Food Quality and Preference最新文献

The increasing prevalence of computer-mediated communication has given rise to a pictogram known as emojis, offering an intuitive and informal means of conveying emojis and attitudes. This study aimed to establish a communication code linking basic tastes to emojis, as a way to facilitate the externalization of emotions. It explored how emojis correspond to basic tastes, focusing on consumers' perception of the umami taste through food emojis. An online survey involving 285 voluntvb bveers was performed. The questionnaire consisted of 42 questions, with 41 aimed at associating emojis with the five basic tastes; and one focused on associating food emojis with the umami taste. The results emphasized an inherent connection between certain emojis and basic tastes. Bitter and sour tastes were predominantly associated with emojis conveying negative feelings, while sweet and salty tastes were linked with positive emojis. Additionally, the umami taste was characterized by emojis expressing notions of something incredible, fascinating, impressive, or exciting. Respondents predominantly associated the following food emojis with the umami taste: cheese, instant noodles, bacon, popcorn, pizza, sushi, and red meat. This research delved into the connection between taste perception and emotional expression through emojis, demonstrating how these digital symbols effectively capture human taste expressions. The findings underscore a clear association between basic tastes and specific emojis, highlighting consumers' awareness of foods rich in umami taste. The results of this study indicate the potential of using non-verbal, digital and simplified communication for use in sensory analysis related to the perception of basic tastes.

Food production systems, especially meat and dairy supply chains, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. An important question emerges as to whether consumers care about environmental sustainability when buying food products, as this can determine their consumption practices. Further, if sustainability labels are available, identifying information that is relevant to consumers is important. This research therefore aimed to identify the attributes that are most important for consumers when buying meat or dairy products and the perceived helpfulness of sustainability labels for meat and dairy products and important label properties. An online survey was conducted in five European countries (i.e. Czechia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK). Consumers valued similar attributes when buying meat and dairy products across all countries. Freshness, quality/taste and animal welfare emerged as the most important attributes, while environmental attributes such as food miles, carbon footprint, and organic production were the least important. Sustainability labels for meat and dairy products were perceived as helpful. Regression analysis identified similar patterns within all five countries regarding the predictors of the perceived helpfulness of sustainability labels. Attitudes towards sustainable food consumption, environmental attitudes, and food production and policies emerged as significant positive predictors in most models. Most importantly, information regarding animal welfare, food safety, and health and nutrition was perceived as being more important than environmental sustainability. This suggests that food choice decisions are unlikely to be made based on the environmental sustainability of a food product’s production alone.

This review synthesizes empirical evidence for the associations between alternative protein food (APF) choices and geographical context factors, including differences and similarities between consumers from various European countries, rural versus urban environments, and the “local” attribute of APF. The preregistered systematic review (PROSPERO repository, no. CRD42023388700) was conducted in 13 databases with 25 original studies being included. The risk of bias was evaluated using Joanna Briggs Institute quality evaluation tools.

The findings indicate that across consumers from European countries, levels of intention to eat, try, and buy APF are low-to-moderate. Patterns of APF consumers’ choices differed between Northern Europe (Denmark, Finland), Southern Europe (Italy, Spain), and Eastern Europe (Poland, Czech Republic). For example, Danish consumers have positive attitudes but relatively low intention to eat plant-based APF. In turn, Polish consumers have lower levels of knowledge and low readiness to shift dietary patterns toward APF intake compared to Western European consumers (e.g., Germany). Italian consumers have a lower acceptance of insect-based APF than consumers from Western or Northern European countries (e.g., Belgium, Denmark). Our findings do not support rural–urban differences. Finally, perceiving an APF product as local may increase the likelihood of APF choice by European consumers. Our review provides preliminary insights into differences among consumers inhabiting European countries, suggesting the use of different messages to promote APF intake across Europe. Systematic research comparing countries across Europe is needed to verify the consistency of geographical differences.

Sensory evaluation is performed through the human senses. And subjectivity and diversity of their responses are inevitably included. Confirming consumer agreement is important when drawing conclusions from a limited number of participants. Consumers were divided into clusters according to their consumption frequency, liking score, and sensory perception using the CATA questionnaire. The homogeneity of CATA responses was analyzed for each cluster, and the similarity of samples/attribute configuration between groups was also determined. The homogeneity index showed a slight increase in all clusters except light user and K + 1 clusters. RV-coefficient for sample configurations were high, however, it was relatively lower value for attribute configuration. This study suggests that although the difference value was not large, slight differences may appear in the results depending on the segmentation criteria even when using the same data.

This study aimed to develop and validate a Taste Liking Questionnaire (TasteLQ) to measure the liking of taste and oral sensations represented by food items in the Danish adult population. Food items adapted to the Danish culture were selected to represent five basic tastes (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami), fat sensation and two oral sensations (astringency and pungency). The reliability and validity of the TasteLQ were assessed in a multi-step process. The list of selected items was refined by an expert panel and subsequently clustered based on taste and sensation intensity ratings confirming their singularity for each modality. TasteLQ was found to be clear and quick to complete with a good test–retest reliability. In a hedonic liking evaluation (n = 38), moderate agreement was found between questionnaire-based taste liking scores and direct measurements of taste liking. Construct validity of each intensity-derived modality was evaluated in Danish participants (n = 7,201). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis revealed one, two, and three-factor structures with adequate fit of the tested models. The majority of identified factors displayed an acceptable to good internal consistency reliability. Factor analysis led to the exclusion of four items consequently yielding a final 44-item questionnaire. In conclusion, TasteLQ is a valid and feasible tool to measure taste and sensation liking in Danish adults. The questionnaire can be implemented in large-scale studies from which valuable insight to the role of taste liking in food choice, eating behavior, and disease risk factors can be gained.

Much research is based on findings obtained in Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies, largely by authors from English-speaking countries. As no systematic research has documented the magnitude of this WEIRD bias in food-related research, in general, and in sensory and consumer science, in particular, the current study examines the proportion of first authors and authors in general affiliated with English-speaking WEIRD countries (USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland) versus other countries in three leading journals publishing food-related research, including but not restricted to sensory and consumer science: Food Quality and Preference, Appetite, and Food Research International. We analyze all articles appearing in these journals during the 20-year period of 2004–2023 (N = 22,040). To facilitate comparability with top journals in psychological science where the WEIRD bias is pervasive, we also compare the proportion of first authors affiliated with English-speaking WEIRD countries for the same five-year period (2014–2018) to test whether this bias is differentially applicable across these fields of research. We find that (1) the proportion of first authors and other authors affiliated with English-speaking WEIRD countries has generally decreased over time in our examined journals; (2) compared to psychological science, our food-related journals have a substantially larger proportion of first authors affiliated with nations other than English-speaking WEIRD countries; and (3) our included journals differ considerably in their prevalence of first authors and other authors affiliated with English-speaking WEIRD countries. Together, these results quantify the extent of the WEIRD bias in food-related research, both compared to psychological science and when examined over time.

Collecting Open Comments (OC) is a common way to learn about the product features that consumers like and dislike in internal preference mapping studies. OC has the advantage to provide a direct answer to the question “What do you like/dislike about this product?” without consumers. However, because OC does not suggest any sensory terms, consumers sometimes struggle to properly verbalize their perceptions leading to data and information that are difficult to interpret and translate into product improvement recommendations. In addition, the encoding of OC is a cumbersome, time-consuming, and possibly expensive task depending on the context of study. In this context, we explored the use of the Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) method as an alternative to OC to collect reasons for like and dislike reported by consumers. We conducted two parallel studies in which respondents evaluated 6 out of 8 milk chocolates using an incomplete block design. The only noticeable difference between the two studies was that respondents reported reasons for liking and disliking using either OC (n = 204) or CATA (n = 157). Results did not show any striking difference between mean overall liking scores and taste clusters in both studies. The drivers of liking and disliking associated with each product were also largely consistent, although some differences in citation rates and attitudes were noted. For instance, respondents tended to disregard appearance and texture in favor of flavor with OC as compared to CATA. In addition, the drivers of disliking provided by OC were less diverse and less frequently cited than in CATA. Overall, our results suggest that CATA is a promising alternative to OC for liking-oriented product description provided that special care is taken to build a relevant list of CATA terms.

Despite the impact of processed foods on health, sustainability, and food security, consumers vary greatly in expectations about and preferences for processed foods. Essentialism is the lay belief that items in a category share a fundamental and immutable essence that generates the category’s defining characteristics. Although essentialism may be an important determinant of consumers’ cognitions about processed foods, there has been limited investigation of essentialism’s role in food-related perceptions. Across two studies (n = 598 total), we used a novel measure of food essentialism to examine whether individual differences in beliefs about foods as having essences (food essentialism) are related to perceptions of foods retaining more of their natural characteristics (sensory and nutritive properties) despite their level of processing. Across diverse food categories (meats, vegetables, fruits, legumes, dairy), higher levels of perceived food processing were associated with lower perceived retention of naturalness, nutritiousness, natural taste, functional post-ingestive benefits, and acceptability (liking). However, participants endorsing greater (vs. lower) food essentialism beliefs exhibited weaker relationships between perceived processing and these characteristics. We also observed variations across food categories in relationships between perceived level of processing and food properties, suggesting that some foods (i.e., milk-based products) are perceived to possess essences that are more robust despite undergoing higher levels of processing. These findings demonstrate that food-specific essentialism beliefs may be a fundamental determinant of consumers’ expectations of how human intervention, such as processing, affects natural properties of foods. These beliefs may be a promising target for future research to shift consumer acceptance of processed foods.

Alternative proteins have gained significant interest as useful adjuncts to facilitate the dietary transition towards more sustainable diets. However, negative consumer perceptions of these products hinder their widespread acceptance and adoption. With emerging research uncovering the role of multisensory factors in consumer perceptions and preferences, manipulating the materials of plates used to serve alternative proteins may help to address these concerns. This within-subject study investigated the influence of a natural material (banana leaf) and a synthetic material (stainless steel) on consumers’ perceptions and preference for mycoprotein. Specifically, perceived product naturalness, healthfulness and tastiness were assessed. Results demonstrated a significant favourable influence of a natural material on consumer perceptions of mycoprotein, compared to a synthetic material (all ps < 0.05). However, differences in preferences were not observed (p =.292). This suggests that other multisensory factors (e.g., product taste and mouthfeel) may play a more important role in consumer preferences for such products. Additionally, having a baseline preference for mycoprotein appeared to moderate the differences in ratings for perceived naturalness of mycoprotein (p <.001). Overall, these findings highlight the role of plate materials in consumer perceptions of mycoprotein and offer valuable insights to potentially develop more effective messaging strategies for these products.

Understanding consumer requirements with respect to the sensory attributes of food and the sentimental consequences is critical for enhancing consumer satisfaction and achieving market success. A recent innovation, the signal detection expectation profiling method, introduced by Lee, Kim, van Hout, and Lee (2021), utilizes the two-step rating-based ‘double-faced applicability (DFA)’ test to create expectation profiles for product attributes, quantified by d′_A output measures. This study aimed to demonstrate and test the usage and efficacy of the d′_A expectation profiling method to provide insight for product development. The efficiency of this approach for using a two-step rating-based DFA was examined first and the information guided by the d′_A expectation profiling output measures was compared to satisfaction drivers identified through partial least square (PLS) regression and landscape segmentation analysis (LSA), commonly used to link consumer satisfaction/liking and sensory perception. Consumer expectations and satisfaction/sensory evaluations of six different mayonnaise products formed the dataset. Overall, the d′_A expectation profiles effectively identified the key attributes significantly impacting overall satisfaction, aligning with the results of the PLS regression and LSA. The advantage of d′_A expectation profiles lies in their quantitative representation of the degree of expected sensory attributes, extending beyond the scope of actual evaluated products and offering actionable insights for product optimization. Furthermore, by incorporating custom attributes (descriptor pairs) based on the hedonic valence of target consumers, the d′_A expectation profile showcases the potential for effectively addressing consumer-relevant attributes tailored to specific target consumer groups.