2.2.1. Beef Trial

Individual beef steaks of 2.54 cm thickness were cut from the M. longissimus lumborum. Each beef steak was vacuum-packaged and stored at −20 ◦C until analysis. The steaks were placed in a refrigerator to thaw 24 h prior to sensory analysis. One hour prior to cooking, the steaks were taken from the refrigerator and removed from the vacuum bag. Steaks were cooked on a Velox grill using minimal cooking oil and no seasoning, until an internal temperature of 71 ◦C was reached [22]. Each steak was removed from the grill, allowed to rest for 2 min, wrapped in aluminium foil and labelled with a random threedigit code. Each steak was cut into two equal-sized portions and presented monadically to participants in two different environments: a traditional sensory booth and a virtual reality restaurant. The presentation order of the environmental context was completely balanced across participants (i.e., 15 participants assessed the beef in the traditional booth first, and 15 in the virtual reality restaurant first). Participants were instructed to evaluate the meat for liking in terms of smell, tenderness, juiciness, beef flavour, and overall liking on a 9-point hedonic scale, where 1 = dislike extremely and 9 = like extremely. In an effort to retain the level of immersion in the virtual reality condition, participants provided answers to the questions verbally in all conditions, and the data was immediately recorded by the researchers via Compusense Cloud® (West Guelph, ON, Canada). All participants were familiarised with the questionnaire design and testing procedure prior to starting the trial and were instructed on how to wear and use the VR headsets. Beef samples were served to participants after they were wearing the HMD device, and researchers were available to assist the participants, if required. A five-minute break was enforced between each tasting condition and plain crackers (Carr's, UK) and mineral water (Evian, France) were provided as palate cleansers to avoid product carry-over effects.
