Quality of peas modelled by a structural equation system

The quality of peas has been studied in a joint project between a pea producing company in Denmark and several research institutions. The study included quality from a consumer point of view based on market research and quality from more internal company points of view based on measurement of physical/chemical attributes that are expected to describe quality. The purpose of the work was to use the considerable amounts of information in a decision oriented way to obtain answers to questions like: (1) How do consumers perceive quality? (2) Is it possible to describe the variation in preferences expressed by consumers as a function of the objective measurements of quality e.g. the physical/chemical variables? (3) Which of the measured objective variables are most important for further product development? In the paper we describe consumer evaluations as a function of physical/chemical variables in a PLS structural model with the Total Food Quality Model as starting point. The results show that texture and flavour do have approximately the same effect on the consumers' perception of overall quality. Quality development goals for plant breeders would be to optimise perrceived flavour directly by increasing the amount of sugars and more indirectly by improving the perception of colour through darker and less yellow peas. Perceived texture can be optimised by focusing on selected texture measurements. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.