Preference Mapping of Commercial Toasted White Corn Tortilla Chips

This study was conducted to identify what constitutes consumer preference for and acceptance of white corn tortilla chips. Consumer overall acceptance of tortill chips was modeled by consumer data for acceptance of appearance, flavor, and texture and by descriptive sensory and/or instrumental data. Internal preference mapping (R2= 0.99) showed that flavor was the most important attribute to consumer overall acceptance followed by texture and appearance. The basic salt attribute and aftertaste attributes of salt, raw masa, and toasted grain aftertastes were important to consumer flavor acceptance, and the attributes of crispness, loose particles, hardness and oily/greasy film were responsible for consumer acceptance of texture. One appearance descriptive attribute (char marks) and 1 instrumental color measurement (a) were significantly related to consumer acceptance of appearance.