Consumer Attitudes on Salt and Fat Reduced Foods in the Republic of Ireland

Public health campaigns are continually promoting healthier foods and in parallel many food manufacturers are working on recipes low in fat and salt. The following survey investigates how well consumers (n = 1045) in Ireland have assimilated the message of consuming healthier foods, including salt and fat reduced foods, into their diet. It seems that campaigns regarding the importance of a balanced diet have generally been adopted by respondents, as only a minority of the participants did not take care of their diet, independent of age, gender and level of education. More than half of the participants carefully maintained a balanced diet. Furthermore, an increase in purchasing salt reduced food was observed, though fat reduced food products were already better accepted. In general, men, young adults (<30 years) and lower educated people purchased less salt and fat reduced foods and took less care in maintaining a balanced diet. No conflict was observed for traditional foods reduced in salt and fat content when their intrinsic sensory character is maintained. The majority of the participants were aware of the health risks of a diet rich in salt and fat, though less participants transferred this knowledge into their diet. A very high demand for more salt and fat reduced foods on the market was observed although the smaller range of salt and fat reduced products and their higher prices might diminish the level of consumer acceptance. Launching taxation and subsidies in tandem might counteract this and furthermore, user-friendly product labelling schemes are required.

Sensory and Physiochemical Comparison of Traditional Bone-In Dry-Aged Beef Loin with Bone-Less Dry Ageing and Ageing Using a Moisture Permeable Bag

Beef loins, were de-boned and left unpackaged (n = 12) or packaged using dry-ageing bags (n = 12). A third batch (n = 12) were not boned out and unpackaged. Loins were aged in a chill at 2°C, with steaks (2.54 cm) tested on days 0, 7, 14 and 21 for % yield, colour, texture, pH, cooking losses and microbiological status. Sensory affective analysis and a novel descriptive method (Ranking Descriptive Analysis) were also performed. The dry aged samples had significantly (P < 0.05) higher moisture losses followed by dry-ageing bag samples and bone-in samples. The bone-in samples scored lower for appearance at 21 days, were juicier, but had more off-flavour. Dry aged beef scored significantly higher than the bone-in samples for overall acceptability, but were not significantly better than the dry-ageing bag samples which had reduced moisture losses and greater tenderness. Microbiologically all treatments performed similarly. There were no significant differences in trim losses between dry-aged samples with or without the use of ageing bags. The sensory methods utilised allowed samples to be assessed hedonically and descriptively in real time without the necessity to freeze samples and without reverse storage design.

Rapid Descriptive Consumer Analysis Using Simultaneous and Monadic Sample Presentation for Coffee

The objective of this study was to investigate how rapid descriptive consumer analysis using simultaneous presentation of samples compared with monadic presentation of samples, using both affective and descriptive sensory evaluation methods. Simultaneous presentation of coffee samples for sensory acceptance testing, using ranking analysis, was conducted using na?ve assessors. In a separate session, assessors evaluated the same coffee samples, using monadic presentation and employing the same scales. Similarly, descriptive consumer analysis, using simultaneous and monadic sample presentation, was conducted using descriptive attributes chosen by the panel. For RDA (Ranking descriptive analysis), coffee samples were presented simultaneously (randomised) to assessors and subsequently ranked. The process was then repeated using the same assessors;however, samples were presented in monadic and randomised presentation order. Data accumulated from the study were analysed by Analysis of Variance (APLSR-ANOVA Partial Least Squares Regression). Results obtained indicate that simultaneous presentation of samples was more effective than monadic presentation, as a larger amount of attributes with significant (P < 0.05) intensity differences were observed using RDA. Thus, simultaneous presentation of samples also allows ranking in SAT evaluation and proved a useful tool in establishing the hedonic attributes of products. We propose to call this method Ranking Acceptance Analysis (RAA).

Sensory Profiling of Two Commercial Ground-Roasted Arabica Filter Coffees Presented with and without Sweetener and Milk

The aim of this study was to evaluate the descriptive sensory attributes of coffee presented to trained assessors in four different ways (black unsweetened, black sweetened, white unsweetened and white sweetened), and also to obtain information on untrained assessor hedonic preferences for the same four different presentation styles. Sensory profiles of two commercial ground-roasted Arabica coffees (currently available on the Irish and UK marketplace) were studied through Sensory Acceptance Testing (n = 24) and Ranking Descriptive Analysis (n = 20). ANOVA-Partial Least Square Regression (APLSR) was used to analyse the experimental data. This study established that the na?ve assessors preferred both coffee samples when served white unsweetened and white sweetened. In terms of the descriptive attributes, it is evident that when coffee is served black, the attributes are more pronounced.

Coupling strategies for silicon photonics integrated chips[Invited]

Over the last 20 years, silicon photonics has revolutionized the field of integrated optics, providing a novel and powerful platform to build mass-producible optical circuits. One of the most attractive aspects of silicon photonics is its ability to provide extremely small optical components, whose typical dimensions are an order of magnitude smaller than those of optical fiber devices. This dimension difference makes the design of fiberto-chip interfaces challenging and, over the years, has stimulated considerable technical and research efforts in the field. Fiber-to-silicon photonic chip interfaces can be broadly divided into two principle categories:in-plane and out-of-plane couplers. Devices falling into the first category typically offer relatively high coupling efficiency, broad coupling bandwidth(in wavelength), and low polarization dependence but require relatively complex fabrication and assembly procedures that are not directly compatible with wafer-scale testing.Conversely, out-of-plane coupling devices offer lower efficiency, narrower bandwidth, and are usually polarization dependent. However, they are often more compatible with high-volume fabrication and packaging processes and allow for on-wafer access to any part of the optical circuit. In this paper, we review the current state-of-the-art of optical couplers for photonic integrated circuits, aiming to give to the reader a comprehensive and broad view of the field, identifying advantages and disadvantages of each solution. As fiber-to-chip couplers are inherently related to packaging technologies and the co-design of optical packages has become essential, we also review the main solutions currently used to package and assemble optical fibers with silicon-photonic integrated circuits.