The study evaluated the effect of peach juice sweetened with sucrose, widely used non-nutritive sweeteners, the artificial sucralose, neotame blend, and the natural stevia extract with different rebaudioside A concentrations on the temporal and quantitative descriptive profile, and consumer acceptance of the beverage. The sensory profiling was determined by quantitative descriptive and time–intensity analyses. The results showed that the sweeteners neotame and sucralose present higher sweetening power, and the different rebaudioside A concentrations did not affect the sweetening power of the stevia extract. The samples sweetened with stevia with 40% and 95% of rebaudioside A were characterized by the sensory attributes bitter taste, bitter aftertaste, astringency, and black tea flavor, with a negative influence on the consumers’ acceptance. The different concentrations of rebaudioside A in stevia interfered substantially in the descriptors bitter taste and bitter aftertaste, showing that the higher the percentage of rebaudioside A, the lower bitterness of peach juice.

Several government agencies have established guidelines for the food industry to reduce sugar, fat, and salt in processed foods. The objective of this study was to determine the dynamic sensory profile of tomato sauce formulated with flavor enhancers, a bitter blocker and 50% sodium content reduction. The perception of consumers and a trained panel was explored. Consumers performed temporal dominance of sensations (TDS) and temporal acceptance (TA) while the trained panel performed time-intensity analysis (TI). TA indicated that flavor enhancers improve initial acceptance of a sample but that its masking effect weakens 30 s after ingestion. TI showed that despite promoting salty equivalence, substitute salts were not able to completely suppress the bitter taste characteristic of potassium chloride and the addition of lysine as a bitter blocker was the least effective strategy. In TDS the bitter taste was not dominant in any of the samples. However, the presence of unusual flavors/tastes to the consumers like metallic and umami seems to have interfered negatively in the evaluation of the flavors. Flavor enhancers have been widely used to reformulate processed foods in order to reduce sodium content, preserving sensory acceptance. This study provides information on the dynamic behavior of different salt substitutes.

Descriptive analysis (DA) is the gold standard for sensory profiling due to its robustness and reliability. However, its high cost, time demand, and labor intensity limit routine applications in the food industry. Rapid Sensory Profiling Techniques (RSPTs) have emerged as faster, less resource‐intensive alternatives to address these challenges. Among them, preferred attribute elicitation (PAE) stands out. This review aims, for the first time, to comprehensively clarify applications of PAE in food products and provide insights into challenges and trends. PAE enables consumers to collaboratively identify, measure, categorize, and prioritize key attributes while providing hedonic insight. By ranking attributes based on their relevance to product acceptance and preference, PAE integrates descriptive and affective dimensions of sensory perception, enhancing the understanding of consumer experience and product appeal. PAE has been applied to fruits, meat, dairy, dairy alternatives, bakery products, and beverages, yielding sensory profiles comparable to those obtained via DA. It has also been used to evaluate processing, resampling, storage, and fermentation effects, distinguish commercial products, and analyze sensory perception differences among consumer groups. Key methodological factors affecting PAE's reliability include the moderator's expertise, panelist profile, and attribute selection. Future research should expand its application to unexplored food categories, validate its relevance compared to traditional acceptance tests, assess its effectiveness in complex food matrices, and integrate it with other sensory methods. This is the first comprehensive review of the PAE application, offering practical insights for researchers and the food industry on correctly using this method.