TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF CONSUMER RESPONSES AF TER THE TASTING OF BEVERAGES

Six different flavoured beverages have been described by a panel of il l consumers. A qualitative analysis of the consumer description permit s to study the responses variability and to regroup the terms in diffe rent categories. A correspondence analysis is performed on the terms m ost frequently mentionned (terms quoted by 10% of the consumers at lea st). This analysis is completed by a characterization of each product by the consumer vocabulary. The study of the most significant response s enables to replace the terms in their quotation context. The results show that untrained assessors can, with this method, give a descripti ve information on the products. The difficulty that untrained subjects feel in describing their perceptions on new and complex products lead s to a multiplicity of responses. This variability is weakly reflected by classical multidimensionnal data analysis.