Résumé
Consumer testing of Fufu was conducted with 300 consumers in rural and urban areas in two states of South-East Nigeria (Abia and Imo). There were slightly more women than men among the consumers interviewed (n=300):59.3%were women and 40.7% were men. Four fufu products made by the processors from varieties with different quality characteristics during the Activity 4 “Processing diagnosis” were tested. The fufu products were made from the following cassava cultivars: TMS/01/1368 (improved), TMS/01/1412 (Iimproved), Nwaocha (local variety), and TMS/98/0505(improved).These samples were evaluated by hedonic, Just About Right (JAR) and Check-All-That-Apply tests. The most liked Fufu sample was Nwaocha, Frequency of citations of each quality characteristic by all the consumers followed by TMS 98/0505 and TMS 01/1368 with a mean overall liking score close to 7 (liked moderately) for Nwaocha and 6 (like slightly) for TMS 98/0505 and TMS 01/1368 each. The least liked was the TMS 01/1412 sample with a mean overall liking score of 4.5 (neither like nor dislike). Three clusters of consumers were identified namely Nwaocha & TMS 01/1412 likers' (C1), “All likers” (C2), and 'TMS 01/1412 dislikers' (C3). The cluster C3 is composed in the majority by men from Imo state while women from Abia state constituted the main consumers of cluster 1. Majority of the consumers were satisfied with the colour of all the Fufu samples, and also with the softness of the Fufu samples except for TMS 01/1412. Stretchiness was scored JAR by more than 50% of consumers for only Nwaocha. Other varieties were characterized as 'not stretchy enough'. The sensory characteristics associated to the high quality of Fufu were stretchy”, “white”, “draw little”, “heavy weight”, “smooth”, “easy to cut”, “moderately soft”, “easy to swallow”, “no fibre/dirt/particles” while “not easy to mould”, “sticky”, “watery”, “too soft”, “dark in colour” and “offensive odour” sensory characteristics were considered as drivers of disliking.