Predictive Modeling for Animal Food Consumer Response
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional consumer testing methods for animal food products are limited in characterizing feeding behaviors and do not account for the owner's influence on the animal's feeding experience, making them incomplete measures for assessing consumer perception, and are costly and time-consuming.
Innovation Solution
A predictive modeling technique using sensory research and statistical analysis to determine key attributes of the feeding experience, independent of consumer interaction, which can predict consumer response to animal food products without in-home use tests.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional preference tests are conducted with kenneled animals without owner presence, then the testing process is simplified and faster, but the measurement completeness deteriorates because the owner's influence on the animal's feeding experience is excluded
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces video recording as an intermediary tool to capture the owner-animal interaction during feeding. The video serves as a mediator that allows the owner's presence and influence to be recorded and analyzed without requiring the owner to be physically present during the actual feeding observation, thus maintaining testing efficiency while improving measurement completeness.
2Measurement precision
If in-home use tests (IHUT) are conducted to assess consumer perception directly, then the consumer's viewpoint is captured accurately, but the testing cost and time consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the home feeding environment by recording video footage of the animal eating at home. This video copy captures the consumer's viewpoint and the animal's natural feeding behavior without requiring extended in-home testing periods. The recorded data can be analyzed later, significantly reducing the time and cost associated with traditional IHUT while maintaining measurement accuracy.
3Ease of manufacture
If traditional consumer testing methodology is used to evaluate animal food products, then the process is straightforward to implement, but the ability to characterize feeding behaviors and understand consumer perception deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent adds a temporal dimension to the feeding behavior assessment by using video recording. Instead of only observing feeding behavior in real-time during controlled tests, the system captures and analyzes feeding behavior across multiple time points and contexts (including at home), providing a more comprehensive characterization of feeding behaviors while maintaining implementation feasibility through standard video recording technology.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for determining a consumer response. At least two attributes are obtained for a sample product, the at least two attributes are associated with a feeding experience of an animal are determined. A regression analysis is performed on one or more factor scores for the sample product derived from the at least two attributes. A consumer response of the feeding experience as a function of the at least two attributes is determined independently of the consumer. The at least two attributes are determined based on an assessment of a plurality of technical measures associated with the feeding experience of an animal. The technical measures may be selected from the group consisting of analytical components (AN), daily feeding patterns based on automatic feeding station (AFS), chemical sensory headspace aroma compounds (CHEM), human sensory descriptive panel (HUMAN), monadic feeding patterns (VIDEO), and preference assessment (PREF).