Currently, almost 90% of the new food products that are launched disappear from the market within one year. One of the main reasons for this high failure rate is the underestimation of the role that situational factors play in food choice. Consumer tests are often carried out without taking the particular situations and the related experiences into account.

Testing of consumer preferences is primarily done in food laboratories that offer a highly controlled testing environment.

The results of these tests cannot be generalized easily to other less controlled testing environments. The gap between laboratory and real-life situations is currently bridged by studies that use typical marketing and marketing research techniques such as interviews and questionnaires. The major drawback of these techniques is that they address the consumer’s conscious food choice and food habits whereas food choice and food habits are primarily driven by unconscious processes.

Restaurant of the Future
Food scientists agree that a new approach to research is needed and that it is necessary to study unconscious consumer behavior. This has led to the design and construction of a highly advanced facility for research on food-related behavior in an indoor setting: the 'Restaurant of the Future'  in Wageningen. The restaurant offers a flexible eating environment in which food choice and eating behavior can be observed under natural conditions with the help of state-of-the-art observation and sensor technology.
Obviously, not all eating environments can be created or simulated in the Restaurant of the Future. Examples are settings such as daycare centers, elderly homes, or events for teenagers (pop festivals, dance parties, etc.).  

 
Mobile lab
The ICE project takes the concept of situational research a major step further by designing a mobile sensory observation laboratory to study food selection and consumption in real-life contexts and a suite of corresponding rapid research services for the food and nutrition industry. In addition to behavioral observations, monitoring the physiological and emotional state of the consumer will be part of the service.