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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Improving sensory quality of food product to meet the elderly’s preferences: which winning strategy?

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Having a "good" diet counts as an important factor for healthy ageing. Beyond nutritional aspects, a "good" diet, also contributes to maintain “eating pleasure”, an essential component in food intake mechanism. The present study aims to assess the impact of changes related to texture, taste and flavor on food acceptance in the elderly. The adopted strategy was to orientate the products modifications based on elderly’s expectations. A qualitative approach (focus group and face-to-face interviews) was carried on with a first elderly panel (>65 yo) to collect suggestions about sensory improvements that can be made in a meat dish with a normal texture, in a meat dish with a modified texture and in a sweet oral nutritional supplement. On the basis of these results, four variants were optimized by food development specialists for each food product: texture improvement, taste improvement, flavor improvement, texture + taste + flavor improvement. One-hundred-and-three people living at home and sixty-three people living in nursing home rated their liking for a standard variant and each modified variant on a 7-point scale validated for this population [1]. Participants also carried on sensory tests to assess their olfactory and gustatory capabilities. Results show that improved products in one sensory dimension were often liked by some elderly people but not all. However, the study shows no consistent link across products between liking for an improved variant on one sensory dimension and chemosensory abilities. When all sensory dimensions were improved together, liking scores were higher than the standard. Thus, this strategy has proved to be effective to increase liking and thus to contribute to a greater pleasure when eating, a major challenge for the food industry in the context of an aging population.