Abstract:
The most important factor that drives to massive adoption of new agricultural food related technology is its sensory quality among users. The aim of the study was to evaluate consumers’ sensory preference for quality protein maize in southwest Ethiopia. The study used three sensory evaluation techniques namely central location test, triangular test and modified home-use test. Data for central location test was collected from randomly selected 192 assessors and for modified home use test, 210 randomly selected women who have 6-23 month children were participated. In addition, 16 consumers randomly selected were also participated on triangular test. The data from central location test and modified home use test was analyzed using paired sample t-test using SPSS-20 and data from triangular test was analyzed using binominal distribution. Factors affect farmers` preference of maize dishes was analyzed by ordinal logistic model. The result from triangular test shows significant sensory difference between quality protein maize and conventional maize dabo and the result from central location test and modified homeuse test explored quality protein maize dishes was appreciated than the conventional counterparts. The overall score of children also realized quality protein maize genfo was appreciated than the conventional maize genfo. The result of the study also shows that taste highly and significantly affect mother’s overall ratings than any of other attributes. The study finally recommends researchers, extensionists and organizations working in the area of food security and poverty reduction to use the sensory acceptability of quality protein maize to disseminate and diffuse the technology and finally to tackle malnutrition.
