Consumer Acceptability

With our product formulation ready for further texture analysis, our group has decided to take it to the public. The Flamin’ Hot Chicken Cheese Sticks were formulated, fried, and served to random people in the poultry building during the morning hours. Feedback ranged from the sticks being perfect, to the texture being too inconsistent. One person said the spicier the better! To improve the chicken cheese sticks and still appeal to the majority, we added a little more starch to get the consistency evened out throughout the product. The cayenne pepper percentage was increased to add a little more kick to the product. When the product was pushed through the extruder after these changes, we realized that the starch had also helped the product hold together better and the naked product was more appealing to the eye. The cayenne added a prettier color to the pre-dust and covered spots where the breading fell off after frying. The total coating pickup after frying was a 6% increase. Not only did these ingredients improve the taste and texture, but they improved the eye appeal too! To make sure that these changes were acceptable to the general public, we again had people taste them. This time the Flaming Hot Chicken Cheese sticks were produced in the afternoon to target a different crowd than in the morning. The sticks were a hit! 92% of the people that tried the product thought there were delicious and only 8% thought they were a little bit too spicy, yet still had a good flavor. With the product at such a high level of acceptance, we decided that this formula was the one that we would take to market. Since the product is complete, we have now moved on to the creation of a nutritional value as well as a packaging label.