Consumers’ evaluation of food products is a key element in consumer-led product development. Food industries assess consumers’ liking and choices using various methodologies, such as hedonic scales, preference mapping, experimental auctions or focus groups, which are usually carried out in laboratory or controlled settings. However, liking and consumers’ choices may differ when modifying eating contexts. In recent years, several studies have started to consider the role of food context, showing an impact on consumers’ product evaluation. Nevertheless most of these studies have focused on consumers’ acceptability and not on the link with product development and optimisation.
Therefore the present work aims to understand the effect of context on liking and consumers’ choice, by considering different food preparation conditions in order to determine optimal and critical areas regarding technical and sensory parameters. The theoretical objectives are firstly, to study how consumers’ liking and valuation are affected by food preparations in different contexts, and secondly, to study the decision criteria in the choice to consume or not a food product, depending on the context. In addition, the practical objective is to develop or improve consumer contextualization tools in hedonic evaluation tests.