J. Cosmet. Sci., 69, 83–100 (March/April 2018) 83 Application of Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) Questions for Sensory Characterization of Cosmetic Emulsions by Untrained Consumers GABRIELLA BAKI, MIHALY SZOBOSZLAI, MATTHEW W. LIBERATORE, and MARK CHANDLER, Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH (G.B., M.C.), Department of Economic Analysis and Forecast, Division of Applied Research, Central Bank of Hungary, Budapest, Hungary 1054 (M.S.), Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH (M.W.L.), and ACT Solutions Corp., Newark, DE (M.C.) Accepted for publication January 28, 2018. Synopsis The sales potential of cosmetic products is greatly determined by skin feel and skin sensory performance. To please the target audience, it is important to gather information about consumers’ perception of products’ sensory characteristics. In this study, six different emulsions were formulated. Samples represented three different types of emulsions, including steric-stabilized oil-in-water (O/W), liquid crystal–stabilized O/W, and water-in-oil emulsions, providing different skin feel and aesthetics. Emulsions within the same group differed in the emollients, providing similar sensory attributes. The aim was to have 50 consumers evaluate the emulsions’ sensory characteristics. Using a check-all-that-apply (CATA) survey, consumers provided information about their perception of appearance, rub-out, pick-up, and afterfeel. Consumers effectively discriminated between the emulsions. Statistical analysis showed signifi cant differences for 15 sensory attributes in the before, during, and after phases. Our fi ndings suggest that emulsifi ers, and not emollients, have the dominant role in determining the aesthetics of a skin care emulsion, similar to previous fi ndings. The fact that untrained consumers provided similar results as trained panelists suggests the validity of the CATA survey and its reliability as a screening tool in the product development process. CATA questions may serve as a viable complimentary to descriptive sensory analysis performed by trained panelists. INTRODUCTION The sales potential of cosmetic products is greatly determined by skin feel and skin sen- sory performance (1,2). Sensory characteristics, including appearance, rub-out, pick-up, and afterfeel, can help build an emotional relationship with the consumer, trigger excite- ment, and help consumers purchase the product again and again, which is the primary Address all correspondence to Gabriella Baki at gabriella.baki@utoledo.edu.
JOURNAL OF COSMETIC SCIENCE 84 goal of developing products (3,4). The emotional connection and excitement can be es- tablished from the initial look and feel of a product. In fact, the emotional connection is made when the product is fi rst experienced, usually in the fi rst few seconds after opening the container. The look, smell, and tactile properties can either draw the consumers in or turn them away. These properties must be engineered to be in harmony with each other and to appeal to a target group. It is important to emphasize that there is no perfect aesthetic that is right for every ap- plication or every target audience (4). Therefore, gaining information about the target audience’s opinion of a certain product is critical for successful product development and marketing. This type of information can be obtained using descriptive sensory analysis (DSA) with a group of trained panelists or with naive consumers who are the ultimate purchasers of a product. DSA is a technique that was developed to quantify perceptual properties of samples so that their sensory profi les can be directly compared (5). DSA is a powerful tool in the cosmetic and personal care industry because it can provide relevant information about aesthetics and sensory experience of raw material ingredients and skin care products (1), which can then be used to provide guidance in new product formulation, product refor- mulation, ingredient substitutions, optimization of manufacturing processes, and claim substantiation (5,6). DSA being used to evaluate skin care products is now a standard practice in the American Society for Testing and Materials. This ASTM E 1490-11 guide outlines procedures for two different approaches for quantitatively describing the sen- sory characteristics of skin creams and lotions and measuring their similarities and dif- ferences (6) (i) a technical expert (i.e., trained panelist) and (ii) a consumer behavior approach. Both approaches usually provide detailed, accurate, reliable, and consistent results (5). However, these approaches are expensive and time-consuming. Therefore, it is diffi cult for the industry, which often faces resource and time constraints, to routinely apply this technique in the product development process. Because of these constraints, interest in developing reliable and quick methods for sensory characterization of products has been increasing (7). Consumer-based methods are gaining popularity (8,9). Examples of techniques developed in the last couple of decades include sorting (10), fl ash profi ling (11), napping (12), pivot profi ling (13), and check-all-that-apply (CATA) questions (14). CATA questions have a structured question format.The principle is that each volunteer receives a questionnaire (i.e., a list of terms) by which they characterize each product. Their task is simply to select all the terms they consider appropriate to describe the prod- uct (15). Advantages of CATA surveys are that they are focused on consumers and not trained panelists, easy to create, quick and easy for participants to answer (16,17), and require no participant training. Furthermore, a well-structured questionnaire does not put special burden on participants, and response rate generally reaches the maximum. Some studies have compared the sensory maps generated by CATA questions with those provided by DSA with trained panelists, reporting similar results (18–20). Therefore, CATA surveys using untrained consumers could provide similar results to quantitative descriptive analysis performed by trained panelists. Modifying the sensory characteristics of cosmetic creams and lotions is often required during the product development process to appeal to the target group. A common prac- tice when the sensory characteristics of a given product need to be modifi ed is to change
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