51A-19

V. SUVANICH and W. Prinyawiwatkul. Department of Food Science, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station, Baton Rouge, LA 70803

Shredded cooked catfish surimi and frame mince can be used as major functional ingredients to form seafood finger products having textural quality resembling that of fish-fillet products. An action-oriented approach to category appraisal enables us to discover product opportunities and to identify sensory attributes driving product acceptance and purchase intent. This study was conducted to identify critical sensory attributes driving product acceptance and purchase intent toward new formulated seafood fingers and to predict consumer choices of the most acceptable product. Three product formulations, which differed in the amount of shredded cooked surimi (20, 30, and 40%), were served with two sauces (spicy and sweet & sour) to 104 consumers for evaluation. Consumers evaluated 6 sensory attributes (size & shape, color, taste, aroma, texture, and overall liking) and their preference of sauces using a 9-point hedonic scale. Product acceptance, purchase intent, and eating trend for sauces were determined using a 2-point scale. Data were analyzed using predictive and descriptive discriminant analyses. The product formulated with 40 % shredded cooked surimi was most preferred with the overall liking mean score of 7.2. About 89 % of consumers accepted this formulation; of which 70% will purchase the product if it were available in the market. Most consumers preferred consuming the products with sauces; spicy (47 %), sweet & sour (22 %), and both sauces (26%). Taste and overall liking were identified as attributes best differentiating among 3 formulations. The attributes critical for product acceptance and purchase intent were taste, overall liking, and, to a lesser extent, texture. This study indicates that value-added restructured seafood fingers developed from shredded cooked catfish surimi and frame mince with desirable taste and texture have great market opportunity. Sauces also play an important role in consumers’ eating habit for the new seafood finger products.