Relating consumer acceptance to descriptive attributes by three-way external preference mapping obtained by parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC)

Abstract

This work considers the hypothesis of using Parallel Factor Analysis (PARAFAC) for relating consumer acceptance to descriptive attributes by employing three-way external preference maps.A pilot case study with a real data set fromsix commercial samples of grape juice was conducted.The results revealed that PARAFACwas useful for relating consumer acceptance to descriptive attributes, by simultaneously considering the various analyzed attributes by three-way external preference maps. The three-way external preference maps provided a general interpretation of the data, thereby making it possible to simultaneously relate consumer preferences, sensorial attributes and descriptive characteristics.