Sensory and Consumer Acceptance Data for a Pea-Based Cheddar-Style Cheese Alternative

A 2026 study with 120 UK omnivorous participants evaluated the sensory characteristics and acceptance of a pea-based plant-based cheese prototype against commercial alternatives. The research, authored by Oonagh Markey and shared under CC BY 4.0, tested the impact of different descriptive messaging on consumer ratings. Supplementary files for the published article are provided in PDF format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing consumer hedonic ratings for plant-based cheese alternatives based on the described sensory evaluation.
• Comparing the effectiveness of Consumption/Reward versus Vegan/Sustainability messaging based on the study's Part B results.
• Investigating texture and flavor limitations in legume-based cheese prototypes as identified by the trained sensory panel.

Strengths

• Study design details are provided, including a sample size of 120 participants with demographic statistics (60.8% female, mean age 53).
• The dataset is directly linked to a peer-reviewed scientific article, providing methodological context.
• License is clearly stated as CC BY 4.0, permitting reuse with attribution.

Limitations

• The dataset is small (392.9 KB) and consists of supplementary PDF files, limiting direct computational analysis.
• Column-level documentation and raw data rows are unavailable, requiring manual extraction from documents.
• The participant pool is limited to UK omnivores, which may affect generalizability of findings.

Provenance

Source

Oonagh Markey, via figshare.

Collection Method

Data was gathered from a two-part, in-person, single-session consumer study with sensory profiling.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-22 08:59:13.

Geography

United Kingdom