Okay, fess up, who out there has tried dog food or a dog treat?
A study done by the American Assn. of Wine Economists found that in a blind taste test most participants couldn’t distinguish between dog food and human food.
Researchers provided 18 volunteers five food samples to try in a blind taste test. Only three were able to identify the canine fodder.
“We have this idea in our head that dog food won’t taste good and that we would be able to identify it, but it turns out that is not the case,” said Robin Goldstein, a co-author of the study that is expected to be published online today.
Goldstein said the tasting demonstrated that “context plays a huge role in taste and value judgment,” even though researchers warned the participants that one of the five foods they were going to taste was dog food.
The five samples came from a wide price range and were processed to have a similar consistency. The foods were duck liver mousse, pork liver pt, two imitation pts — pureed liverwurst and Spam — and Newman’s Own dog food.
Eight participants believed the liverwurst was the dog food, and four thought the Spam was the culprit.
Two people identified the high-end pt as dog food, and one identified the duck liver mousse as dog food.
Strangely, while most participants couldn’t pick out the dog food 72% chose the dog food as the worst tasting pate.
Most interesting to me was the fact this study was done by the American Assn. of Wine Economists. I’d be a little wary of eating the hors d’ouevers served at any of their seminars.
