Consumers' preference is essential to improve processed food products quality, but small companies sometimes lacks knowledge or tools to develop consumer studies. The aim of the present study was to investigate consumers' insight to recommend the best drying methodology for pomegranate arils. With the aim of providing information that industry can correlate to the drivers of liking, descriptive sensory characteristics, and volatile compounds of the samples were determined and related with consumers' responses. A total of 19 volatiles of dehydrated pomegranate arils were determined using solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Partial least square regression (PLS) results indicated that consumers overall liking was positively correlated with "pom ID", "sweet", and "fruity" attributes, and also volatile compounds of the esters family. Overall liking was negatively correlated with the "off-flavor" and "burnt" attributes, related to the furan compounds family. Penalty analysis indicated that the sample corresponding with the current commercial product needed improvement on the "pom ID", "fruity", and "sweetness" parameters. All the samples processed using the proposed new drying techniques were more liked than the commercial sample, highlighting a sample dried using pre-osmotic dehydration in Wonderful concentrate pomegranate juice. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Consumers' preference is essential to improve processed food products quality, but small companies sometimes lack knowledge or tools to conduct consumer studies. The present study provides useful information to understand consumers' preferences of a healthy product such as pomegranate dehydrated arils. Also, the link of physico-chemical and sensory tools is clearly described, providing information about possible sensory quality indicators.
Keywords: Punica granatum; descriptive analysis; drivers of liking; drying; volatile compounds.
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