Consumers’ acceptability of fortified
gari, a cassava product in Benin
L. Adinsi1, L. Prin2, N. Kougblenou1, A. Escobar3, C. Sacca1, J.
Hounhouigan1, T. Tran2, D. Dufour2,3, N. Akissoé1, G. Fliedel2
1.UAC, Benin; 2.CIRAD, France, 3.CIAT, Colombia
World Congress on Root and Tuber Crops, China, Jan 21, 2016
Context
The case study 3 of RTB project on cassava has for objective to
ensure that products resulting from new varieties and from both
current and new processing technologies meet consumer taste.
This project is divided in two groups of studies including sensory
and consumer tests to know if a new or improved traditional
process developed for making new or improved traditional
products could be adopted
Five African countries are involved: Nigeria, Tanzania, Sierra
Leone, Benin and Cameroon.
Benin has chosen to work on Gari
Most popular staple food (a sort of
semolina) made from cassava by peeling,
washing, rasping, fermentation/pressing,
and cooking/drying
Consumed dry, or diluted into tap
water added with sugar, coconut,
peanuts/cashew nuts, or as a cooked
paste accompanied with a sauce
Gari?
Cassava
Cooking gari
Gari
Rationale
Fortified gari (added with palm
oil or/and soybean) resulting from
research and endogenous innovative
actions was recently developed.
Large variability of traditional gari types depending on -Degree of fermentation (1 to 8 days) : little to very fermented
-Degree of cooking/drying ; very dried to little wet in the heart
-Particle size : fine to coarse particles
-Homogeneity of particle size : homogeneous to heterogeneous
-Presence of fibers : few or many fibers
-Colour : white to brown
Up to now, the consumption of those new gari types is not
still spread to all the regions in Benin.
Consumers’ perception of
fortified gari, could be key
information required to develop
strategies for marketing it.
Rationale
Consumption form : Dry
5 samples : Three traditional gari (Ahayoé.UF.Ik, Sohia.F.Da,
F.Dj), two fortified with palm oil (Palmoil.UF.Ou) and soybean (Soy.UF.Ou)
JAR scale (colour, texture
during chewing, degree of roasting,
acidic taste, particle taste)
CATA questions : 21 terms [sensory (16)
and emotional (5)]
Overall liking: 9-point
hedonic scale (1=Dislike
extremely, 9=Like extremely)
121 consumers
Methodology
Statistical analysis
ANOVA and hierarchical cluster analysis were
performed on overall liking consumer data
Penalty analysis was carried out on JAR test data
PCA was performed on CATA data
MFA was carried out on CATA and overall liking
data
7.1 6.7 6.7
5.2
3
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Soy.UF.Ou Ahayoé.UF.Ik Palmoil.UF.Ou Sohia.F.Da F.Dj
Con
sum
er a
ccep
tab
ilit
y
(sco
re)
Fortified gari (with soybean or palm oil) was as liked as one
traditional gari (Ahayoe)
Acceptability scores
Besides Ahayoe gari (traditional), fortified gari (added with
palm oil or soybean) was accepted by 92% of consumers
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Cluster 1 (56%) Cluster 2 (36%) Cluster 3 (8%)
Mea
n a
ccep
tab
ilit
y Ahayoé.UF.Ik Sohia.F.Da Palmoil.UF.Ou Soy.UF.Ou F.Dj
Mean consumer acceptability by consumer
segment
0 1 2 3
Particle size
Acidic taste
Degree of roasting/drying
Texture during chewing
Colour Mean drops
Too weak
Too strong
“Colour ts” and “acidic taste ts” received higher mean decreases
(> 2.5) in overall consumer acceptance.
Mean drops in liking for the "too weak
(tw)" and "too strong (ts)"
Objective : Identify potential directions for product improvement on
the basis of sensory attributes presented to consumers
Particle size
Too weak
Particle size
Too strong
Acidic taste
Too weak
Acidic taste
Too strong
Degree of
roasting
Too strong
Texture
during
chewing
Too strong
Colour
Too strong
0
0,25
0,5
0,75
1
20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34
Pen
alt
y
% of consumers
The highest penalties (penalty higher than 0.75 and more than
25% of cases) were observed for acidic taste and colour
Significant penalties according to the
proportion of consumers
Ahayoé.UF.Ik
Sohia.F.Da
Palmoil.UF.Ou
Soy.UF.Ou F.Dj
Coarse
particle
Small particle
Yellow
White
Dirty white
Heterogeneous
Homogeneous
Fibrous
Crusty
Less dry
Dry
Palm oil
odour
Fermented
odour
Acidic taste
Sweet taste
Grilled taste
-2
-1,5
-1
-0,5
0
0,5
1
1,5
2
-3 -2,5 -2 -1,5 -1 -0,5 0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5
F2
(25,7
8 %
)
F1 (49,15 %)
Relationship between CATA descriptors
and gari samples
Ahayoé.UF.Ik
Sohia.F.Da
Palmoil.UF.Ou
Soy.UF.Ou
F.Dj
Good taste
Flavorless
Attracting
Nourishing
Good for
health
-2
-1
0
1
2
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
F2
(4,2
2 %
)
F1 (95,04 %)
Relationship between CATA descriptors
and gari samples
Coarse particle Small particle
Yellow
White
Dirty white
Heterogenous
Homogeneous Fibrous
Crusty
Less dry
Dry
Palm oil odour
Fermented
odour
Acidic taste
Sweet taste
Grilled taste
Good taste
Flavorless
Attracting
Nourishing
Good for health
Overall liking
-1
-0,75
-0,5
-0,25
0
0,25
0,5
0,75
1
-1 -0,75 -0,5 -0,25 0 0,25 0,5 0,75 1
F2
(20,2
0 %
)
F1 (59,61 %)
Sensory descriptors Perceptions Overall liking
Sweet taste, white, yellow, crusty, dry, palm oil odour, small particle
and homogeneous were the main sensory attributes drivers of liking
CATA descriptors responsible for consumer
liking
y = 17,457x - 1537 R² = 0,9452
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
88 90 92 94
Cru
sty
Dry matter content (%)
y = -105,34x + 545,37
R² = 0,8474
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
4,2 4,5 4,8 5,1 5,4
Aci
dic
tast
e
pH
Correlations between sensory descriptors and
physico-chemical characteristics
Objective : Validate the consumer study
Lower production and consumption of these new gari
types could not be explained by an overall disliking by
Beninese consumers.
CONCLUSION
New strategies for marketing
fortified gari will be developed
on basis of descriptors that
drive consumers' liking.