From sensory evaluation to food product development: how to fit a new vegetal fermented product to the consumer taste

International audience; We present a series of studies showing the role of sensory evaluation in the optimization of new vegetal fermented products.The first series of studies showed that French consumers did not accept fermented products with vegetal protein ratio over 10%.Moreover, positive information on vegetal protein benefits did not lead to an increase in liking scores. So, a second series ofstudies was carried out in order to optimize the raw material and processes used to prepare the products and improve theirorganoleptic properties. In a first step, the vegetal proteins were purified permitting to obtain firmer products with less offflavors. In a second step, the effect of four factors (T °C, pea concentration, heat process, heat fermentation) with two variationlevels each was evaluated following a design of experiment methodology. The volatile and peptide profiles, acidity and firmnessof the products were evaluated in order to select the optimal process and starter culture. A combination of Check-All-ThatApplied (CATA) and consumer tests was then used to evaluate consumer appreciation.