Howard R. Moskowitz & Jacqueline H. Beckley 
Sensory and Consumer Research in Food Product Design and Development 

During the past thirty years, companies have recognized the
consumer as the key driver for business and product success. This
recognition has, in turn, generated its own drivers: sensory
analysis and marketing research, leading first to a culture
promoting the expert and then evolving into the systematic
acquisition of consumer-relevant information to build businesses.
Sensory and Consumer Research in Food Product Design and
Development is the first book to present, from the business
viewpoint, the critical issues faced by business leaders from both
the research development and business development perspective.

This popular volume, now in an updated and expanded second
edition, presents a unique perspective afforded by the author team
of Moskowitz, Beckley, and Resurreccion: three leading
practitioners in the field who each possess both academic and
business acumen. Newcomers to the field will be introduced to
systematic experimentation at the very early stages, to newly
emerging methods for data acquisition/knowledge development, and to
points of view employed by successful food and beverage companies.
The advanced reader will find new ideas, backed up by illustrative
case histories, to provide another perspective on commonly
encountered problems and their practical solutions.

This book is aimed at professionals in all sectors of the food
and beverage industry. Sensory and Consumer Research in Food
Product Design and Development is especially important for
those business and research professionals involved in the early
stages of product development, where business opportunity is often
the greatest.

Table of Content

Preface ix

Author biographies xi

Acknowledgments xv

1 Emerging corporate knowledge needs: how and where does sensory
fit? 1

2 Making use of existing knowledge and increasing its business
value–the forgotten productivity tool 17

3 Understanding consumers’ and customers’
needs–the growth engine 41

4 Innovation’s friend: integrated market and sensory input for
food product design and development 83

5 A process to bring consumer mind-sets into a corporation
115

6 Developing relevant concepts 135

7 High-level product assessments 167

8 So what can sensory do for me (or for my company)? 207

9 What types of tests do sensory researchers do to measure
sensory response to the product? and . . . why do they do
them? 229

10 What can sensory researchers do to characterize products? and
. . . how does one select the best method? 283

11 So what are the practical considerations in actually running
a test? what do I need to know? what does the rest of the
company need to know? 321

12 Evolving sensory research 365

13 Addressable Minds TM and directed innovation: new vistas for
the sensory community 381

Index 409

About the author

Howard R. Moskowitz, Ph.D., is president and CEO of
Moskowitz Jacobs Inc., White Plains, NY, a firm he founded in 1981.
Moskowitz is a well-known experimental psychologist in the field of
psychophysics (the study of perception and its relation to physical
stimuli) and an inventor of world-class market research technology.
Among his important contributions to market research is his 1975
introduction of psychophysical scaling and product optimization for
consumer product development. A member of the Institute of Food
Technologists and numerous other professional societies, he has
written/edited 16 books, published well over 300 articles, and
serves on the editorial board of major journals. With colleague
E.P. Koster, Moskowitz co-founded the journal Chemical Senses
and Flavor, now called Chemical Senses, the leading
journal in the field.

Jacqueline H. Beckley, M.B.A., is the founder of The
Understanding & Insight Group, LLC, Denville, NJ, an innovative
business development and strategy firm working with both large and
small companies to integrate traditional approaches with new
concepts and tools for business growth. Previously, Beckley held
positions within industry and consulting, including director of
consumer perception at Nabisco, Inc., group manager of sensory
research and R&D for the Quaker Oats Company, and research
scientist for Amoco Chemical Company.

Anna V.A. Resurreccion, Ph.D., is a professor of food
science and technology at the University of Georgia. She has
published 128 refereed journal articles reporting her research on
sensory evaluation, consumer acceptance, and food quality
evaluation. Resurreccion is a fellow of the Institute of Food
Technologists and serves on editorial boards for the Journal of
Sensory Studies and major journals. Previously, she was
associate scientific editor for the Journal of Food Science
and chair of the Product Development Division of the Institute of
Food Technologists.