Comparative Study on Flavor Preference between Japanese and Chinese for Dried Bonito Stock and Chicken Bouillon

ABSTRACT: Chicken bouillon is well accepted all over the world, but dried bonito stock is only preferred by the Japanese, and only the Japanese use dried bonito as material for soup stock. To learn the reason, we compared the sensory responses to the taste of dried bonito stock and the chicken bouillon by employing Japanese and Chinese as panelists for sensory evaluation. The descriptive terms were 1st designed and used for sensory analysis of food action rate scaling and paired comparison. The Japanese panel evaluated dried bonito stock as less greasy, no odd taste, weaker in fishy flavor, more well-balanced taste, and preferable to chicken bouillon. The Chinese panel evaluated dried bonito stock as less greasy, stronger in odd taste, stronger in fishy flavor, less well-balanced taste, and less preferable to chicken bouillon.