1. Introduction
The aging of population is accelerating worldwide, creating a great challenge for societal health care systems [
1]. Sufficient intake of a variety of dietary nutrients is required to promote active and healthy aging [
2,
3,
4]. Protein is an essential nutrient to maintain muscle mass and strength during aging. Inadequate protein intake is associated with functional problems such as sarcopenia, which is the age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass, leading to functional decline or even a reduction in independence among 30% of individuals aged above 60 [
5,
6,
7,
8]. It has been repeatedly shown that physical exercise and adequate high-quality protein intake throughout the day are two of the most potent stimulators for counteracting the sarcopenic process [
5,
8,
9,
10]. Given this background, developing and commercializing appealing protein-enriched foods is a way by which the food industry can assist senior consumers in meeting their nutritional needs [
11].
High-quality proteins, e.g., soy-based protein and milk-based whey protein, are popular protein supplements to sufficiently support muscle protein synthesis and accretion, since they are all nutritionally complete, highly digestible proteins with high contents and good composition of essential amino acids [
12,
13]. Consumption of foods enriched with high-quality proteins may not only increase the quantity of protein intake but also potentially improve the quality of protein in the consumer diet through e.g., modifying the amino acid composition of meals. However, the addition of different proteins alters sensory properties of food carriers in different ways, which might lead to reduced palatability for some products or be advantageous for some other products [
11,
14]. Wendin et al. [
11] found that whey protein-fortified muffins were high in bitter taste and astringency mouthfeel and were perceived as very dry in texture. Höglund et al. [
14] reported that off flavors were detected for muffins with extra whey protein. Tang and Liu [
15] found that the addition of whey protein disrupted the gluten structure of wheat dough and affected cookie texture negatively. On the contrary, soy protein conferred a protective network on partial gluten structure which increased the overall acceptability of the cookies. Soy protein addition to gluten-free bread caused higher crumb hardness, while whey protein-fortified bread had higher crumb porosity [
16]. In this context, to develop appealing protein-enriched products, exploring strategies to counteract the disadvantageous sensory influences of protein enrichment is a crucial task.
Moreover, selecting appropriate food carriers based on the “voice of target consumers” is of great importance for successful innovation of protein-enriched products. It was found that most older consumers perceived the healthy, traditional meal component food carriers as most appropriate for protein-enrichment, which they were most willing to trial purchase as well [
17,
18]. In the present study, rye bread and cream cheese were chosen for fortification with protein powder, since both rye bread and cream cheese are healthy, traditional foods in Denmark which play an important role in the diet of older Danish adults. Rye bread is one of the most commonly consumed staple foods on a daily basis, especially during breakfast and lunch, primarily among Danish adults. Cream cheese can be combined with meals and a variety of snacks. Through consumption of protein-enriched rye bread and cream cheese, senior consumers could gain a substantial increase in protein intake throughout the day without changing diet habits and meal frequency or size.
When developing protein-enriched food items for senior citizens, acceptability, which is normally measured in terms of product liking, is of great importance. The correlation between consumer liking and sensory properties could provide developers with a better understanding of product performance and optimization [
19]. Consumer acceptance is assumed to be an indicator for prospective purchase intentions and intake as well [
19,
20]. Furthermore, product-evoked emotions and terms reflecting consumption desire and product satisfaction could be additional measures providing information on how the senior citizen would engage in consuming the product. For instance, product satisfaction could reflect the “confirmation” or “disconfirmation” between consumer expectation and actual food liking, which might influence the final acceptance due to the contrast effect [
21]. Food-evoked desire might affect the subsequent food intake [
20]. When developing nutrient-enriched products, such parameters may provide additional information beyond liking [
19,
20,
21,
22,
23,
24].
This study aims to: (1) compare the effects of whey protein hydrolysate (WPH), whey protein isolate (WPI), and/or soy protein isolate (SPI) enrichment on the sensory attributes of rye bread and cream cheese; and (2) develop protein-enriched rye bread and cream cheese with moderately high protein content and appealing sensory properties. Additionally, older consumers’ liking and product-evoked emotion attributes, including satisfaction and desire, were evaluated to obtain a perspective on consumer experience and engagement in consuming the products.
3. Results
3.1. Sensory Descriptive Analysis of Rye Bread
Table 2 presents the list of the 29 sensory attributes of rye bread assessed by 10 trained panelists in four replicate sessions. The attributes covered the odor, appearance, mouthfeel, texture, flavor, taste, and the after-taste of crumbs and crust. From an ANOVA analysis of the sensory data, it was found that all attributes, apart from the crumb’s beany flavor, grainy flavor, salty taste, and bitter taste, were significantly different (
p < 0.05) across the rye bread samples tested. This indicated that most of the sensory attributes were useful in characterizing differences across bread samples. Attributes which were not significantly different among rye bread prototypes were not included in further PCA analysis.
The relationship between rye bread samples and significant sensory attributes were visualized by principal component analysis (PCA).
Figure 2 presents the PCA bi-plot of sensory attributes for all 15 rye bread samples. The first two principal components (PCs) accounted for 72% of the total variance (46% for PC1, 26% for PC2). PC1 separated the bread samples mainly according to yeasty odor, the crumb’s compact appearance, and floury and sticky mouthfeel in the positive direction, and burned odor, the crumb’s porous appearance, crumbly texture, and umami taste, and the crust’s brown appearance, hard texture, and bitter after-taste in the negative direction. PC2 was positively linked with the sour taste, sour after-taste, and buttermilk flavor located in the positive direction and was negatively associated with the dry texture.
The PCA bi-plot shows that the sample groups spanned the sensory space quite well (
Figure 2). WPI-enriched samples (WPI 4, WPI 7, WPI 7-T and WPI 7-TS) were closely linked to dry texture, and negatively related with astringent mouthfeel, sour taste, sour after-taste, and buttermilk flavor. WPH-enriched breads (WPH 4, WPH 7, WPH 7-T, and WPH 7-TS) were characterized by a brown and porous appearance, burned odor, crumbly and elastic texture, umami taste, and bitter after-taste. Moreover, they had a negative correlation with the attributes of yeasty odor, compact appearance, and floury mouthfeel. The three 7% SPI-enriched samples (SPI 7, SPI 7-T and SPI 7-TS) correlated with a yeasty odor, compact appearance, soft texture, and floury and sticky mouthfeel. The 4% SPI-enriched bread (SPI 4) and breads enriched by mixed proteins (WPH 4 + SPI 4 and WPI 4 + SPI 4) were characterized by sour taste, sour after-taste, buttermilk flavor, astringent mouthfeel, and soft texture. Compared with WPI and SPI, WPH-enriched samples were located much closer to the control sample, which demonstrated that WPH enrichment altered the sensory properties of rye bread to a smaller extent. Thus, WPH could be regarded as a more appropriate protein type for enrichment in rye bread in this study.
To compare the effects of different protein types on bread sensory characters, it was found that most WPH-enriched samples were located close to burned odor and brown appearance, which could be explained by the enhanced Maillard reactions because of the addition of WPH [
32]. Moreover, the three 7% WPI-enriched breads had a less soft and drier texture. The textures of WPH 7 and WPH 7-T were more crumbly, hard, and elastic. Furthermore, compared to the remaining samples, the four WPH -enriched rye breads had higher umami taste and bitter after-taste, which is in line with prior research [
32,
33,
34]. Crumbs of the three 7% SPI-enriched breads appeared more compact and less porous, and had more floury and sticky mouthfeel and less crumbly texture- (
Figure 2).
In terms of influences from taste and texture modification strategies, it was found that compared with WPH 7 and WPH 7-T, sample WPH 7-TS was located much closer to the control sample. This indicated that the taste and texture modification strategies (addition of gluten and sourdough) reached positive effects in counteracting adverse sensory changes caused by the WPH-enrichment. The enrichment of higher percentage of all three kinds of proteins decreased the buttermilk flavor and sour taste, which could be explained by the increased pH value due to protein enrichment. The control sample had pH value of 4.0, while the average pH values of SPI 7, WPI 7, and WPH 7 were 4.6, 4.8, and 4.8 (data not shown), respectively. The addition of dried sourdough adjusted the sour taste in samples SPI 7-TS, WPI 7-TS, and WPH 7-TS so that they had a sour taste intensity closer to that of the control sample.
Moreover, it could be observed that whey protein and soy protein had opposing influences on the texture characters of rye bread. It was found that the addition of 4% SPI to 4% WPI or 4% WPH-enriched rye bread reduced the crumbly texture and increased the soft texture successfully. Enrichment with the blend of WPI/WPH and SPI not only counteracted each other’s effects on bread texture but also resulted in an increase in the total amount of additional protein.
In summary, texture and taste modification strategies had positive effects in counteracting negative sensory changes caused by the protein-enrichment, especially in correcting the crumbly texture, compact appearance, floury mouthfeel, and/or sour taste of breads enriched with the higher percentage of proteins. WPH was found to be the most appropriate ingredient for rye bread enrichment. The 7% WPH-enriched, texture and taste-modified rye bread sample (WPH 7-TS) was the optimal sample, showing little sensory difference with respect to the non-enriched control bread.
3.2. Consumer Liking of Rye Bread
In total, six bread samples (control, WPH 7-TS, WPH 7, WPI 7, SPI 7, WPH 4 + SPI 4) were chosen for consumer evaluation based on the results of sensory descriptive analysis. The sensory space spanned by the 15 rye bread samples (
Figure 2) was well-represented by the six bread samples selected for the consumer acceptance test. The average ratings of consumer overall liking of rye breads are shown in
Table 5. Consumers who were homogenous in their acceptance towards different rye bread samples were grouped through agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC).
Figure 3 represents the external preference mapping to demonstrate the correlation between sensory attributes and the overall liking of different consumer clusters, with average sensory data as the explanatory variables (X) and mean liking ratings of three consumer clusters as responses (Y). The mean liking ratings of consumer clusters are also shown in
Table 5.
Table 5 showed that the average overall liking ratings of each bread sample ranged from 5.5 to 6.5. Significant differences (
p < 0.05) of consumer overall liking were found across the sample of six rye breads. WPH 7-TS rye bread (6.0) and WPH 4 + SPI 4 (5.9) were the most accepted protein-enriched samples, amongst which WPH 7-TS showed no significant difference in terms of consumer acceptance compared to the control bread (
p > 0.05). Moreover, the taste and texture modification of WPH 7-TS increased consumer liking by 0.4 units compared to WPH 7 (5.6). SPI 7 and WPI 7 were the least preferred rye bread samples, with significantly lower liking ratings compared to the other four samples (
p < 0.05).
The external preference mapping plots are presented in
Figure 3. AHC identified three consumer clusters representing different patterns of product liking. In cluster 1, 24% of the consumers were located relatively close to the WPH 4 + SPI 4 and control samples, which had significantly higher overall liking ratings (6.3 and 6.7, respectively) as compared to the remaining four samples in cluster 1. The attributes sour taste, soft texture, and sticky mouthfeel which characterized the control and WPH 4 + SPI 4 appeared to influence the consumer liking of cluster 1 positively. WPH 7 and WPH 7-TS, with hard, crumbly, and elastic textures were the least liked in cluster 1. Cluster 2 (50%) liked the control sample (6.8) the most, which was characterized by sour taste, sour after-taste, and a sour-related buttermilk flavor. Cluster 2 showed the least preference towards sample WPI 7 (4.7), which had a dry texture. Consumers of clusters 1 and 2 (74%) could be regarded as ‘sour rye bread lovers’. Consumers in cluster 3 (26%) liked sample WPH 7-TS (6.6) the most and sample SPI 7 (4.4) the least. It appeared that they were attracted by WPH 7-TS with its brown (crust) and porous appearance, burned odor, crumbly and hard (crust) texture, and umami and bitter after-taste, and disliked SPI 7, with its yeasty odor and compact appearance. Thus, it seems that the sourness levels and texture and mouthfeel properties of rye bread might play important roles in influencing the liking of most consumers. Demographic characters were compared across three clusters as well and no significant differences were found. The mean rating of consumers’ willingness to trial purchase protein-enriched rye bread was very high (4.0 on the 5-point Likert scale).
3.3. Sensory Descriptive Analysis of Cream Cheese
Table 4 shows the list of the descriptive sensory attributes of cream cheese assessed by the nine trained panelists in triplicate. The attributes characterized the odor, appearance, mouthfeel, texture, flavor, taste, and after-taste aspects of cream cheese. The attributes meltdown rate, coating mouthfeel, astringent mouthfeel, egg yolk flavor, and salty, sweet, and umami tastes were not significant in discriminating cheese products (
p > 0.05), and thus were excluded in further PCA and PREFMAP analyses. Cheese prototypes enriched with SPI were not included in the sensory descriptive analysis due to their poor sensory performance compared with WPI- and WPH-enriched samples.
Figure 4 shows the PCA bi-plot of sensory attributes for five cream cheese samples. The first principal component accounted for 59% of the total variance, while the second principal component explained 32% of the total variance. The first two PCs explained 91% of the total variance. The non-enriched control sample is loaded in the fourth quadrant. It was characterized by buttermilk flavor, sour taste, and firm and viscous texture, and was negatively linked with a yellow and glossy appearance. The 9% WPI-enriched, butter-added sample (WPI 9-TS) is loaded in the first quadrant and was closely correlated with fatty, creamy, and fresh cheesy flavors. WPI 9 was associated with smooth texture, yellow appearance, and glossy appearance in the second quadrant. The two samples enriched by 9% WPH (WPH 9 and WPH 9-TS) are located most closely to the less-desired rancid flavor, bitter taste, and bitter after-taste in the third quadrant. All protein-enriched samples, except WPI 9-TS, are loaded in the left side of the map.
The increased glossiness of cheese samples due to protein enrichment could be explained by the texture changes: increased smoothness and decreased firmness and viscosity. Some panelists used
watery to describe the surface of protein-enriched cream cheese during the profiling session. The decreased firmness and viscosity might be due to the effects of whey protein on the oil/water emulsion, which led to a decreased extent of partial coalescence and increased extent of fat destabilization [
35]. The increased yellowness of protein and/or butter-enriched cheese might be explained by the light-yellow color of dissolved protein powder and/or the higher fat content and larger fat droplets of the cheese [
36]. The bitter taste and rancid flavor in WPH-enriched samples could be explained mainly by bitter peptides and some off-flavor compounds in WPH, respectively [
37]. Moreover, in contrast to rye bread, the addition of WPH had no significant influence on the umami taste, which could be because the cheesy and creamy flavor masked the umami taste to a large extent. Regarding the taste and texture modification, it appeared that addition of 10% butter in the WPI 9-TS sample helped with the improvement of flavor [
36] but not enough to counteract the softening texture effect from protein fortification completely.
In summary, WPI was more adequate for use in cream cheese enrichment when texture and taste treatment was applied, as compared to WPH. The texture and taste modification strategy achieved positive effects in enhancing pleasant flavors in cream cheese.
3.4. Consumer Liking of Cream Cheese
The average ratings of consumer liking are shown in
Table 6. For a better understanding of consumer preference, agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) was conducted for a group consumers with a similar acceptance towards different cheese samples. The mean liking ratings per cluster are also shown in
Table 6. The external preference mapping plots are presented in
Figure 5, which allows a visual representation of the association between cheese samples, sensory attributes, and consumer liking of each cluster.
In
Table 6, significant differences (
p < 0.05) in overall consumer liking were found among the five cheese samples. Acceptance of WPI 9-TS and the control sample was significantly higher than the two WPH-enriched samples (
p < 0.05). Sample WPI 9-TS was the most liked protein-enriched sample. Besides, acceptance values of WPI 9-TS (6.9) and control sample (6.3) were not significantly different (
p > 0.05). Compared to cheese enriched with 9% WPI (6.1), the addition of butter in WPI 9-TS successfully enhanced the flavor and increased consumer liking significantly (
p < 0.05).
The external preference mapping plots of cream cheese are presented in
Figure 5. Agglomerative hierarchical clustering identified three consumer clusters. Cluster 1 was the largest group, accounting for 68% of total consumers. This cluster was located in the first quadrant and consumers most liked WPI 9-TS (7.2) characterized by a fatty, creamy and fresh cheesy flavor and butter odor. WPH 9 (5.1), with a rancid flavor and bitter taste, was liked the least by consumer cluster 1. Cluster 2 (24%) expressed the highest liking towards the control sample (7.1) characterized by firmness, viscosity, and a buttermilk flavor, and lowest liking ratings were for WPH 9-TS (5.5), with a bitter taste and rancid flavor, and WPI 9 (5.8), with a yellow and glossy appearance. Cluster 3 (8%) was a small cluster characterized by consumers who liked WPH 9-TS, with a bitter taste, bitter after-taste, and rancid flavor. This might be because a small percentage of older adults may not be sensitive to bitter taste [
38]. Demographic data were compared across three clusters, but no significant differences were found. Consumers had moderately high willingness (rated 3.6 on the 5-point scale) towards consumption of protein-enriched cream cheese in general.
The bitter taste and rancid flavor of WPH restricted its application in cream cheese. WPI-enriched cream cheese with additional butter was regarded as the most promising prototype for its outstanding performance in both sensory and consumer liking evaluations.
3.5. Product-Evoked Emotions
The penalty lift analysis [
28,
29,
30,
31] was performed to demonstrate the extent that product-evoked emotions affected consumer liking acquisition. All emotion words were applied by more than 20% of consumers; thus, all were included in the analysis [
28].
Figure 6 shows the results of penalty-lift analysis of rye bread and cream cheese-evoked emotion data. The elicited positive emotions led to increased consumer liking, and negative emotions indicated reductions of consumer liking, which was in line with former research [
31].
Satisfaction and disappointment represent the gap between consumers’ expected liking and experienced liking. The degree of satisfaction indicates the extent that experienced liking goes beyond expectations, while disappointment means the experienced liking does not meet with consumer expectations. Lower expectation and higher experienced liking result in higher satisfaction and lower disappointment. In this study, the liking ratings of satisfied consumers were 0.7 unit and 1.4 units higher than all consumers’ average liking ratings of rye bread and cheese, respectively. Disappointment was the most detrimental emotion for liking acquisition of both food matrixes, which reduced the liking ratings for rye bread and cream cheese by 0.7 units and 0.9 units, respectively.
To further investigate the discrimination power of emotions across six rye bread samples and five cream cheese samples, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was also performed on the ratings of emotion descriptors. Results indicated that satisfied, happy, and disappointed performed significantly better in discriminating rye bread samples (p < 0.05), whilst satisfied, pleasant, and disappointed went beyond the remaining emotions for discriminating cheese samples (p < 0.05).
Moreover, it should be noted that consumers checked desire for cream cheese much more frequently (63%) than rye bread samples (41%). This might be because high-fat foods usually stimulate higher desire to eat and high-fiber and carbohydrate foods often evoke lower consumption desire [
39]. The degree of desire often affects the subsequent food intake [
20]. To design protein-enriched meals which could stimulate stronger desire and more subsequent food intake, a combination of high-fat foods with high-fiber and carbohydrate foods could be a good option.
In summary, for the two food matrixes, the satisfaction-related emotions satisfied and disappointed were among the most influential emotions on both product liking and discrimination among older consumers. Furthermore, besides experienced liking, desire and satisfaction/disappointment could be useful measurements to indicate prospective food intake, which may guide the design of protein-enriched dishes and meals [
24].
4. Discussion
In this study, we explored the sensory and consumer acceptance changes caused by enriching rye bread and cream cheese with whey protein hydrolysate (WPH), whey protein isolate (WPI), and/or soy protein isolate (SPI). Descriptive analysis results showed that different proteins had various influences on the sensory performance of the two food matrices. Consumers with homogenous acceptance towards rye bread and cream cheese were grouped into their respective clusters. The sensory attributes driving the liking of each consumer cluster were demonstrated.
WPH enrichment led to higher bitter after-taste in rye bread, mainly due to the increased Maillard reaction and content of bitter peptides [
30,
34]. However, PREFMAP of rye bread showed that bitterness seems had no negative effect on the acceptance of most consumers; a small group of consumers even appeared to be attracted by the bitterness of rye breads. This might be because bitter taste is a typical sensory character in rye bread [
40]; even though WPH increased bitter after-taste to some extent, the intensity was not beyond the accepted level among senior consumers. Moreover, the sour taste and sour-related flavor seem to be important in affecting the acceptance among most consumers, which explained the high liking towards WPH 7-TS. It was also noted that WPH increased the umami taste, which might be elicited from the free amino acids released during the hydrolysis of protein [
41,
42]. This could have advantageous effects in food matrices requiring an umami taste, e.g., a variety of soups and sausages. Regarding the texture changes caused by WPH- and WPI-enrichment, the increased hardness and elasticity could be explained by the heat-induced aggregation of whey protein [
43,
44]. The foaming property of whey protein may lead to the porous appearance, larger volume, and crumbly texture [
45]. The high water-binding capacity of whey protein might be the reason which increases the perceived dryness during mastication [
11].
Isolated protein (WPI and SPI)-enriched rye breads had a lower bitter taste compared to WPH. However, the texture and/or mouthfeel of WPI and SPI-enriched breads restricted their application in rye breads. The dry texture among WPI-enriched breads might be the major problem that led to the breads being disliked by at least half of the consumers. SPI enrichment increased the stickiness, floury mouthfeel, and compactness of rye breads, which appeared to decrease the acceptance of more than half the consumers. The sensory changes caused by SPI might be because the soy protein conferred a protective network on partial gluten structure which increased the dense and sticky texture of the dough and bread [
15,
46]. Enrichment with the blend of WPI/WPH and SPI counteracted each other’s effects on rye bread texture and contributed to consumer liking.
In contrast to rye breads, when applying WPH in cream cheese, the increased bitter taste and rancid flavor appeared to reduce consumer acceptance significantly. WPI was regarded as more proper for cream cheese enrichment when additional butter was added for flavor enhancement. The flavor advantage of WPI 9-TS cream cheese might be the major reason explaining its higher liking rating.
The sour taste seems dominate consumer liking in rye breads. More diversity was found in consumer liking towards bread texture/mouthfeel. At least half consumers disliked WPI 7 with dry texture; a quarter of the consumers liked WPH samples characterized by a crumbly texture. The remaining one-quarter of consumers appeared to be attracted by WPH 4 + SPI 4 with sticky mouthfeel and soft texture to some extent. For cream cheese, the liking of most consumers (68%) seems to be mainly affected by the odor and the flavor dimension, which led to the high liking of WPI 9-TS cheese. The liking of the remaining consumers appeared to be dominated by appearance, texture, and flavor aspects, amongst which the viscosity, firmness, and buttermilk flavor which characterized the control sample attracted the most consumers in this group. Compared to cream cheese, the variety in texture preferences towards rye breads could be due to the texture complexity of the products. Moreover, individual differences in the ability or preferred way to manipulate food in their mouth could also contribute to the diversity in texture preference, as shown in a recent study on texture mouth behavior [
47].
The palatability of protein-enriched foods largely depends on the protein-carrier ‘fitness’. A precise selection of protein type and food carrier which could inhibit or even benefit from the sensory impacts caused by protein enrichment plays a vital role in developing appealing protein-enriched products. From a sensory point of view, in some cases, the mild flavor and taste of WPI made it more proper for protein-enrichment, as compared to WPH [
48]. However, from a nutrition point of view, the nutritional value of WPH is relatively higher due to its higher digestibility and absorptivity than WPI [
12,
13], which makes it worthwhile to put efforts into broadening the use of protein hydrolysate through modifying its production and processing or identifying masking agents in order to improve its sensory quality [
34,
42,
48].
However, the quality of protein ingredients used for enrichment, such as the digestion and absorption rate and amino acid compositions, might be partly affected by the production process of enriched foods. The potential quality changes may further influence the enriched foods’ contribution to muscle protein synthesis. Evaluations on the protein quality of enriched foods and clinical trials on the biological utilization of protein-enriched foods might be needed in future studies.
In this study, screened trained panelists aged 23–49 years were used in the sensory descriptive analysis, and provided reliable and clear characterizations of prototypes. The use of older panelists of a similar age to the target consumers as part of the trained panel was considered, however, descriptive analysis with older panels may introduce more noise in characterizing products due to their highly heterogeneous sensitivity [
38]. More investigations regarding the proper use of older panels are needed. With increasing age, adults are more receptive to functional foods because of their increased health considerations, especially in the prevention of chronic diseases [
49]. In this context, appealing protein-enriched functional products hold a bright future in the market of older consumers. Older consumers had high prospective willingness towards consumption of protein-enriched rye bread and cream cheese in this study. However, besides ‘good taste’, there are a number of drivers and obstacles for consumption of protein-enriched foods. A better understanding of motivators for consumption of protein-enriched products among target consumers could help the promotion of protein intake.
In the present study, a lab-based consumer acceptance test was conducted to obtain a general perspective on how consumers accept the products. To evaluate consumer acceptance of protein-enriched foods or meals in real life, contextual aspects could be considered and included for exploration in future consumer studies to strengthen the predictive power of the results [
50].
The most preferred enriched prototypes of the two food matrices had twice amount of protein as compared to non-enriched controls. Per slice, the WPH 7-TS bread contained 7.0 g protein, which was 4.0 g more than the non-enriched control bread (
Table 1). Each serving of WPI 9-TS cream cheese contained 2.9 g protein, 1.8 g more than the control cheese (
Table 3). Assuming that older adults could consume two to three slices of bread combined with two to three servings of cream cheese in one meal, the protein intake could increase by 11.6–17.4 g/meal due to protein-enrichment, achieving 19.8–29.7 g/meal in total, which is close to the dietary recommendation for older adults (25–30 g/meal) [
8]. However, to evaluate the increase of protein intake through consumption of protein-enriched foods in real life, further studies are needed to investigate the effects of protein-enrichment on food intake and satiety in target older consumers [
51].