Can humans distinguish pate from dog food?

"...although human beings do not enjoy eating dog food, they are also not able to distinguish its flavor profile from other meat-based products that are intended for human consumption."

This is the conclusion of a fascinating piece from the American Association of Wine Economists. It's a double blind study asking the surveyed to distinguish between dog food and pate. The duck liver pate well outperforms the liverwurst and Spam which (among others) were offered up alongside the dog food.

I particularly enjoyed the bibliography, with titles like "Optimizing the sensory characteristics and acceptance of canned cat food: use of a human taste panel."

Now this study strikes me as similar to one brought to us by the Journal of Wine Economics titled, "Do more expensive wines taste better? Evidence from a large sample of blind tastings." The problem seems to me that the participants in the surveys are just ordinary folks, and what ordinary folks eat duck liver mousse on a regular basis (or drink expensive wines). My point is just that these products aren't aimed at most people, so why test them (and waste them) on most people?