แผนภาพความชอบของถั่วงอกและทานตะวันงอกสำหรับผู้บริโภคที่อาศัยในจังหวัดเชียงราย PREFERENCE MAPPING OF MUNG BEAN SPROUTS AND SUNFLOWER SPROUTS FOR CONSUMERS LIVING IN CHIANG RAI

Abstract

           Consumer interest in healthy diet has been increasing in many countries including Thailand. Sprouts exert health-promoting effects and lower the risk of various diseases. Despite their nutritional and health benefits, sunflower sprouts consumption in Thailand is still limited compared with mung bean sprouts. The objectives of this research were to study the consumer acceptance and to identify the driver of liking towards sprout samples. Ten samples of mung bean and sunflower sprouts in both fresh and blanched forms were evaluated by 114 consumers who ever consumed both types of sprouts by asking to rate their acceptance scores. Cluster analysis, internal preference mapping, and regression analysis were analyzed. Three clusters were all found when performing cluster analysis based on overall degree of liking, appearance liking, flavor liking, and texture liking. For overall degree of liking, consumers in 2 of 3 clusters preferred both mung bean and sunflower sprouts whereas consumers in the other cluster preferred only fresh mung bean sprouts. As for appearance liking, blanched sunflower sprouts were not liked by any consumers. It was also found that consumers in one cluster liked the appearance of all mung bean sprouts most while consumers in another cluster gave the higher appearance liking scores on fresh sunflower sprouts. The last cluster was a group of consumers who liked the appearance in both types of sprouts. For flavor liking, there were two big groups of consumers which had opposite flavor liking. One group of consumers liked the flavor of all blanched sprouts, while the other group of consumers preferred the flavor of fresh sprouts. The smallest cluster was the consumers who liked sunflower sprouts in both fresh and blanched forms. In case of texture liking, the same trend was found as flavor liking. One group of consumers liked the texture of blanched sprouts whereas another group liked only fresh sprouts. The other group was a group of consumers who liked the texture of mung bean sprouts in both fresh and blanched forms. Flavor was the most important driver of liking. Texture was the second most important driver of liking and appearance was the least important driver of liking. This work could be useful to product developers or entrepreneurs who want to develop sprout-based products that are acceptable to consumers in each group.