Publications by authors named "Damir D Torrico"

The study examines how adding bacterial cellulose also referred to as Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast (SCOBY) to ice cream affects the textural, tribological, and sensory attributes, particularly texture and mouthfeel perception. Analytical assessments were performed on three types: SCOBY-added ice cream and two reference samples (control and guar gum-added ice creams). Evaluations included physicochemical properties, textural and tribological characteristics, and dynamic sensory mouthfeel using the temporal dominance of sensation (TDS) methodology.

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The use of traditional methods to evaluate food, beverages, and packaging tends to be time-consuming, labour-intensive, and usually involves high costs due to the need for expensive equipment, regular refill of consumables, skilled personnel and, in the case of sensory evaluation, incentives or payments involved for participants recruitment and/or panelists training and participation [...

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With the growing demand for sustainable practises, the food industry is increasingly adopting circular economy approaches. One example is recycling the symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY) used in kombucha fermentation to create value-added products. However, consumer acceptance of such novel products remains unclear.

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A challenge in social marketing studies is the cognitive biases in consumers' conscious and self-reported responses. To help address this concern, biometric techniques have been developed to obtain data from consumers' implicit and non-verbal responses. A systematic literature review was conducted to explore biometric applications' role in agri-food marketing to provide an integrated overview of this topic.

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The mouthfeel and texture of dairy and non-dairy yoghurts play a critical role in food acceptance and liking. The present study aimed to understand the oral perception of commercially available dairy and non-dairy yoghurts. Four dairy and four non-dairy yoghurts with different levels of protein and fat were analyzed to understand the impact of particle size, textural properties and frictional coefficient on the dynamic sensory mouthfeel characteristics measured by the temporal dominance of sensations (TDS) method.

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The collection and analysis of digital data from social media is a rapidly growing methodology in sensory-consumer science, with a wide range of applications for research studying consumer attitudes, preferences, and sensory responses to food. The aim of this review article was to critically evaluate the potential of social media research in sensory-consumer science with a focus on advantages and disadvantages. This review began with an exploration into different sources of social media data and the process by which data from social media is collected, cleaned, and analyzed through natural language processing for sensory-consumer research.

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Sensorial perceptions change as people age and biometrics analysis can be used to explore the unconscious consumer responses. Investigation was conducted of effects of consumer age (younger, 22-52 years; older, 60-76 years) on facial expression response (FER) during consumption of beef patties with varying firmness (soft, medium, hard) and taste (±plum sauce). Video images were collected and FERs analysed using FaceReader™.

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Dry ageing of mutton may enhance mutton's consumer appeal; however, consumer acceptance of mutton is heterogeneous. To identify which consumers prefer dry aged mutton, dry (DA) and wet aged mutton (WA) loin and topside were rated by consumers (n = 540) for tenderness, juiciness, liking of flavour and overall liking on a 0-100 scale. Two predictive liking models were developed, utilising either consumer clusters (identified by agglomerative hierarchical clustering) which related to mutton liking and ageing method preference, or demographic factors.

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This study aimed to develop novel gluten-free snacks from rice flour, cowpea and whey protein concentrate (WPC) enriched with bioactive and antioxidant properties. The effects of extrusion on bioactive compounds (sucrose-galactosyl oligosaccharides, insoluble dietary fibre, resistant starch, phytic acid, trypsin inhibitory activity), protein digestibility, amino acid composition, total phenolic content and antioxidant properties were evaluated by comparing raw formulations and extruded snacks. Rice flour (100%) was used as a control.

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To compare the eating quality (EQ) of wet (WA) and dry aged (DA) mutton longissimus thoracis et lumborum (LTL) and semimembranosus (SM), bone-in leg and loin primals from 81 merino cull ewes were WA or DA for 14, 28, 42 or 56 days. Untrained consumers (n = 540) assessed the excised LTL and SM for EQ (tenderness, juiciness, liking of flavour and overall liking, 0-100), quality grade and respective willingness to pay (WTP). LTL scored higher than SM for EQ, P < 0.

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Background: Sensory biometrics provide advantages for consumer tasting by quantifying physiological changes and the emotional response from participants, removing variability associated with self-reported responses. The present study aimed to measure consumers' emotional and physiological responses towards different commercial yoghurts, including dairy and plant-based yoghurts. The physiochemical properties of these products were also measured and linked with consumer responses.

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This study aimed to evaluate the influence of origin information on Pinot Noir wine labels using eye-tracking and its associations with purchase intent, and hedonic and subconscious emotional responses. Two studies were carried out on untrained university staff and students aged 20-60 years old. Study 1 was conducted to assess consumers' ( = 55; 55% males, and 45% females) self-reported and subconscious responses towards four design labels (with and without New Zealand origin name/script or origin logo) using eye-tracking and video analysis to evaluate emotions of participants.

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Yogurt, readily available in plant and dairy-based formulations, is widely consumed and linked with health benefits. This research is aimed to understand the sensory and textural spectrum of commercially available dairy and plant-based yogurts. In a preliminary study, qualitative focus group discussions (4 groups; = 32) were used to determine perceptions of 28 dairy and plant-based yogurts, identifying positive consumer perceptions of plant-based yogurts.

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Sustainable and nutritious alternatives are needed to feed the ever-increasing world population. The successful incorporation of edible-cricket protein (ECP) into foods needs deeper consumer insights. Treatments (plain, Italian, and Cajun pita chips containing 6.

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New and emerging non-invasive digital tools, such as eye-tracking, facial expression and physiological biometrics, have been implemented to extract more objective sensory responses by panelists from packaging and, specifically, labels. However, integrating these technologies from different company providers and software for data acquisition and analysis makes their practical application difficult for research and the industry. This study proposed a prototype integration between eye tracking and emotional biometrics using the BioSensory computer application for three sample labels: Stevia, Potato chips, and Spaghetti.

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Sensory science is an evolving field that has been incorporating technologies from different disciplines [...

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Increased meat consumption has been associated with the overuse of fresh water, underground water contamination, land degradation, and negative animal welfare. To mitigate these problems, replacing animal meat products with alternatives such as plant-, insect-, algae-, or yeast-fermented-based proteins, and/or cultured meat, is a viable strategy. Nowadays, there is a vast amount of information regarding consumers' perceptions of alternative proteins in scientific outlets.

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Wine aroma is an important quality trait in wine, influenced by its volatile compounds. Many factors can affect the composition and levels (concentration) of volatile aromatic compounds, including the water status of grapevines, canopy management, and the effects of climate change, such as increases in ambient temperature and drought. In this study, a low-cost and portable electronic nose (e-nose) was used to assess wines produced from grapevines exposed to different levels of smoke contamination.

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Edible insects, a sustainable and nutritious alternative to conventionally derived proteins, are unfamiliar to Westerners and often associated with negative sentiments. Edible-cricket protein (ECP) added to chocolate brownies (CB) [0% ECP = CBWO (without) vs. 6% ECP = CBW (with)], and disclosed information [no ECP added = (-) vs.

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Currently, many consumers are reluctant to consume edible-cricket protein (ECP). Chocolate brownie (CB) formulations without (WO) and with (W) 6%/ ECP (CBWO and CBW, respectively) were presented under two informed conditions: formulated without ECP (ECP-) and formulated with ECP+benefits (ECP+). CBWO- (CBWO presented with the "ECP-" claim), CBWO+ (CBWO presented with the "ECP+" claim), CBW- (CBW presented with the "ECP-" claim), and CBW+ (CBW presented with the "ECP+" claim) were evaluated by 210 consumers for expected and actual attribute liking, and after-tasting consumption and purchase intent.

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Hedonic scale testing is a well-accepted methodology for assessing consumer perceptions but is compromised by variation in voluntary responses between cultures. Check-all-that-apply (CATA) methods using emotion terms or emojis and facial expression recognition (FER) are emerging as more powerful tools for consumer sensory testing as they may offer improved assessment of voluntary and involuntary responses, respectively. Therefore, this experiment compared traditional hedonic scale responses for overall liking to (1) CATA emotions, (2) CATA emojis and (3) FER.

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Foods' overall liking (OL) and purchase intent (PI) are influenced by visual inputs, such as color cues and serving plate types. Cheese-flavored tortilla chips (CFTC) from two formulations (A and B) with a noticeable color difference (∆E = 4.81) were placed on different serving plates (plastic, foam, and paper) and presented monadically to N = 83 consumers using a randomized/balanced block design in two sessions.

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This research aimed to explore the effects of animal welfare information on consumers' hedonic and emotional responses towards milk. Two studies were conducted. For Study 1, participants (N = 101) were asked to fill out a questionnaire on attitudes towards animal welfare, in which a variety of factors including raising methods, quality of life, emotions, quality of the product, nutrition, price, and environment, were tested.

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Emotional responses elicited by foods are of great interest for new product developers and marketing professionals, as consumer acceptance proved to be linked to the emotions generated by the product in the consumers. An emotional measurement is generally considered an appropriate tool to differentiate between the products of similar nutritional value, flavour, liking and packaging. Novel methods used to measure emotions include self-reporting verbal and visual measurements, and facial expression techniques.

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Article Synopsis
  • Wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change, posing risks to vineyards through smoke contamination that can taint wine.
  • The study explored using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy combined with machine learning to create a quick, non-destructive method for detecting smoke contamination in grapevines in the field.
  • Two neural network models showed high accuracy in predicting smoke treatment effects, providing growers with a tool to make informed decisions after wildfires, such as whether to harvest grapes.
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