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Treats are offered to dogs to reinforce the animal–owner bond and as rewards. Wheat, which contains gluten (gliadin and glutenin proteins), is often used in treats. The United States is a leading producer of sorghum which might be an alternative; however, it does not have functional properties to form viscoelastic doughs, because it is mainly composed of kafirin protein. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to determine the effects of supplementing soluble animal proteins in whole sorghum rotary-molded baked dog treats on dog preference, sensory attributes, and oxidation rate. The treats were produced in triplicate in a 2 x 4 + 1 augmented factorial arrangement of treatments. Two whole sorghum flours (WWS and WRS), four protein sources [none (NC), spray-dried plasma (SDP), egg protein (EP), and gelatin (GL)], and a positive control with wheat (WWF-GTN) were evaluated. A preference ranking test with twelve dogs was performed. Additionally, five trained panelists scored the intensity of appearance, aroma, flavor, texture/mouthfeel, and aftertaste attributes. Finally, the treats were stored at 30 °C and 60% RH, and hexanal concentrations were measured on days 0, 28, 56, and 112. The data was analyzed using the statistical software SAS for the animal and oxidation rate evaluations with significance considered at P <0.05. The descriptive sensory evaluation data was analyzed using multivariate analysis (XLSTAT). The dogs did not detect differences among WWF-GTN, WWS, or WRS treats when evaluated together. However, the WWF-GTN, WWS-SDP, and WWS-EP treatments were preferred among the white sorghum treatments. The EP treatments led to some consumption difficulties by dogs because of their hard texture. The panelists reported a high degree of variation in the appearance and texture across treatments. The WRS and WWS treats with SDP or EP were darker, while NC treats had more surface cracks. Initial crispness, hardness, and fracturability were higher in EP treatments compared to all other sorghum treatments. The predominant flavor and aftertaste identified were "grainy." The hexanal values for all treats were <1.0 mg/kg except for the EP treatments that had higher values (2.0–19.3 mg/kg) across the shelf-life test. This work indicated that the replacement of WWF-GTN by WWS and WRS, along with soluble animal proteins like SDP or GL would produce comparable preference by dogs, oxidation rates, product aromatics, flavor, aftertaste attributes, and, at a lower degree, product texture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affective and behavior‐based research on men's personal care products has not been abundant in published research. As the market for men's personal care products grows, specifically the skin care category, more research is required to better understand this consumer group. Eighteen in‐depth interviews with male consumers ages 18–49 were conducted with light and heavy users in two markets, Olathe, KS and Los Angeles, CA, to understand baseline information on men's perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes related to skin care. Key take‐aways included that men generally appreciate easy, fast skin care routines, use affordable and readily available products, and desire to maintain the look and/or health of their skin. Though some skin care claims can be appealing, many of the men were somewhat skeptical of typical marketing strategies. These findings help to show how brands are succeeding and failing at meeting male consumer expectations of skin care products and demonstrate the need for more exploration into this demographic. Practical Applications: The available, published resources on men's skin care, and personal care as a whole, are few and far between. This work provides a qualitative example of personal care research in the men's skin care space. By presenting this primary research on how men talk about and interact with skin care products, sensory scientists will have a baseline understanding of the category before diving into more specific research questions. The manuscript provides a foundation on which future sensory and consumer research can build. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a continuous need to explore how consumers engage with healthy and sustainable eating behaviors. "Guilt" is a complicated belief that impacts consumers' eating behavior. Consumer‐based characteristics of food that might aid in identifying the perceptions of "guilt‐free," "less guilt," or "guilt" were investigated using focus groups. A sorting task was applied to identify product‐grouping patterns by consumers based on different levels of guilt perceptions they had with 18 food and beverage products. Four categories of 45 factors were identified that could elicit guilt perceptions, including (a) intrinsic and (b) extrinsic product characteristics, (c) situational factors, and (d) social‐cultural factors, indicating the complexity and multidimensionality of the "guilt" concept. Moreover, guilt perceptions were found to have a potential impact on leading consumers to seek healthier and sustainable food solutions by positively impacting their food choice, eating and drinking behavior. Practical applications: This study showed the importance of understanding the role of guilt in eating behavior, and how guilt is related to product, situational, and social‐cultural factors. The findings set up the theoretical foundation for next step, building up new scales to measure quantitatively food‐related guilt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers and institutions make purchase and potential consumption decisions on behalf of other product users on a daily basis. Pet foods are one example of a product in that situation. The objective of this study was to determine what aspects of pet food appearance characteristics determine higher liking among Thai consumers. Consumers (n = 120) evaluated a total of 30 samples that varied in color, shape, size, and kibble composition. Information on overall liking, shape liking, size liking, and color liking was collected. Additional information was collected using a check-all-that-apply question regarding product characteristics. The results indicated that color and shape were important for Thai consumers; specifically, a yellowish color and bone shape were liked best. These results are important for pet food manufacturers and marketers in developing new products, as well as for product marketers in other consumer goods, such as child food, medications, food aid, and other divisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sensory analysis of pet foods has been emerging as an important field of study for the pet food industry over the last few decades. Few studies have been conducted on understanding the pet owners' perception of pet foods. The objective of this study is to gain a deeper understanding on the perception of the visual characteristics of dry dog foods by dog owners in different consumer segments. A total of 120 consumers evaluated the appearance of 30 dry dog food samples with varying visual characteristics. The consumers rated the acceptance of the samples and associated each one with a list of positive and negative beliefs. Cluster Analysis, ANOVA and Correspondence Analysis were used to analyze the consumer responses. The acceptability of the appearance of dry dog foods was affected by the number of different kibbles present, color(s), shape(s), and size(s) of the kibbles in the product. Three consumer clusters were identified. Consumers rated highest single-kibble samples of medium sizes, traditional shapes, and brown colors. Participants disliked extra-small or extra-large kibble sizes, shapes with high-dimensional contrast, and kibbles of light brown color. These findings can help dry dog food manufacturers to meet consumers' needs with increasing benefits to the pet food and commodity industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability is one of the trending keywords in the pet food industry today. Utilizing proteinrich fermented co-products such as corn fermented protein (CFP) can promote sustainable pet food. However, co-product ingredients have been avoided in pet food due to negative consumer perception. Unlike traditional dried distillers grain, corn fermented protein (CFP) contains 50% protein due to a substantial yeast component, which may improve consumer perception. The objective was to evaluate the effect of CFP inclusion in dry dog food on consumer acceptance. Treatments included a control diet (CON, no fermented co-products), a brewer's dried yeast diet (BDY, 3.5% brewer's dried yeast), a distillers dried grains with solubles plus brewer's dried yeast diet (DDGS+BDY, 17.5% DDGS + 2.5% brewer's dried yeast), and a corn fermented protein diet (CFP, 17.5% corn fermented protein). The consumer acceptance data were collected from 104 dog owners who purchased dry dog food and feed their dogs during a central location test. Data were collected using RedJade software and analyzed by oneway ANOVA (Sensory XLStat package) to determine significant differences among overall appearance, color, aroma, and assumed dog liking. The effects were assessed using Fisher's Least Significant Difference with significance at P < 0.05. All treatments were equally liked (P > 0.05) based on 9-point scale. More consumers showed liking in aroma for yeast containing treatments (CFP, n = 51; DDGS+BDY, n = 46; BDY, n = 45) than CON (n = 37). Consumer opinion of pet food ingredients were also evaluated. Chicken and salmon were considered most appropriate (> 85%) by consumers, while brewer's dried yeast, corn meal, yeast, and corn gluten meal were considered appropriate from less than 10% of consumers. The most inappropriate ingredients according to consumers were corn gluten meal (>50%), corn meal, brewer's yeast, dry yeast, and yeast. In conclusion, consumers liked the kibble that contained BDY, DDGS, or CFP at the same level as the control diet when evaluated based on sensory perceptions. However, there is a need to improve consumer perception of corn and yeast ingredients to promote sustainable pet foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To promote sustainability, the pet food industry could use fermented co-products from ethanol and beer production as ingredients. However, these ingredients may impact the appearance, smell, and taste of the final product. The aim of this study was to analyze the sensory characteristics of extruded dog kibble produced with fermented co-products. Four diets were evaluated: 1) a control diet with no fermented co-products (CON), 2) a diet containing 3.5% brewers dried yeast (BDY), 3) a diet with 17.5% distillers dried grains plus solubles and 2.5% brewer's dried yeast (DDGS+BDY), and 4) a diet with 17.5% corn fermented protein (CFP). Five human trained panelists rated various characteristics of the product in terms of appearance, texture, aroma, and flavor from 0 to 15 (0 = none; 15 = extremely high). Results were analyzed using the sensory package in XLSTAT, and for significant attributes (P < 0.05), sample effects were assessed using Fisher LSD. For appearance, DDGS+BDY was browner than the other treatments (P < 0.05), and all treatments had similar porosity (P > 0.05). For texture, all treatments had similar ratings for particle amount, toothpacking, and oily mouthcoating (P > 0.05). The CFP was harder than DDGS+BDY (P < 0.05), and DDGS+BDY had decreased fracturability than CON and BDY (P < 0.05). The aroma characteristics including grain, cardboard, metallic, and overall intensity were similar for all treatments (P > 0.05). The BDY had less oxidized oil aroma than CON and CFP (P < 0.05). The CFP had less barnyard aroma than DDGS+BDY (P < 0.05), but was more brothy than DDGS+BDY (P < 0.05). The CON had a less intense vitamin aroma than BDY and DDGS+BDY (P < 0.05). In terms of flavor, barnyard, fish, brothy, salt, bitter, and metallic flavors were similar for all treatments (P < 0.05). Treatment CFP had stronger grain flavor than BDY (P < 0.05). Vitamin flavor was less intense for CON than DDGS+BDY and CFP (P < 0.05). Cardboard flavor was stronger for DDGS+BDY than BDY (P < 0.05), and oxidized oil flavor was less intense for DDGS+BDY than CON (P < 0.05). In addition to producing a nutritionally balanced product, the pet food industry must also accommodate the preferences of human consumers. For this reason, the final product must contain sensory characteristics that appeal to pet parents. Overall, the fermented ingredients evaluated did not seem to negatively impact the food sensory properties, resulting in desirable texture, aroma, and flavor profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Descriptive sensory analysis and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) with a modified headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME) method was performed on three extruded dry dog food diets manufactured with different fractions of red sorghum and a control diet containing corn, brewer's rice, and wheat as a grain source in order to determine the effect of sorghum fractions on dry dog food sensory properties. The aroma compounds and flavor profiles of samples were similar with small differences, such as higher toasted aroma notes, and musty and dusty flavor in the mill-feed sample. A total of 37 compounds were tentatively identified and semi-quantified. Aldehydes were the major group present in the samples. The total volatile concentration was low, reflecting the mild aroma of the samples. Partial least squares regression was performed to identify correlations between sensory characteristics and detected aroma compounds. Possible relationships, such as hexanal and oxidized oil, and broth aromatics were identified. Volatile compounds were also associated with earthy, musty, and meaty aromas and flavor notes. This study showed that extruded dry dog foods manufactured with different red sorghum fractions had similar aroma, flavor, and volatile profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]