French and Vietnamese: How do they describe texture characteristics of the same food? A case study with jellies

Visual appearance and texture of jellies were assessed in two countries with important differences in food consumption habits and languages (France versus Vietnam) using methodologies with different levels of verbalisation and complexity: free sorting task followed by verbalisation, flash profile and conventional profile. Free sorting task and flash profile were applied both in France and Vietnam and conventional profile was applied in France only. Sensory maps were derived using multidimensional methods. The assessment of global similarities between product configurations showed that the same key sensory concepts were identified in both cultures. Specificities were also identified in each culture. Free sorting task results suggest that compared to French subjects, Vietnamese subjects adopted more similar strategies to sort the products. Flash profile results showed that Vietnamese subjects spontaneously used fewer attribute, and used them in a more similar way to rank the products. Concerning the methods, flash profile configurations were more similar to the conventional configuration than free sorting task configurations whatever the country. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.