French biscuit producers are willing to improve the nutritional composition of their products. The objective of this work was to determine whether it was possible while maintaining the sensory quality of the reduced product.The first study dealt with the impact of fat and sugar reduction on liking and sensory perception of 9 types of biscuits and cakes. Results show that children perceived almost no difference and liked equally the standard and the fat- and/or sugar-reduced variants for most types of biscuits. For products reduced without adding polyols, adults less liked fat- or sugar-reduced variants than standard ones mainly when they were perceived as less sweet, and to a lesser extent as less fatty and/or as different in terms of textural aspects. Furthermore, a reduction in fat content was more difficult to perceive than a reduction in sugar content. With similar levels of reduction, fat-reduced products were less disliked than sugar-reduced ones. Sugar-reduced biscuits with an addition of polyols were not disliked and some of them were not perceived as less sweet than standard biscuits.The second study was about two strategies to promote consumer acceptance for fat- or sugar-reduced products. On the one hand, some consumers were exposed almost daily to -30 % fat- or sugar-reduced biscuits. After a month of exposure, reduced variants were more appreciated than before exposure, but it was more significant for fat reduction. On the other hand, no difference of liking was observed after a month of stepwise exposure. Besides, a nutritional claim indicating the fat or sugar reduction does not seem to be efficient to increase liking for fat- or sugar-reduced biscuits and cakes
