Food Quality and Preference最新文献

The growing concern for environmental preservation, sustainability and the well-being of producers and consumers has created demand for alternative organic products. In the context of organic product consumption, individuals may be motivated by self-care or world-care factors. This study proposes a new, adapted version of the SOR model − stimulus (S), organism (O), response (R) − to explore the acceptance of an organic coffee produced in Peru. The model used data from 570 Spanish consumers, and the analysis was carried out using partial least squares (PLS), based on variance. The findings revealed that world-care (S) significantly influences both hedonic and utilitarian attitudes (O), while self-care (S) was not found to have a significant impact on these attitudes. In addition, both hedonic and utilitarian attitudes were found to influence consumers' purchase intentions for organic coffee (R), with hedonic attitudes playing a particularly crucial role. These results carry substantial theoretical and practical implications for the fostering of a more sustainable and environmentally conscious coffee market.

With the prominence of nutrition-related health issues worldwide, functional food is supposed to be an efficient way to address this challenge by achieving its nutrition and health benefits. However, whether consumers are willing to pay (WTP) for high-nutritional value foods of this kind and what is the role of consumers’ risk preferences in their WTPs are unclear. This study employs a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to investigate the effect of risk preferences on consumers’ preferences and WTPs for functional food, focusing on four attributes of dairy products: origin, organic label, functionality and price. We also seek to understand the physiological mechanisms underlying this effect by a lab experiment using eye-tracking technology. The results show that consumers have various preferences and WTPs for different attributes of milk, but they are reluctant to pay for functional milk. Compared to consumers with low-risk preferences, consumers with high-risk preferences are more willing to purchase functional milk. The evidence from eye-tracking experiments indicates that visual attention to the attributes considered positively correlates with their consumption preference. Consumers with high-risk preferences tend to pay more attention to the functional attribute and therefore have a higher probability of purchasing functional milk. This study implies that consumers’ risk preferences should be considered when promoting consumers to purchase functional food, as different consumers have significantly distinct preferences.

To communicate sustainability or nutritional information about foods, labels are often used. Little is known whether these labels could result in biased perceptions when used simultaneously. Therefore, we conducted a 2 (Nutri-Score; no, yes) x 2 (Eco-Score; no, yes) experiment in which participants’ perceived healthiness and environmental friendliness were measured. Four different foods were used that had Nutri-Score and Eco-Scores high/high, high/low, low/high, and low/low ratings. Data was collected from an online survey of 1,061 consumers in Germany. A between-subjects design to assess the interaction effects between the Nutri-Score and the Eco-Score on four food products was implemented. The results show that the Nutri-Score and Eco-Score influence each other’s perceived healthiness and perceived environmental impact assessment of consumers. The labels may, therefore, potentially result in biased perceptions of the healthiness and environmental friendliness of certain foods.

In recent years, the severity of poor eating habits and health issues related to a poor diet has increased. Brand personality is undoubtedly essential for creating a positive evaluation of healthy foods. Prior research on food stereotypes suggests that people associate healthy foods with femininity. This study investigates the effects of gendered brand personality on healthy food brand evaluation, drawing on food stereotypes, gendered brand personality, and congruency theory. The results indicate that a feminine brand personality enhances consumer evaluation of healthier food brands more than a masculine brand personality. Combining a feminine brand personality and healthier food brands enhances the brand evaluation of healthier foods by reinforcing perceived congruence. From a theoretical perspective, this study expands the literature on brand personalities and healthy foods. From a practical perspective, this study highlights the directional aspects of brand personality construction for healthy food brands.

An increasing awareness of the importance of healthy eating prompted consumers to gather nutritional cues from various sources, often resulting in conflicting nutrition information for the same food. This can lead to unintended consequences, such as decreased consumer interest in dietary information and behaviors contrary to healthy advice, particularly when the sources are deemed highly credible by consumers.

In a series of three experiments, we aim to uncover the underlying cognitive mechanisms connected to complementary information provided by Front-of-Pack Nutritional Labels (FOPLs), exploring if conflicting nutrition information is generated when consumers integrate the labels’ information with other sources. Using olive oil as a case of products associated with conflicting nutrition information (CNI), Study 1 shows that directive labels (e.g., Nutri-Score) generate CNI when combined with either internal (i.e., pre-existing health knowledge) or external entities (i.e., knowledge from scientific information). In contrast, non-directive labels (e.g., NutrInform Battery) do not, in either condition. Study 2 explains that consumers establish a lower level of congruence between information provided by the internal entity and FOPL when the label is directive. Study 3 confirms a lower level of congruence between the information available from the external entities and FOPLs when the label type is directive, compared to non-directive. Furthermore, this diminished congruence has a negative impact on consumer attitudes and their intentions to adopt Nutritional Labels.

Overall, this research delves into the interactions among various information sources from a congruence perspective, offering actionable insights for managers and policymakers to avoid becoming entangled by conflicting information.

The emergence of Web3 technologies in the recent decade offers innovative tools and protocols that can revolutionize market research, which faces the ongoing challenges of comprehending consumer needs. One possibility is to securely store and represent personalized consumer preferences. This manuscript illustrates the application of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) as a means to present consumer preference data and deliver personalized product recommendations directly to consumers. To do this, we initiated a study involving a small group of 31 respondents who participated in the “What’s Your Whisky” survey. Their responses were transformed into unique pieces of artwork generated by an algorithm. Furthermore, whisky recommendations were derived from these survey responses and integrated into the corresponding artwork. These personalized artworks, which represent each respondent’s whisky taste preference and top whisky selection, can be minted onto a blockchain as NFTs. This process enables respondents to securely own and retain them in their digital wallets, thus creating an immutable record of their whisky taste preferences and personalized recommendations. Finally, a follow-up survey was conducted to assess the value of personalized artwork NFTs. Respondents were asked for preferences between artwork derived from their taste preferences to those with the same whisky recommendations but with randomly sourced background art. Binomial test results revealed a clear preference for artwork based on their personal affirmed that respondents favored artwork based on their personal survey responses.

Faba bean ingredients offer a key role as protein source for wide-ranging food applications, including alternatives to meat and dairy products. However, consumer acceptance is crucial for their integration into people’s diets. This study investigated consumer liking and willingness to use faba bean ingredients and identified the sensory properties that drive consumer preference. Our research involved 264 participants, each with diverse taste abilities, personal attitudes, food choice motives, dietary habits, and demographics. Participants evaluated four pastes made with faba bean ingredients and water in a sensory laboratory setting. Ratings for the liking of smell, taste, overall liking and willingness to use were collected. Additionally, participants evaluated various sensory attributes using Rate-All-That-Apply and Check-All-That-Apply methodologies. To explore the relationships between hedonics, sensory attributes, and participant characteristics, we performed L-PLS regression. Our study revealed that the liking of smell, taste, overall liking, and willingness to use were low for all ingredients, despite their distinct sensory properties. While L-PLS regression did not reveal a distinct pattern of liking, penalty-lift analysis indicated that bitterness was the primary driver of dislike. Moreover, our study identified distinct consumer groups with varying preferences for certain ingredient types. However, considering the overall low-liking scores, the practical relevance of consumer insights might be limited. Our study underscores the interplay between sensory attributes, consumer preferences, and attitudes towards faba bean ingredients. It suggests that addressing bitterness issues could be pivotal in enhancing the market prospects of faba bean ingredients and facilitating their broader acceptance as a protein source.

In the current study, we examined the value of co-creation with and for children within the context of the ideation and development of novel snack products with insects as a core ingredient. A panel of children (n = 21, M age = 9.7 years) took part in creative focus groups aimed at conceptualising flavours for insect snack balls. The three most popular concepts were further developed into prototypes. In a tasting session, with a second panel of children (n = 44, M age = 11.4 years), these prototypes were assessed and compared with three alternative snack ball flavour concepts, separately conceived by adults. Children rated the adults’ concepts significantly higher than the children’s concepts in terms of flavour liking, wanting, and overall acceptance. Children exhibited neither a higher rate of correct flavour identification for the adult concepts nor were they able to recognize whether the concepts were conceived by adults or children. We conclude that food product co-creation with and for children is feasible but does not necessarily lead to more acceptable products – at least not in the context of novel foods.

The ethical and environmental rhetoric employed by institutions and companies to foster insect-based food consumption neglects individualistic motives that can prompt consumers to buy this novel food. To fill this gap, this paper reports a study in which consumers’ hedonic and utilitarian motives and the relative consumer profiles for insect-based food consumption were investigated. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior, the study collected data from 929 participants and applied a structural equation modeling analysis to evaluate the moderating effect produced by hedonic and utilitarian motives on the intention to consume insect-based food. Based on the same dataset, then performed was a cluster analysis to define the profile of consumers according to the level of acceptance of insect-based food. The results indicated that hedonic motives have a positive impact on consumers' intention to consume insect-based food, while utilitarian-ethical and utilitarian-health motives have no and a negative impact, respectively. These findings suggest that promoting the hedonic aspects of insect-based foods would be more effective in increasing consumer acceptance than emphasizing only ethical and health utilitarian values; and they also highlight the importance of creating an emotional and experiential connection with consumers in order to improve the effectiveness of marketing efforts.

Music has the power to influence mood and food-related behaviors, including taste perception, appetite and food choices. Among the many technical variables, music tempo is one of those that seem to influence eating behavior the most, affecting the speed of eating and drinking and meal duration. To further investigate this phenomenon, we developed an experiment aimed to understand how music at different beats per minute (BPM) affects eating behaviors and how emotions evoked by music interplay in this context. A total of 124 subjects participated in the study, randomly divided into two subgroups who listened to music at 145 BPM (fast tempo) and 85 BPM (slow tempo), respectively. The subjects' eating behaviors were studied by analyzing video recordings, by measuring leftovers, and by means of a questionnaire. Our study showed that subjects who listened to slow tempo music were more relaxed, spent more time eating, chewed more times and for longer than those who listened to fast tempo music, thus confirming the influence of musical tempo on eating behavior. In particular, this is the first study to report that slow tempo music may increase the number of chews and total chewing duration.