Sensory quality and safety of taste enhancers commercialized in southern and central Benin: A stakeholder prospective

Consumers of Afitin, a traditional condiment obtained from fermented African locust bean cotyledons, recently started to notice that the product is produced by secretly incorporating soya beans in the recipe. Consequently, reputation of this condiment is declining among consumers. Through a survey of 429 stakeholders (consumers and vendors) from Central and Southern Benin, we tried to understanding why regular Afitin consumers are increasingly interested in imported manufactured taste enhancers. This study was performed in the framework of the Soya Milk and Afitin project (Prosam) funded by PAEPARD/FARA. Three forms of taste enhancers were inventoried across the twenty-three brands of commercial taste enhancers available on the Beninese market. Factors guiding the choice of a taste enhancer are essentially: taste, aroma, price and composition. Although Afitin is renowned for its supposed health benefits, the Beninese consumer of taste enhancers do not consider Afitin alone as a product which can raise food taste as well as stock cubes. They highly recommend that other natural seasoning agents are added to Afitin to generate a good commercial stock cube. Further, stakeholders recommended the assessment of the nutritional and sanitary quality of taste enhancers available on the local market and to develop an Afitin based seasoning that meet consumer needs.