Editorial

Frédérique Jourjon

Director of Research and Valorisation

Ecole Supérieure d’Agricultures, Angers

 

 

« The struggle for new markets and the necessity to find innovations to boost the plant economy require from fruit, vegetable, ornamental, wine and cider sectors to understand the motivations, expectations and perceptions of the consumers. Today it is necessary to gather consumers and professionals of the plant sector at the heart of the conception of new products through reverse engineering approaches.

Development of new successful product meeting market expectations needs precise and multi-criteria quality characterization: physico-chemical, nutritional, sensory characteristics and functional properties e.g. processing and storage capacity.

Numerous complementary methods are now available to perform these characterizations. Sensory analysis is based on a multi-criteria assesment and integrates de facto all the main constitutive components of the perceived product quality. Well managed, sensory analysis remains today one of the best evaluation tool for food and non-food products. »