| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄餐旅大學 === 飲食文化暨餐飲創新研究所 === 106 === This research targets to explore consumer preference and storage quality after replacing the vinegar with three kinds of Taiwan's frozen juices, including lemon, kumquat, and orange in the sesame sauce on traditional cold noodles. In addition, based on the concept of Taguchi method, the sensory evaluation is instrumented to modify the acidity of the sauce by a cross combination of two kinds of amounts of sugar. Initially, before the replacement of the ingredients, an online questionnaire was carried out to evaluate the consumer groups, purchase behaviors, material knowledge, and acceptance to cold noodles. Subsequently, the consumer sensory evaluation was conducted to scrutinize consumer preferences, potential consumer markets, and the most accepted configuration of frozen juices after the replacement of the ingredients.
Eventually, the most accepted configuration of frozen juices is selected to be a budget sample in a commercially-available package type, frozen and stored at −18 °C for one month, placed in a refrigerator at 4 °C for 5 weeks, and subjected to weekly microbiological examination, physicochemical properties, and sensory discrimination analysis. Under allowable hygiene standards of the alimentary codex, the researcher presupposes the acceptable expiration dates for meeting consumer expectations and formulates reasonable monitoring methods for production control as well as sales channels. According to the 806 online surveys of the original ingredients, the backgrounds of participants are 60.8% of Hoklo Taiwanese, 64.0% of women, and 28.8% of industry and commerce, of which 41-50 years of age, college education, and monthly income of 20,000 to 50,000 are the highest proportion. For the highest proportion of participants, cold noodles are often purchased at convenience stores, and the ratio is also high for willingness to replace the ingredients, acceptance to pay higher prices, attention for the expiry dates, and expectations regarding the sweetness and acidity of the sauce.
The research findings are as follows: Firstly, in sensory discrimination of “cognition of ingredients”, female consumers’ willingness is considerably higher than that of men. There is a significant discrepancy among different ages, different educational backgrounds, different occupations, different monthly incomes, sweetness preference, and consistency preference. Secondly, regarding of sensory discrimination in “awareness of preservation”, different academic qualifications, different occupations, different monthly incomes, different ethnic groups, expected prices, sweetness preference, and consistency preference are significantly distinguished. Thirdly, referring to sensory discrimination in “replacement acceptance”, women's purchase intention is obviously higher than that of men. There is a thorough difference among different ages, different levels of education, different occupations, different monthly income, different ethnic groups, and the concept of shelf life. Fourthly, “cognition of ingredients”, “awareness of preservation”, and “replacement acceptance” have no vital difference from consumer's residence, place of purchase, the frequency of consumption, and frequency of food consumption in sensory discrimination. In contrast, the sensory discrimination in consumers' consistency preference significantly distinguishes from “cognition of ingredients”, “awareness of preservation”, and “replacement acceptance”. Lastly, as the above three facets merely differ from the consumers' external residence and consumption behavior, the presumption of internal cognition is the main factor affecting the facets. Moreover, the external environment and behavioral results are classified as inducement factors.
With regards to the analysis of 110 consumer preferences to the replacement, the overall taste preference of sauces is the highest in “aftertaste”, followed by “texture”. Furthermore, the highest average rating of preferences is the juice configured with lemon juice and the sauce with the high sugar content. Regardless of the amount of sugar, the configuration of lemon juice extremely differentiates from the configuration of orange juice. In demographic variables, women remarkably distinct from "colors" and "flavors". The service industry is strikingly diverse between “texture” and “aftertaste”. For the overall "preference", gender is completely dissimilar to an occupation.
During the assessment of storage period of the best-configured sauce, the appropriate low-temperature preservation methods and hygiene inspections met qualified standards. Additionally, pH value increased progressively with storage time, while Brixo value decreased, and the Beo value altered insignificantly contrasting to the utterly divergent value of b in Lab value. The analysis of the differences in sensory evaluations was not significant at the end of the experiment on the fifth week. However, the experienced experiential reviewer noticed that there was a trend of increase and assumed there would be a difference after the sixth week. The changes in the assessment of physicochemical properties have little effect on expiration dates, whereas the pH can be used as a reference for production testing or sales channels. The sensory evaluation in discrimination still satisfies the statutory standard of E. coli in the fifth week. Therefore, for consumers who agree with the freezing process and the two-week refrigerating process, the researcher suggests the replacement of vinegar to manufacturers. Most importantly, the recommended time limit for tasting is 15 days under refrigeration below 4 °C after thawing.
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