4 °C - the National Sea Grant Library

LikinglAccentability
Hedonic sensory scores, with the percentage of panelists who rated the canned carp as like
very much or like moderately, for appearance, flavor and overall liking are presented in Table 2.
Method of precook significantly affected the hedonic scoring of the two products, but overall
acceptability was extremely good for both canned carp products. The worst-case, average
hedonic score for either product was only 3.08 (7=dislike very much) for the oven-cooked
product category of appearance. Panelists consistently preferred steam-cooked carp over the
oven-cooked carp. Sixty-four percent of panelists judged the appearance of the steam-cooked
carp superior to the oven-baked carp (Table 2). Likewise, over 50% of panelists consistently
ranked the
Table 2. Liking/Acceptability - Mean hedonic scores c and percentages
( ) of panelists who rated canned bighead carp as like very much or
like moderately.
Precook Appearance Flavor Overall Liking
Oven 3.08 a (43%) 3.02 a (47%) 3 .07 a (48%)
Steam 2.47b (64%) 2.47b (58%) 2.52b (54%)
a-bMeans within columns followed by the same superscript are
different (P>O.O5) by LSD test.
cHedonic scale, 1 =like very much; 7=dislike very much.
steam-cooked carp as like very much or like moderately for flavor and overall liking compared to
the oven-cooked products. Even though steam-cooked carp was more preferred, Table 2 reveals
that the oven-cooked carp also was well liked since it ranked only 6 percentage points below
steam-cooked carp for the attribute overall liking.
Comnarisons to Other Canned Fish Products
Panelists were asked to compare the two carp products with canned mackerel, salmon and
tuna. As shown in Table 3, panelists indicated that the bighead carp compared most favorably
with tuna and least favorably with mackerel. Over 60% of panelists indicated that either carp
product was better than or equal to tuna compared to 45 and 38 % for salmon when compared to
steam and oven-cooked carp, respectively. The low comparability for mackerel may not be
meaningful since 77% of the panelists indicated that they were not familiar (don’t know) with
canned mackerel. Steam-cooked carp garnered higher “better than or equal to” scores compared
to oven-cooked carp when compared to either salmon or tuna. Exit interviews with panelists
provided insight into why many felt that the carp did not compare favorably with salmon. The
carp products, it seems, were deemed too bland or too mild for valid comparison with salmon.
Panelists expected a salmon-type product to have strong, fishy odors and flavors.
not