Is ready-to-eat scallops a promising product? Results from a consumer perspective.
Consumer study; Seafood; scallops; Check-all-that-apply; unconventional technologies.
Seafood has high nutritional quality and is a source of essential micronutrients. However, limiting factors such as price, difficult access and availability, lack of culinary skills and for being very perishable limit consumption. The use of suitable processes that minimize such limitations can be an alternative to benefit the productive sector and, consequently, the consumer, in addition to making products available to chefs, allowing them to exercise creativity by adding greater diversity to restaurant menus. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of processing (high hydrostatic pressure – HPP and sous-vide technique – SV) and the addition of sauce (with and without) on acceptance and sensory characteristics of scallops. A total of 103 participants evaluated the samples (submitted to HPP or SV. Acceptance was evaluated using nine-point hedonic scales. The Check-all-that-apply (CATA) methodology was used to describe the sensory characteristics of the products. The samples presented satisfactory acceptance averages (6.1-7.0) considering that most participants had never consumed scallops. The samples with sauce had higher averages (p<0.05) of acceptance, not differing from the sous-vide processed without sauce (6.7). The samples with HPP and without sauce were less accepted, not differing (p<0.05) from the control sample without sauce (6.2). Regarding the description of sensory characteristics, scallops with sauce were more associated (p<0.05) to the terms presence of seasoning, herb aroma, garlic aroma, salty, balanced seasoning, garlic flavor, garlic aftertaste, herb aftertaste. The samples without sauce (CT, HPP and SV) were significantly more correlated with the terms: it has brightness, aroma of fish and without seasoning. By segmenting the participants according to their acceptance and knowledge and consumption habits of scallops, it was also possible to observe differences in the acceptance of the samples between the formed segments due to differences between the samples and due to the individual preferences of the participants. The results of this study provide useful information for the productive sector, as they identified a consumer demand and presented technological alternatives to achieve it, guaranteeing the development of a product with sensory and nutritional quality, adding practicality and convenience.