Consumer acceptance, consumption and sensory attributes of spreads made from designer fats

The objectives of this study were to compare liking and consumption measure ments of the acceptability of butter, margarine, and two spreads made using designer fats, and to describe the sensory attributes of the products. Thi s study was conducted as part of a nutrition intervention study which inclu ded a 1-month baseline data collection period and three 4-week intervention s. Subjects for the liking and consumption portions of the study were 33 he althy post-menopausal women. In addition, subjects for a corresponding desc riptive analysis panel were students from the University of Minnesota. Prod ucts tested by both groups of subjects were: butter and margarines, a dairy spread made with cholesterol-reduced milk fat (CRAMF) and a spread made wi th cholesterol-reduced lard mixed with vegetable oils (Appetize(R) Lard). L iking and consumption were measured at normal meal times in the subjects' n atural eating environment. Butter was most liked and margarine the least li ked spread. Butter eaters (compared to margarine eaters) accounted for the liking differences among samples; margarine eaters liked all products equal ly. Butter eaters ate more spreads. Liking ratings were generally unrelated to intake for the entire group of subjects and for individual subjects. De scriptive analysis showed the flavor of the two spreads made from designer fats to be more similar to margarine than to butter. The texture of CRAMF w as more similar to butter; the texture of the Appetize(R) Lard was more sim ilar to margarine. Thus the two designer fat spreads were as well accepted by the subjects as their regularly used margarine. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scienc e Ltd. All rights reserved.