Conference article

Some type of product development method is applied in all industrial branches. In food industry; most of these development methods involve a food designer preparing a number of prototypes to be tested with potential consumers. Several feedback loops allow the designer to improve the product until it is satisfactory. However; it is often not clear to what extend the resulting product is optimized regarding affective aspects. This study presents a method for affective food product development; deeply based in the classical Kansei Engineering model widely used in other sectors; but that integrates ideas presented in the Kansei Food Model suggested by M. Shibata. Basically; the new method incorporates both sensory items and hedonic expressions as Kansei words; and evaluates not only the link between them and the space of properties; but also the relationship between them. The new method is applied in three case studies (two Swedish companies and one Spanish company). Data collection is conducted in both countries; allowing comparisons based on the origin. The method developed worked as expected; and details are given in an applied way based on the case studies. The paper also shows that sometimes results were surprising or unexpected – such as differences and similarities between countries; or the fact that customer preferences (“like it”) and desire (“want it”) do not exactly match. Difficulties met and advice on how to conduct the proposed method is also given in the text.

Affective design in food industry; Kansei Food Model; regression analysis; Quantification Theory Type 1