3.3.5. Smoked Blue Jack Mackerel Pâté

Most of the consumers who performed the hedonic testes for smoked blue jack mackerel pâté were women (70%), and 53% were aged between 31 and 45 (Figure 10b,c, respectively). Overall, this product was very well accepted by consumers. Regarding general appearance and odor, these descriptors were mostly classified as "pleasant" (39% and 42%, respectively) (Figure 10a). Color, flavor, texture, and global appreciation were considered by consumers as "very pleasant" attributes for this product (38%, 38%, 38%, and 46%, respectively) (Figure 10a). If the product was on sale in the market, most consumers indicated that they would probably or definitely buy it (47% and 29%, respectively) (Figure 10d).

After the validation of the sample adequation (KMO = 0.795, Bartlett, *p*-value = 0.000), the results revealed that smoked blue jack mackerel pâté texture, global appreciation, appearance, color, and flavor were correlated with each other, characterizing the first factor that explained 61.23% of the data variability and was labelled as "touch, taste, sight, and overall sensory experience" (Figure 11, Table 9). The second factor, which explained 13.19% of the data variability, was characterized by odor and was labelled as "smell" (Figure 11, Table 9). Odor clearly differentiated itself from the other descriptors, assuming a differentiation role in smoked blue jack mackerel pâté (Figure 11). Therefore, these two groups were the ones that differentiated the product, although they did not have opposite behaviors (Figure 11). Consumers who classified texture with higher values also did so for global appreciation, appearance, color, and flavor, with these being the descriptors with most importance for consumers (Figure 11). Odor followed as the second most important descriptor, as it was the descriptor that most contributed for the second axis characterization

and as such was responsible for another large part of the data variability (Figure 11). As mentioned for the remaining products with the exception of black seabream ceviche, odor revealed no association with other descriptors (Figure 11). In the case of the pâté, such a null association was found between its texture, appearance, and color, revealing that its visual aspect and texture did not show any relevance in the evaluation of the olfactory experience that the pâté offered to consumers (Figure 11). All the descriptors related to each other significantly and with strong intensity (Table 5). The purchase intention was not statistically different among genders (Mann–Whitney, *p*-value > 0.05) or age ranges (Kruskal–Wallis, *p*-value > 0.05).

**Figure 10.** Results from the smoked blue jack mackerel pâté consumer acceptance survey: (**a**) sensorial evaluation (product's general appearance, colour, odour, flavour, texture and global appreciation), (**b**) consumers characterisation (gender percentage), (**c**) consumers age and (**d**) buy intention (*n* = 90).

**Figure 11.** Behavior of smoked blue jack mackerel pâté descriptors, according to consumer classifications.


**Table 9.** Rotated component matrix for each smoked blue jack mackerel pâté descriptor.

Extraction method; principal component analysis; rotation method; varimax with Kaiser normalization; rotation converged in three iterations.

## 3.3.6. Global Analysis

Considering the data as a whole, most of the developed food products showed statistically significant correlations between all the descriptors under study (Table 5). These results were expected considering that the perception and evaluation of food is an inherently multisensory experience, its pleasantness being influenced by food appearance, smell, taste, oral texture, and even by the sound that it makes in the mouth when it is eaten [29]. Therefore, the flavor perception is influenced by different factors including changes in viscosity, color cues, and interaction between oral texture and both olfactory and gustatory cues [29], whereas the color evaluation is an indicator of edibility, flavor identity, and intensity [30]. Therefore, the fish products developed in the present study had high acceptability by the consumers revealing their market potential. However, besides the "food-internal stimuli," which is when flavor and taste are influenced by appearance, texture, and other descriptors, there are also "food-external stimuli" [31]. This stimulus regards health information, societal influence, and availability of certain foods that can affect liking of food products [31]. Thus, considering that consumers increasingly seek healthy food without food additives that are both quick and easy to prepare (as concluded by the initial market survey of this investigation), the products developed may offer new alternatives in addition to those existing in the market. Additionally, fishing is almost an immemorial activity on the Portuguese coast, always linked to the geographical position of Portugal and its contours, where fish has an added importance due to the gastronomic heritage of this country [32]. However, the demand on fish supply has been rising due to the rapid growth of the world's population, favoring an imbalance with the demand of fishery products [33]. Consequently, the overexploitation or depletion of the world´s fish stocks increases, revealing the need to search for available fish species underutilized in human food that can be a major source of nutrients, including lipids and fatty acids [33]. Therefore, considering our data from the hedonic evaluation of the fish products developed in the present study, these species can be an alternative to commercialized fish species. In addition, the fish species valorization would increase the fisherman's income, because fish that would be discarded on the high sea would have some commercial value. However, it must be noticed that the consumer dimension under study is not representative of the Portuguese population, and further studies on fish consumption and acceptance of reformulated products are necessary to allow the extrapolation of the data. Nonetheless, the present study provides some insight on this field and can be a valuable contribution for further studies on new fish product development and the characterization of fish consumption in the center of Portugal.

#### **4. Conclusions**

The present study allowed us to achieve great findings on interviewees' habits of fish consumption, as well as their marine sustainability conscience, namely on underexploited and underutilized fish valorization and the main attributes for their consumption. According to the initial survey data, it was also possible to understand the receptivity to new fish products, preferably frozen, ready to eat, or to be prepared in the oven, which need to be properly promoted. The knowledge on consumers' interests acquired with the data from the initial survey allowed for the development of new fish products, with the addition or substitution of the fish species under study through the reformulation of existing products that are familiar to the consumer. These products have a clean label, great acceptability, and purchase intention by the consumers. The results from hedonic tests revealed their potential application by companies to increase their revenue due to low or absent commercial value of discarded fish species. In fact, consumer evaluation revealed that they probably would buy all the developed products, with their global appreciation classified mainly as "very pleasant," except for the dehydrated piper gurnard, which was classified as "pleasant." In addition, the consumers favored the texture and flavor of the black seabream ceviche and dehydrated piper gurnard, with the addition of color for the comber pastries. The flavor and color of the fried boarfish were the most important features for consumers, with the addition of texture and appearance in the smoked blue jack mackerel pâté. Therefore, considering all our data and the need to avoid fish overexploitation, the species in this study revealed to be a great alternative to commercialized species commonly used in fish products. However, more research is needed to study Portuguese fish consumption, as well as their opinion about the inclusion of unexploited fish in their diet.

As future perspectives, it is intended to study and extend the shelf-life of the developed products through appropriate and sustainable packaging and maintaining the clean label.

**Author Contributions:** F.S., A.M.D., S.M., P.B. and M.M.G. contributed to the conceptualization and experimental design of the study; F.S. and A.M.D. undertook the study (investigation); F.S. and S.M. conducted the formal data analysis and presentation of the data; V.S., A.R.V., A.N., L.S.G., and E.M. contributed to sample collection; F.S. and A.M.D. wrote the original manuscript draft; reviews and editing of the completed manuscript were conducted by F.R.P., S.B., A.N., V.S., A.R.V., M.F.M., R.R., C.A., L.S.G., S.M., and M.M.G.; and project administration was the responsibility of M.M.G. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** The authors are very grateful to the FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) for the financial support of this work through the project UID/MAR/04292/2020, attributed to MARE-Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Portugal. A.R.V and V.S. were supported by the FCT through CEECIND/01528/2017 and CEECIND/02705/2017, respectively. This work was also partially funded by the Integrated Programme of SR&TD "SmartBioR" (reference Centro-01-0145-FEDER-000018), cofunded by the Centro 2020 program, Portugal2020, European Union, through the European Regional Development Fund, and by project VALOREJET (16-01-03-FMP-0003), Operational Program Mar 2020, Portugal.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **References**

