Measurement properties of an assay measuring suprathreshold intensity and acceptability for chicken broth containing different amounts of sodium chloride

Abstract

It was assessed the reliability of an assay aimed at measuring the suprathreshold intensity and acceptability for chicken broth containing different amounts of sodium chloride, according to the criteria of temporal stability, among adults. Both intensity and acceptability were measured using a 9-point scale (“not salty at all” to “extremely salty” for intensity and “dislike it extremely” to “like it extremely” for acceptability). Results indicated that the intensity ratings increased gradually throughout the nine concentrations ranging from 1.7 to 7.9. The highest level of acceptability corresponds to the concentration of 255 mg of Na/100ml with a rating score of 6.3. The intensity and acceptability values varied greatly among concentration and participants. The temporal stability was assessed over a period of 7 to 15 days. There was no statistically significant difference between the two sessions for the suprathreshold and acceptability scores, regardless of the concentration. The Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) was significant for one concentration in the intensity scores (ICC = 0.54) and for 4 out of 6 concentrations of the acceptability scores, varying from 0.35 to 0.64. The test covers a range of concentrations consistent with sodium levels found in commercially available products. Due to the limited number of subjects in this study, further work is needed to better describe its measurement properties.