Sample discrimination through profiling with rate all that apply (RATA) using consumers is similar between home use test (HUT) and central location test (CLT)

Abstract The impact of testing locations, home use test (HUT) and central location test (CLT) on consumer evaluations of food products using rate all that apply (RATA) was investigated. As a case study, eight cold cuts were evaluated: four vegetarian/vegan and four meat-based products. A between-subjects design was used, whereby consumers were randomly allocated to either HUT or CLT test location (58 and 71 consumers, respectively). To retain as much similarity as possible across locations, consumers in both groups received identical bags of products with palate cleansers and instructions. Consumers evaluated the products using a lexicon consisting of 32 sensory attributes based on similar studies and benchtop tasting, using RATA with 7pt scales. A total of 30 and 31 attributes differed significantly (p