Conjoint analysis has proven to be a useful tool for consumer research in the food industry. Most of this research has focused on extrinsic attributes, although an increasing number of studies have ...also sought to incorporate intrinsic attributes. In the past, several researchers have successfully included these intrinsic attributes by using verbal or pictorial stimuli as attribute levels. However, given that taste is a key factor in the purchase decision process for food products, the development of conjoint analysis that incorporates levels of sensory characteristics could be a useful asset for the food industry.
► Review of conjoint analysis and the use of the method in the industry. ► Applications of conjoint analysis in the food industry. ► Developments in incorporation of sensory analysis in conjoint analysis. ► Influence of emotions on consumer behaviour. ► Future opportunities and difficulties in combining sensory and conjoint analysis without neglecting the influence of emotions.
Although cocoa butter (CB) is an ideal fat for the use in chocolate, limited supply, high demand and fluctuating prices lead the industry to look for alternatives. In the present study, ...physicochemical properties of commercially available cocoa butter equivalents (CBE) and hard palm mid fraction (PMF) are compared with those of CB. Subsequently, their functionality in real and compound chocolate was evaluated. CBE and PMF contained a comparable (12.0–13.8 %) but significant lower amount of POSt compared to CB (38.7 %). Differences in nonisothermal crystallization and melting profile were observed between CB and CBE. The two-step isothermal crystallization at 20 °C showed that the nucleation started earlier as the StOSt content increased. No significant differences were observed in melting behavior between the reference chocolate (Choc
REF
) and the chocolates with partial replacement. Hardness was significantly higher for Choc
REF
. Differences in flow behavior were demonstrated in yield stress, but plastic viscosity of all chocolate products was similar. Although instrumental analyses defined differences, the trained panel and consumers had difficulties to distinguish the chocolate products produced from CBE.
The global increase of cardiovascular diseases is linked to the shift towards unbalanced diets with increasing salt and fat intake. This has led to a growing consumers' interest in more balanced food ...products, which explains the growing number of health-related claims on food products (e.g., "low in salt" or "light"). Based on a within-subjects design, consumers (n = 129) evaluated the same cheese product with different labels. Participants rated liking, saltiness and fat flavor intensity before and after consuming four labeled cheeses. Even though the cheese products were identical, inclusion of health labels influenced consumer perceptions. Cheese with a "light" label had a lower overall expected and perceived liking compared to regular cheese. Although cheese with a "salt reduced" label had a lower expected liking compared to regular cheese, no lower liking was found when consumers actually consumed the labeled cheese. All labels also influenced the perceived intensities of the attributes related to these labels, e.g., for example salt intensity for reduced salt label. While emotional profiles of the labeled cheeses differed before tasting, little differences were found when actual tasting these cheeses. In conclusion, this study shows that health-related labels might influence the perceived flavor and emotional profiles of cheese products.
•Taste is more important than health when children choose favorite type of milk.•Brand awareness and consumption frequency are not correlated for flavored milk.•Association of flavored milk brands ...with emotions investigated by 513 children.•Familiar brands are more associated with positive emotions.
Although milk and dairy products are seen as an important part of a child’s diet, their consumption is declining. The aim of this study is to investigate the consumption of milk and flavored milk among a sample of 513 Belgian children aged between 8 and 13years. In addition, the association between flavored milk brands and emotions is examined. Children prefer and consume more flavored than plain milk. They indicate that consumption is a self-made choice and that parents mainly ensure the availability of these products. Children prefer flavored milk to plain milk, although it is perceived to be less healthy. No correlation could be found between brand awareness and the consumption of flavored milk. Brands of flavored milk evoke divergent emotions and can be classified into different groups based upon their association with a type of emotion (i.e. positive/negative). This study demonstrates that taste is an important factor in flavored milk consumption by children and shows a strong relationship between brands and emotions. Consequently, the taste needs to be appealing for children, but it is equally important that children associate the brand with positive emotions, as this will lead to a higher preference. Milk producers who target children can use the insights gained from this study in the development of new products.
Joint discomfort is a widespread and growing problem in active adults. The rising interest in preventative nutrition has increased the demand for supplements reducing joint discomfort. Protocols ...assessing the effect of a nutritional intervention on health commonly involve a series of face-to-face meetings between participants and study staff that can weigh on resources, participant availabilities, and even increase dropout rates. Digital tools are increasingly added to protocols to facilitate study conduct, but fully digitally run studies are still scarce. With the increasing interest in real-world studies, the development of health apps for mobile devices to monitor study outcomes is of great importance.
The purpose of this real-world study was to develop a specific mobile app, Ingredients for Life, to conduct a 100% digital study testing the effectiveness of a hydrolyzed cartilage matrix (HCM) supplement on joint discomfort in a heterogeneous group of healthy, active consumers.
The Ingredients for Life mobile app using a visual analog scale was specifically developed to monitor the variation in joint pain after exercise by the study participants. A total of 201 healthy and physically active women and men (18-72 years old) with joint pain completed the study over a period of 16 weeks. Participants were randomly allocated to the study groups and did not receive any dietary or lifestyle advice. Each participant indicated one area of joint pain and logged the type and duration of their weekly activities. They received blinded study supplements and took a daily regimen of 1 g of HCM (HCM group) or 1 g of maltodextrin (placebo group) for 12 weeks while weekly logging joint pain scores in the app. This was followed by a 4-week washout period during which participants continued reporting their joint pain scores (until the end of week 16).
Joint pain was reduced within 3 weeks of taking a low dosage of HCM (1 g/day), regardless of gender, age group, and activity intensity when compared with the placebo group. After stopping supplementation, joint pain scores gradually increased but still remained significantly lower than those of the placebo group after 4 weeks of washout. The low dropout rate (<6% of participants, mainly in the placebo group) demonstrates that the digital study was well received by the study population.
The digital tool allowed us to measure a heterogeneous group of active adults in a real-world setting (without any lifestyle intervention), thus promoting inclusivity and diversity. With low dropout rates, it demonstrates that mobile apps can generate qualitative, quantifiable, real-world data showcasing supplement effectiveness. The study confirmed that the oral intake of a low dose (1 g/day) of HCM led to a significant reduction of joint pain from 3 weeks after starting supplementation.
Cocoa is one of the most important cultivated crops worldwide both in production and processing. But due to the change in weather conditions, pest and diseases, producers are looking into new bean ...varieties and alternatives (e.g. carob) which can influence the sensory properties of chocolate. But also the other ingredients, the production process and storage conditions play a role in the sensory properties of chocolate products. Although chocolate has been widely used as a product for scientific research, especially given its association with the arousal of pleasure by consumers, there is a lack of a sensory lexicon of chocolate products generated by consumers.
This study aims to identify sensory characteristics with respect to the four sensory modalities (appearance, aroma, texture and flavour), which are important for chocolate consumption and visualize them in a chocolate sensory wheel. Five focus groups with consumers (n = 48) generated in total 104 descriptors using a range of white (5 different samples), milk (8 different samples) and dark (9 different samples) chocolate samples. A three-tiered chocolate sensory wheel, comprising the 4 sensory modalities, 21 categories and 61 descriptors, was created to form a graphical presentation of the sensory lexicon. Based on the descriptors obtained from the five focus groups, in total nine commercial samples of white, milk and dark chocolate were characterised using descriptive analysis by a trained sensory panel. The results of the descriptive analysis show that samples can be differentiated based on the attributes of the sensory lexicon.
Given that identifying, understanding and using the most important sensory characteristics is crucial for companies but also for scientists using chocolate products, this chocolate sensory lexicon will be of added value in new product development and quality assurance.
Display omitted
•A sensory lexicon and wheel for chocolate was created.•5 consumer panels (n = 48) generated 108 unique attributes.•Sensory attributes were mainly for describing aroma and flavour.•Sensory wheel can distinguish between chocolate samples.
•Content information had limited impact on informed emotional profiling.•Information led to higher acceptance and healthiness perception of insect burger.•Sensory profiles of insect and meat burger ...differed, regardless of the condition.
The use of edible insects as a potential component of food products is gathering interest among scientists, policy makers and the food industry. Although recent research suggests that a growing number of Western consumers might be willing to consume food products containing edible insects or insect-based protein, little is known about the influence of ingredient information on product evaluation. The aim of this study was to examine (i) the overall liking, perceived quality and nutritiousness, and (ii) the emotional and sensory profiling of three commercially available burgers (insect-based, plant-based and meat-based), under blind, expected and informed conditions. In total, 97 young adults took part in this experiment, divided into two sessions to assess the effect of blind tasting. The findings of the study revealed that although the overall liking for the insect burger was comparable to the liking for the plant-based burger, further product development is needed to improve its sensory quality. Complete assimilation occurred for the insect-based burger, which shows that information influenced overall liking. In addition, the informed condition had little influence on emotional conceptualisations. Future research should further explore different informational strategies in order to obtain a better understanding on Western consumers’ evaluation of insect-based products.
Although acceptability is commonly used to examine liking for food products, more studies now emphasize the importance of measuring consumers' conceptualizations, such as emotions for food products. ...It is also important to identify how consumers perceive the sensory attributes of food products, as illustrated by the increasing involvement of consumers in product characterization. The objective of this paper is to examine the use of a wheel-format questionnaire to obtain both an emotional and sensory profiles for food products using a hands-on consumer tool. Terms selected were product-specific and the rate-all-that-apply (RATA) approach was used as a scaling technique. Three different experiments demonstrated that the EmoSensory® Wheel could discriminate within and between food product categories. The added value of the RATA approach was illustrated in the sample discrimination for some food products when using the weighted attribute scores for analysis. The tool was used in both blind and informed conditions to illustrate its applicability across different experimental designs. In general, the respondents did not find the task tedious when using the wheel-questionnaire format, demonstrating the potential for collecting information in a more facile way. Although further studies with other food products are needed, this paper shows the potential for using this wheel format to obtain information about consumers' emotional and sensory profiling of food products.
•The use of a wheel format to obtain emotional and sensory profiles was studied.•This new format used consumer defined terms and applied the RATA approach.•EmoSensory® Wheel discriminates between and within different food products.•This format has the potential for research and commercial applications.
•Study the influence of using tasting as a stimulus in conjoint analysis instead of verbal information.•Influence of a preliminary attitudinal questionnaire on the results of a conjoint task was ...studied.•Insight in the importance of segmenting consumers for product development.•Critical recommendations for the application of conjoint analysis and tasting in conjoint analysis in the food industry.•Methodology to incorporate tasting as presentation method while tackling practical issues.
A conjoint design was applied to examine the effects of three conjoint factors (based on the results of two focus groups): one intrinsic attribute (sweetener, with levels of sugar and Stevia) and two extrinsic attributes (brand and package size) on preference and purchase probability for chocolate and sugar substitute chocolate. Tasting and ingredient information were linked to the intrinsic factor.
The first objective of this research was to study the influence of using tasting vs. ingredient information as a stimulus on consumers’ preference for chocolate using adaptive conjoint analysis. A second objective was to examine whether completing a behavioural questionnaire might influence consumer’s preference. A third objective was to investigate whether participants could be clustered based on their chocolate preference and if these clusters would be influenced by the stimulus (tasting vs. ingredient information). Given the objectives, a 2×2 factorial design was used with tasting vs. ingredient information as a first factor and completing a behavioural questionnaire vs. not completing a behavioural questionnaire before the conjoint task as the second factor.
Respondents were divided into four groups according to the experimental design. A total of 2096 respondents completed the study, resulting in useful data from 1570 respondents. Consumer data were deleted based on consistency checks in the questionnaire.
The results indicated that actual tasting led to greater consistency in respondents’ answers. Moreover, tasting had an influence on the importance ratings and the utilities for the overall population sample. Furthermore, completing a behavioural questionnaire did not impact the results of the conjoint analysis. Through clustering the respondents, three clusters were identified: ‘sugar driven’, ‘brand driven’ and ‘sugar substitute driven’. These clusters were recurrent in all four groups of respondents. Tasting or receiving ingredient information about the product did not influence the existence of the clusters. However, this difference in stimulus presentation did induce a shift in cluster sizes.
Success of a new food product on the market is strongly related to how good that product is adapted to consumers’ preferences, wishes, expectations and needs. This paper shows the importance of ...consumer studies including consumer sensory tests for product prototype optimization on the case of an innovative sweet topping made from well-known Slovenian wine Teran. Empirical study was made combining two stages, first the exploratory qualitative research with focus groups and questionnaire and second a test for new food prototype with consumer sensory techniques. The results of the exploratory research were very encouraging and perceived market potential was substantial. However, when more precise and objective research techniques were applied, obtained managerial recommendation critically differ. Application of the consumer sensory tests, namely preference test and JAR (just about right) test, disconfirmed high expectations from the exploratory phase and showed that chocolate flavour is the main driver of liking the topping.
PDF
