Baseline consumer sensory testing of alternate protein burgers

Summary

There has been a recent increase in the range of plant-based protein burgers in the Australian market. This trend has also included other meat and plant-protein blended products, such as reduced meat content sausages.

This project was established to gauge untrained consumer sensory and attitudinal response to a range of burger products, including meat-free and beef blend products. Six products were tested with two non-meat offers, two beef blends, one high beef content and a benchmark 100% beef patty with no additives.

While further improvement may occur in the non-meat products, this trial found that associated value claims would need to heavily relate to perceived benefits unrelated to the eating experience.

Objectives

The main objectives of this project were to:

• design and deliver a Meat Standards Australia (MSA) protocol sampling plan for five different burger patties
• procure burgers, recruit panellists and complete sensory tests
• record shrinkage yields from cooking from the sample size in terms of weight loss and diameter of the patties from pre- and post-cooking across the four burger types.

Key findings

• Blended beef patties were rated the highest by everyday Australian consumers.
• Plant-based burgers performed the worst with many (51%) rated as unsatisfactory.
• 100% beef patties were rated above plant-based products but below the beef blends. This correlates with increased cook loss and may reflect overcooking due to the standardised cooking times needed to achieve an internal temperature of 70°C, required for plant-based burgers.
• Other factors affecting resilience to high temperature cooking could include lower fat content and, for the pure beef items, the lack of any ingredients that might reduce cook loss or enhance flavour.

Benefits to industry

The results of this project provide an important insight into what variables are valued by consumers in their burger products and related attitudinal responses that affect their purchasing habits.

Importantly, consumers had a strong adverse reaction to the ingredient lists of alternative protein products.

MLA action

MLA is scoping investment into additional research regarding the topic of alternate protein burgers. 

Future research

This project only represents a small number of samples and consumers, so some more work in this space would lead to more conclusive results and increased reliability.

It is recommended that further work be conducted to better define relationships to fat level in high beef content burgers and to both minor ingredient additions and cooking regimes that may reduce cook loss, which was correlated strongly with reduced tenderness and juiciness in this study.

Related resources

• Taylor, J., Ahmed, I.A.M., Al-Juhaimi, F.Y. and Bekhit, A.E.D.A., 2020. Consumers' perceptions and sensory properties of beef patty analogues. Foods, 9(1), p.63.
• Watson R, Gee A, Polkinghorne R and Porter M. (2008a). Assessory publication. MSA sensory testing protocols. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture, 48(11), 1360-1367.
• Watson R, Gee A, Polkinghorne R and Porter M. (2008b). Consumer assessment of eating quality - development of protocols for Meat Standards Australia testing. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture, 48, 1360-1367.