Preference ranking of colour in raw and cooked shrimps

The reddish colour to shrimp, which has been associated with its high quality, is one of the major factors for its acceptability by consumers. The aim of this work was to analyse consumer preference regarding colour in raw and cooked shrimps. Farmed shrimps Litopenaeus vannamei (13.8 + 1.16 g) were fed with control or supplemented food (60 ppm of carotenoids). The shrimp samples were analysed in naked eye, confirmed by colorimetry and sorted in the following categories: dark grey (L* 27.99; h 168.16), grey (L* 32.58; h 124.60), and light grey (L* 36.2; h 119.35) for raw shrimps; and intense orange (L* 61.49; h 54.69), orange (L* 65.97; h 57.79) and light orange (L* 72.65; h 70.17) for cooked shrimps. A preference ranking test was performed with 35 judges invited to rank the samples in descending order of preference. Consumers prefer lighter raw shrimp (light grey and grey) and brightly orange cooked shrimps (orange and intense orange), which indicates that supplementing shrimp food for pigmentation should be followed by improving its acceptance by consumer. These results indicate a challenge for the shrimp industry, as the lightest raw shrimps are also not so brightly orange coloured after cooking.