Abstract Recent findings show that approximately 87% of the U.S. population fail to meet the vegetable intake recommendations, with unpleasant taste of vegetables being listed as the primary reason for this shortfall. In this study, spice and herb seasoning was used to enhance palatability of vegetables, in order to increase consumer acceptance. In total, 749 panelists were screened and recruited as specific vegetable likers of the vegetable being tested or general vegetable likers. Four sessions were designed to evaluate the effect of seasoning within each type of vegetable, including broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, and green bean. Each panelist was only allowed to participate in one test session to evaluate only one vegetable type, so as to mitigate potential learning effect. Overall, the results showed that seasoned vegetables were significantly preferred over unseasoned vegetables (P < 0.001), indicating the sensory properties were significantly improved with seasoning. When general vegetable likers and specific vegetable likers were compared in terms of their preference between seasoned and unseasoned vegetables, the pattern varied across different vegetables; however, general trend of seasoned vegetable being preferred remained. The findings from this study demonstrate the effect of seasoning in enhancing consumer liking of vegetables, which may lead to increased consumption to be assessed in future studies. Practical Application To improve the sensory properties of vegetables, masking the bitter taste of vegetables using spice and herb seasoning are gaining increasing attention. Our findings suggest that the overall liking of vegetables could be improved by incorporating spice and herb seasonings that are specifically formulated for each vegetable. Ultimately, developing and commercializing spice and herb seasonings may aid to increase vegetable consumption, as well as expanding the vegetable seasoning market.

中文翻译：

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调味蔬菜与未调味蔬菜的消费者接受度比较

摘要 最近的调查结果表明，大约 87% 的美国人口未能达到蔬菜摄入量的建议，蔬菜的不愉快味道被列为造成这种不足的主要原因。在这项研究中，香料和香草调味料被用来增强蔬菜的适口性，以提高消费者的接受度。总共筛选并招募了 749 名小组成员作为被测蔬菜的特定蔬菜爱好者或一般蔬菜爱好者。设计了四次会议来评估每种蔬菜中调味的效果，包括西兰花、花椰菜、胡萝卜和绿豆。每个小组成员只允许参加一个测试环节，以评估一种蔬菜类型，以减轻潜在的学习效果。全面的，结果表明，调味蔬菜明显优于未调味蔬菜（P < 0.001），表明调味后感官特性显着改善。当比较一般蔬菜喜欢者和特定蔬菜喜欢者对调味蔬菜和未调味蔬菜的偏好时，不同蔬菜的模式不同；不过，调味蔬菜受青睐的总体趋势依然存在。这项研究的结果证明了调味料对提高消费者对蔬菜的喜爱程度的作用，这可能会导致消费量增加，这将在未来的研究中进行评估。实际应用 为了改善蔬菜的感官特性，使用香料和香草调味料掩盖蔬菜的苦味越来越受到关注。我们的研究结果表明，通过加入专门为每种蔬菜配制的香料和香草调味料，可以提高对蔬菜的整体喜好。最终，香料和香草调味料的开发和商业化可能有助于增加蔬菜消费，并扩大蔬菜调味料市场。