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Protein bars have become a popular option among consumers to increase protein content in their diets. Since there is a large market for protein bars, many factors must be considered when creating a protein bar that both satisfies consumers and has a long shelf-life. Hardening and textural changes in protein bars are some of the most common modes of shelf-life failure in this product category. When the typical product creation timeline from formulation to launch can be as short as 3-6 months and with added pressure from executives to quickly launch another new product afterwards, product development scientists simply do not have time to test the full shelf life of their product before release. For this reason, it is imperative that rapid methods for detecting bar hardness and predicting shelf life of bar formulations are developed. The objective of this research is to utilize calorimetric techniques to rapidly detect and identify bar hardening reactions. Six different protein bar formulations were studied, with each containing a combination of either whey protein isolate (WPI), milk protein isolate (MPI), or partially hydrolyzed whey protein isolate (HWPI), reducing-sugar, non-reducing sugar, and vegetable shortening. All bars were stored at 45°C and ambient humidity for 21 d. Isothermal microcalorimetry (IMC) was used to evaluate bar hardening-related reactions and was compared to objective and subjective hardness measurements. Hardness, color, water activity, moisture content, and sensory evaluation were measured at d 1, 7, 14, and 21. The results of this study indicate that isothermal calorimetry may be used to narrow down bar hardening reactions and points to Maillard browning as a main driver of hardening. These techniques may be used to predict bar shelf life, if Maillard browning is used as the basis for hardening. Furthermore, this research highlights the importance of ingredient selection during bar formulation to minimize hardening.

The cheerleader effect refers to the phenomenon that individual faces are experienced to be more attractive when presented in a group than when presented alone. The cause of this is thought to be the way the human brain stores information and summarizes individual faces of the group into an average face which in turn is perceived as more attractive than the individual face would be if examined alone. In this essay the cheerleader effect will be tested on another kind of face, the faces of packaging. In this study the cheerleader effect will be tested on food packaging to see if effect is applicable in the packaging area. The effect is tested through a survey and the result suggest that the cheerleader effec might work on packaging. However, in many cases the opposite seems to be true, packaging presented individually get higher ratings. Because of this I cannot recommend that packaging designers trust the cheerleader effect to improve the experienced attractiveness of their design.

The relationship among consumer acceptability, descriptive sensory attributes, and shelf-life was determined for 2 % milk pasteurized at 77, 79, 82, or 85?aC. Pasteurization temperature had no effect (p>0.05) on shelf-life. Consumers preferred (p<0.05) 79?aC over other treatments on day 0; however, six days post-pasteurization 79?aC milk was only preferred (p<0.05) over 77?aC. Consumers were grouped into eight clusters based on product liking for both day 0 and 6 evaluations. The largest cluster liked all pasteurization treatments, and 79?aC was highly acceptable to all consumers that liked milk. Similar sensory descriptors indicated the end of shelf-life for all pasteurization treatments even though treatments could be differentiated by descriptors on day 0. This research reveals that altering pasteurization temperature from 79?aC may cause a decrease in consumer acceptability to some consumers. Altering pasteurization temperature does not affect shelf-life or sensory descriptors and volatile compound profiles at the end of shelf-life.

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<p>In today's retail environment, there are many consumer packaged goods (CPG) in the same category with various brands and differential products under the same brand. These differential products appear in different dimension sizes, display facing areas, purchasing costs and selling prices which are competing for a limited space in retail store shelves. Product assortment and space allocation of the chosen products to a limited shelf space is becoming more and more important for retailers. In this thesis we critically review the existing literature of shelf space allocation optimization models and solution techniques. We then propose a comprehensive model for shelf space allocation for a product category. Products are allocated to a two-dimensional area of a shelf section where a shelf section consists of multilevel vertical shelves. We account for adjustable shelf heights and product and brand integrity in a shelf section. Unlike the existing optimization models in the literature, we model our demand not only as a function of the space allocated to a product, in terms of the number of display facings, but also as a function of vertical product location in a shelf section and price sensitivity. Stackability of the products is also considered and products can be stacked depending on their package. Our objective is to maximize the retailer's daily gross profit. We numerically show that incorporating price changes and adjustable shelf spaces can have major impacts on the retailers' profit. Finally, we provide directions and suggestions for future research in this growing area of research.</p> / Master of Applied Science (MASc)