Is It Pâté or Dog Food?

By Alex in Food & Drink on May 2, 2009 at 3:06 am

Can people tell the difference? Not necessarily, according to a new study by Robin Goldstein of the American Association of Wine Economists and colleagues:

Researchers provided 18 volunteers five food samples to try in a blind taste test. Only three were able to identify the canine fodder. [...]

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 pâté, two imitation pâtés — 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 pâté as dog food, and one identified the duck liver mousse as dog food.

Link

Tags: dog food, liverwurst, Pâté, spam, taste test

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Alexander
May 2nd, 2009 at 3:24 am
The concept is fascinating, but 18 people? That’s not a study, that’s a joke. Whether a real study wolud bear these interesting results out is one thing, but nothing so small should be considered factual.
Evilbeagle
May 2nd, 2009 at 3:56 am
I agree with Alexander. And of those 18 people, how familiar were they with the taste of dog food that they could make a distinction? How familiar were they with pate? I don’t know what dog food tastes like to say that anything I eat tastes like it. Though honestly, if dog food tastes like pate, then my dogs really have it made.
BikerRay
May 2nd, 2009 at 5:24 am
Many years ago a friend of my dad’s passed out dog food on crackers at a party and nobody complained. Pâté, like a lot of other trendy foods (caviar, snails) has never impressed me.
Miss Cellania
May 2nd, 2009 at 7:14 am
Pureed liver? Dog food? I’ve never eaten either, but the thought disgusts me. I probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, either.
mu
May 2nd, 2009 at 10:12 am
Pâté is what you make with all the left over bits of food that you can’t use for anything else; soups are another common alternative use for the crap that you can’t do anything else with. The stuff that isn’t even good enough for pâté gets turned into pet food. It shouldn’t be that surprising if people can’t tell the difference.
emily m.
May 2nd, 2009 at 10:46 am
grey gardens, anyone?
Kalel
May 2nd, 2009 at 1:21 pm
I’m going to all the wrong parties.
Thomas
May 2nd, 2009 at 8:57 pm
So what you’re saying is that dog food is a delicacy now?
Kathy
May 2nd, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Did they know ahead of time they might be eating dog food? I can’t imagine willingly eating dog food.
Alex
May 2nd, 2009 at 11:26 pm
@Kathy – they were told that one of the food was dog food
Evilbeagle
May 3rd, 2009 at 5:55 am
The only reason I don’t generally buy pate is because then I will make a meal out of pate and crackers instead of having a normal lunch.
ThEgg
May 3rd, 2009 at 1:21 pm
If these people regularly ate Pate, these are strange results. I eat pate quite a bit and I don’t think I’d be fooled. But then again, I’ve never had dog food so I might be in for a surprise, haha.

Pate + crackers or bread is a meal in itself for me.

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