Abstract: The refinement and personalization of product design has become a new trend in product development since the consumption level of Chinese residents has been upgraded. Consumers’ preference plays an important role in product design and development. In this paper, we focus on sensory evaluation of flavored liquid milk conducted by both sensory panel and consumers in various cities. The multivariate statistical analysis including partial correlation analysis and Penalty analysis were employed to analyze the relationship among sensory attributes. The preference map was utilized to comprehensively process both analytical sensory evaluation by a trained panel (sensory attribute intensity measurement) and emotional sensory evaluation by consumers (preference measurement), and to determine the improvement direction for specific sensory attributes based on the overall preference from different cities. The optimization results demonstrated that consumers in Shanghai prefer sweet samples, while those in Beijing and Chengdu prefer the samples with medium sweet and sour taste. All three cities have similar preference to fresh milk flavor, and like the samples with strong fresh milk flavor and smoothness. The preference of consumers in Beijing for thickness is not as strong as that of Chengdu and Shanghai consumers.

Key words: consumer preference, sensory evaluation, Penalty analysis, preference map, liquid milk