16The impact of hedonic evaluation on the expected consumers' preferences towards beef attributes 17 including its enrichment with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PFA) was evaluated. Six hundred and

1Application of the Analytical Hierarchy Process to evaluate consumer acceptance and preferences for omega-3 enriched eggs. Structured abstract PurposeThis paper analyses the appropriateness of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to measure consumers' acceptance and preference for eggs enriched with omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids as a health claim and to compare its results with the traditional 9-point hedonic scale. Design/methodology/approachThe AHP was used as a multi-criteria decision analysis. Data were obtained from a face-to-face questionnaire completed by 122 consumers in a controlled environment in Cataluña (Spain). FindingsResults showed the capacity of the AHP to analyse consumers' acceptance andpreferences. An agreement between the AHP and the 9-point scale was found showing that n-3 enriched eggs had lower flavour acceptance, conventional eggs had higher yolk colour acceptance, and conventional and the free-range eggs had similar and higher odour acceptance than the other egg types. The most important attributes that determine preferences for egg purchase were the type and the egg price followed by the origin and the egg size. Research limitations/implicationsThe AHP approach seems to be a reliable tool to evaluate consumers' hedonic preferences. However, further testing on other food products with larger sample size is needed. Originality/valueThe AHP methodology has been widely used in many fields in the last decades, but to our knowledge, not in the sensory field. In the Spanish market, studies that analyse consumers' preferences and acceptance of eggs are scarce, and new insights are needed particularly regarding n-3 enriched eggs.

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