Alexia Jauniau1, Sebastian Siarkowski2, Dawid Wieloch2, Monika Mieszczakowska-Frąc2, Jan Piecko2, Jan Zdulski2, Marie Natalizio1, Agnès Giboreau 1,3 1 LYFE Institute, Research and Innovation Centre, Ecully, France 2 The National Institute of Horticultural Research, Konstytucji 3 Maja 1/3, 96-100 Skierniewice, Poland 3 University of Lyon, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Health, Systemic, Process, UR4129 Unit Research, 69008 Lyon, France www.inhort.pl INNOVATION DRIVEN BY CONSUMER IDEATION AND VALIDATED IN REAL-MEAL SITUATION: AN APPLICATION TO POLISH BERRIES UNKNOWN IN FRANCE The HORTIFOODTRENDS project aims to develop innovative, health-promoting novel foods by applying advanced processing techniques to preserve fruits and vegetables’ nutritional and bioactive. It integrates consumer sciences and sensory analysis, aligning with the European Union's "From Farm to Fork" strategy. The project focuses on berries cultivated in Poland, particularly chokeberries and haskap berries, which are increasingly available but underutilized due to their peculiar astringency and lingering aftertaste. To enhance their appeal and widespread use, the project leverages culinary innovation, sensory evaluation tools, and consumer research conducted in real-consumption situation. In this way, the project wants to create proper communication between the consumer, the fruit producer, the processing sector and science using the Living-Lab approach. 1. Qualitative research aiming to co-create food concepts During this focus group, the InHort processed ingredients were presented to consumers. The objective was to imagine possible pairing with other ingredients in some recipes, leading to aco-creation of food concepts, including chokeberry and haskap berry. 2. Food concept development by chefs As a result of the discussion between consumers, 8 initial concepts were developed. Innovation team with Chefs of LYFE Institute are the culinary experts involved in the project: they selected 4 promising food concepts and fine-tuned the recipes, including chokeberry and haskap berry. 3. Consumers' feedback on food concept developed Qualitative research in sensory focus group was run to collect strengths and weaknesses of each recipe; sensory attributes measurement and improvement leads identified. Selection of the best food concept: “Basque cheesecake made with chokeberry and fresh cheese, served with chokeberry lemon coulis and crispy apple chips”. The main improvement identified was to intensify the chokeberry taste by increasing the berry content from 8% (Product REF) to 20% (Product NEW) in the cheesecake. 4. Quantitative research on the selected food concept A monadic pure hedonic quantitative test on 2 versions of the cheesecake recipe in real meal situations was run at LYFE Institute restaurant, collecting feedback from 70 consumers over 2 weeks. The objective was to validate the sensory improvements implemented by the chefs on the recipe and check the overall appreciation of the dessert by French consumers. Results demonstrated that the chokeberry increase in cheesecake didn’t impact the overall liking score, despite a slightly too acidic/lack of sweetness sensory profile. Crispy apple chips were really liked. The process demonstrates the value of combining qualitative phases with consumers and culinary creativity with chefs to link food habits and preferences with new ingredients, providing concrete recipes and usage of berries to be further pursued at the EU level. Living Lab collaboration bridges sensory, technological, and commercial gaps —boosting innovation and uptake. The project confirms that a consumer-inclusive approach is essential for turning underutilized berries into accepted, functional, and market-ready products to get closer to a commercialization opportunity to be developed for the Polish berries. Email contact:
[email protected] ; sebastian.siarkow[email protected] Statistical treatment: T test, *= significant at >0.05 Ideas of recipes, ingredients association and flavors combination: From individual ideas to group discussion Savory –Concept 1 Mushroom velouté, mushrooms in pieces, haskap berry, cream siphon, fresh chives, parmesan crumble topping Dry mushrooms Haskap berry puree Savory –Concept 2 Empanadas of fermented cabbage and caramelized onions with a creamy smoked tofu-chokeberry sauce with chickpeas purée Sweet –Concept 3 A creamy, lightly caramelized Basque cheesecake with a chokeberry puree lemon coulis and apple chips topping Sweet –Concept 4 A chou pastry with craquelin filled with a mousseline cream made from Haskap berry purée, haskap coulis heart andcrunchy caramelized hazelnuts Fermented cabbage Chokeberry puree Chokeberry puree Red apple chips Haskap berry puree * Full desert: cheesecake + coulis + apple chips The research was conducted in the project funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 101159293 (HortiFoodTrends). Haskap berry Chokberry
