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NutrInsight • Satiety: from appetite sciences to food application
2 DEVELoPMENToFASATIETyPANEL
AS A NEW MoDEL To PRE-SCREEN SATIETy ENHANCINg FooD
Dr Sophie Vinoy, Nutrition Research Group leader, Mondele- z International, France
Pr Blundell has insisted on the importance of high quality assessment of satiety and the use of rigorously standardised methodology. This article will illustrate this aspect of satiety research in the context of development of foods with optimal satiety value. Developing foods with enhanced satiety power is one of the major challenges for food companies. In order to do so, it is important to understand and use the very complex mechanisms involved in energy regulation. one key expression of satiety is the chronological changes in appetite sensations experienced following the ingestion of a food or meal.
2.1 The development of a satiety panel
Assessing satiety sensations
In many experimental works, one method of choice for following appetite sensations over a full day or at the end of a particular eating event is the use of Visual Analogue Scales (VAS). They are used for the ratings of such sensations as hunger, fullness, desire to eat, and prospective consumption. VAS generally present as 100 mm horizontal lines, marked at both ends with phrases expressing the extreme intensities of sensations. Volunteers rate their immediate sensations at a specific time point by making a pencil mark along the line at the appropriate level. Ratings are then converted into scores, ranging from 0 to 100. Composite scores have been used in the literature, combining the ratings obtained for many dimensions (for example hunger + fullness + desire to eat + prospective consumption). The reproducibility and validity of VAS in the assessment of appetite sensations have been confirmed as shown by Pr. Blundell in the previous section [Flint et al., 2000]. This sensitive tool nevertheless has limitations. For example, the satiety power of different foods may depend on small differences in composition. It may be difficult to expect VAS to discriminate between the satiety effects of different cereal foods containing limited amounts of active ingredients. In addition, differences in experimental designs and differences in the sensitivity of study participants may make between-study comparisons difficult.
Most studies using VAS for assessment of appetite include non-trained, lay consumers. A number of issues can be identified in relation to studies using untrained volunteers. Inter-individual differences in sex, age, dietary restraint, among other factors, are likely to affect the experience of appetite and the VAS ratings. Some untrained individuals may have difficulty understanding the use of VAS or use it in idiosyncratic ways. Some individuals may have limited introspection and have little awareness of their appetite sensations. In addition, the level of familiarity with test foods may affect VAS ratings by modifying the beliefs and expectations associated with them. Inter-individual differences make it difficult to obtain significant discrimination of satiety effects using small groups of participants.
In order to overcome these limitations, a new approach to the assessment of appetite sensations is proposed, inspired by the methodology currently used in sensory analysis, but based on the validated VAS method. Sensory analysis studies include expert assessors, rather than untrained consumers. As a result of specific training focusing on the analysis of sensory information, the between-subject variability is reduced allowing better discriminations to be made. Sensory panellists, used to analyse and rate their subjective sensations, can be trained rapidly to become sensitive experts of the intensity of appetite sensations.
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