Consumer Attitude and Sensory Evaluation of Marshmallow

Marshmallow is sugar-candy with foam-like structure. Many studies have revealed the high nutritional value of bee pollen. Due to the nutritional composition of pollen, and according to nonscientific studies, dried bee pollen has been used as an additive in human diets, which provides a well-being sensation and contributes to functional and harmonious balance of the body. Sensory evaluation and market research are an important part of developing a new product. The research was aimed to clarify the situation in the Latvian market, to summarise Latvian consumer attitude on marshmallow, and to determine the sensory properties and quality of marshmallows with bee pollen. A questionnaire was developed - 900 respondents answered questions about their consumption patterns, opinions on quality indices, and possible types of marshmallow packaging. Marshmallow was enriched with three different pollen concentrations: 1.0; 1.5 and 2.5%. Sensory evaluation was carried out to estimate the optimal concentration of bee pollen that which should be added to marshmallow. Sensory evaluation of experimental marshmallow was characterised by using a 9-point hedonic scale (determination degree of liking). The obtained results showed that consumers liked the marshmallow with 1.5% bee pollen best of all.