer reaction to a diverse sample of more than a dozen foods containing vegetable protein ingredients. The case review covers food in six categories: processed and reformulated meats, baked goods, beverages, special markets, analogs, and cereal blends and flours.
Foods reformulated with vegetable protein ingredients are most successful when they maintain traditional quality of foods already accepted in the diet. Rejection of foods with vegetable protein ingredients occurs most frequently because of discrepant sensory qualities.
Where these principles have been followed, consumer acceptance of cereal and grain products (breads) reformulated with vegetable protein has been high in general.
Those foods which are adopted into consumer diets, and which achieve commercial success, most frequently do so on the basis of price, health and special functions.
Lower price has attracted consumers to products in which vegetable protein 276ingredients have replaced more expensive ingredients. Most of these have been meat products. The price advantage alone is not sufficient, however; maintenance of sensory qualities and nutritional content of the traditional food is essential.
Special attributes are seen in analogs, such as simulated meat products and non-dairy cream substitutes.
Overall, producers have two strategies available when introducing new foods. The first is to offer distinctively new foods. This approach encourages consumers to be open-minded in their expectations regarding taste and other sensory attributes. It is difficult, however, to make such new foods sufficiently attractive conceptually so that consumers will seek them out. This strategy had a low success rate among the foods reviewed.
The second strategy is to replicate familiar foods. This approach facilitates consumer acceptance at the conceptual level because the new product is recognized as a traditional food. Again, however, it is critical that the reformulated food maintain the expected quality of the traditional product or it will be rejected. Isolated soy proteins' ability to replicate traditional quality has been key to the expansion of its use in many countries of the world in the last decade.
