The effect of virtual reality and immersive environments on sensory perception of chocolate products : A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Food Innovation at Lincoln University

Abstract

Sensory evaluation is usually carried out in traditional sensory booths which are highly controlled in order to minimise the influence from potential distractions. However, the controlled environment could affect consumers’ sensory perception and their overall engagement and result in limited ecological validity. Virtual reality (VR), as an immerging technology, has attracted much attention in recent years since it is highly interactive and engaging. The acceptability and emotional responses of milk, white and dark chocolate were evaluated under three contextual settings, including the sensory booth (control) and two VR environments (360-degree videos based on VR headsets, a pleasant sightseeing tour and a live music concert). Untrained participants (N = 67) were asked to rate their liking of taste/flavour, sweetness, bitterness, cocoa flavour, dairy flavour, texture, hardness, smoothness, aftertaste and overall liking based on the 9-point hedonic scale. The just-about-right-scale (JAR) was also applied for the intensity of sweetness, bitterness, cocoa flavour, dairy flavour and overall texture. Emotions were evaluated using the check-all-that-apply (CATA) method. The results of this study showed the significant impacts of contextual settings on chocolate acceptability, especially for cocoa flavour. Besides, emotions elicited regarding dark chocolate were highly relevant to environments as well. The combination of dark chocolate and “virtual live concert” positively affected consumers’ emotions as well as their hedonic responses with terms such as “adventurous” and “energetic”. On the contrary, dark chocolate under the other two environments were associated with negative emotional terms, such as “bored”, “worried”, “disgusted” and “aggressive”. Further research is needed to match each chocolate type to a suitable VR environment for more reliable and ecologically valid sensory responses. Those environments achieved by VR headsets could be useful in testing newly developed chocolate products before launching.