The introduction of a new food or beverage product, or one that has been changed and modified often relies on knowledge gleaned from various sensory tests. One of those tests, the difference test has long been employed as the method of choice in decision making simply because they provide a direct comparison of the old versus the new product. There is a however a certain conservatism or feeling of being over cautious amongst those launching the new variant when a change is made to a product that if it is noticeable by a sensory panel then it is likely to be rejected in the marketplace. In other words unless the flavour is deliberately being changed, any modification however mild is likely to have an adverse impact on the sales of the new product.

One study attempted to understand how consumers behaved in terms of their preference or liking for a product that was modified in some way. They looked at consumers who had the ability to detect the presence of a salt, KCl in orange juice and they tried three different approaches to the tasting versus preference issue. The consumers were also asked about their preference for either a plain orange juice or one spiked with increasing amounts of this salt. Only at relatively low concentrations of KCl in orange juice did the tasters detect the difference without stating any preference for one product or the other. As the levels of salt spiking rose, the consumers reporting a preference increased and in some cases there was a preference for the salt-laden samples. It starts to look a bit more complicated when consumers were willing to consume a non-preferred juice despite their reported preferences. As the concentration of the KCl rose higher though, the consumers stated they would reject the product in accordance with their reporting that they would not consumer the product.  The key finding though was that minor changes might lead to a report of a difference but not change their minds about purchasing the product. The conclusion was to  use preference testing as well as difference testing to understand consumer purchasing behaviour better.

Reference

Xia, Y., Zhong, F. and O’Mahony, M. (2015), Pairing Detection of Off-Flavor in Orange Juice with Preference Tests. J. Sensory Studies, 30 pp. 259–268. doi: 10.1111/joss.12150