This research evaluated the effects of product familiarity on the sensory acceptability and physiological responses of consumers toward different food stimuli using two populations (Asian vs. ...Western). Two studies were conducted: (1) an online questionnaire and (2) a tasting session. For (1), n = 102 (60% Asians and 40% Westerners) evaluated 31 food items visually for familiarity and liking whereas for (2), participants (n = 60; 48% Asians and 52% Westerners) evaluated 10 different foods (tortoise jelly, chili slices, beef jerky, dried tofu, Vegemite®, durian cake, octopus chips, chocolate, corn chips, and wasabi coated peas) by tasting for familiarity and liking (visual/aroma/taste/texture/overall). A novel Android® app (Bio-sensory App) was used to capture sensory and non-invasive physiological responses (temperature, heart rate and facial expressions) of consumers. In (1), Asian and Western participants differed in their familiarity scores, visual liking ratings, and the selection of emotion terms for the stimuli. In (2), cultural differences affected familiarity and the liking scores of appearance, aroma, taste and texture of the products. While food stimuli marginally affected the physiological responses of consumers for both cultures, Asian participants elicited higher temperature values compared to those of Westerners. Both studies (1 and 2) showed that familiarity of food products was positively associated to sensory liking for both cultural groups. These findings are useful to understand consumers acceptability based on both sensory and physiological responses.
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•Asians and Westerners differed in their familiarity scores and visual liking of foods.•Asians expressed neutral to negative emotions toward familiar foods.•Western participants expressed positive emotions toward familiar foods.•Cultural differences and familiarity affected the liking of the tasted products.•Asians elicited higher temperature values when tasting than Westerners.
Sensorial perceptions change as people age; hence the aim of this study was to test if there were differences between younger (n = 95; aged 20-56) compared to older (n = 97; aged 60-81) consumers in ...sensory assessment of beef patties with varying firmness (‘soft’, ‘medium’, ‘hard’) and the influence of adding plum sauce as a lubricant and flavouring. The firmness of patties influenced consumer scores for overall liking, appearance, texture, flavour, and saltiness for both age groups. Both groups preferred the ‘soft’ patty regardless of sauce addition. When sauce was added, there was an increase in appearance and texture liking for younger consumers, but it did not influence liking for older people. In contrast to older consumers, younger subjects noted a ‘sour-acidic’ taste in samples. Sensorial perception of flavour does change as people age, and this is important to consider when developing suitable foods for older adults’ consumption.
•Hardness affects consumer liking of beef patties.•Younger consumers better discriminated texture and flavour differences of beef patties.•Consumption of beef patties with sauce increased liking of beef patties for younger consumers.•Beef patties perception and acceptability depends on age of consumer.
Throughout history, people have expressed the desire for an ideal society—a utopia. These imagined societies have motivated action for social change. Recent research has demonstrated this ...motivational effect among ordinary people in English-speaking countries, but we know little about the specific content of ordinary people’s utopian visions in different cultures. Here we report that a majority of samples from four countries—Australia, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States—converge on a small number of utopian visions: a Modern Green utopia, a Primitivist utopia, a Futurist utopia, and a Religious utopia. Although the prevalence of these utopia profiles differed across countries, there was a cross-cultural convergence in utopian visions. These shared visions may provide common ground for conversations about how to achieve a better future across cultural borders.
Coupling qualitative and quantitative consumer research methodologies enables the development of more holistic and comprehensive perspectives of consumer responses. In this study, consumer responses ...to beef and sheepmeat were investigated using a mixed method approach combining perceptual mapping (qualitative), and sensory (quantitative) methodologies. Qualitative insights indicated Australian and Asian consumers differ in perception of familiarity and 'premiumness' of meat products. Specific findings included: Australians consume grilled or roasted meat as a centre of the plate 'hero' ingredient, while Asians prefer stovetop cooking methods where meat is one ingredient in a complex dish. Labelling meat as 'Australian' was important for Australian consumers but not for Asian consumers. Quantitative data demonstrated that older consumers (31-70 years) scored sheepmeat higher than younger consumers (18-30 years) for healthiness (
= 0.004), juiciness (
= 0.029), odour liking (
= 0.005) and tenderness (
= 0.042). Older consumers also had a lower willingness to pay than younger consumers for "premium" quality meat; 30-40 vs. 40-50 AUD (Australian dollar) per kg respectively for sheepmeat, and 40-50 vs. 50-60 AUD per kg respectively for beef. In conclusion, the approach used effectively integrated consumer attitudes, usage information and sensory assessments with socio-demographic factors to generate insights for the refinement of market strategies and product offerings.
Sensory perception and food preferences change as we age. This paper encompassed two studies with the aim being to investigate meal and snacking behaviour of older adults towards food, especially ...meat products, and understand the desirable characteristics of those products. A qualitative multivariate analysis (QMA) focus group with Australian and Chinese older (60-81 years old) adults was conducted. A conjoint concept database was used to determine older consumers' wants and needs for food in Australia and China. The QMA suggested that Australian consumers are not eating a proper breakfast or dinner but are 'snacking' throughout the day. In contrast, Chinese consumers are eating three regular meals through the day and occasionally snacks. For both groups, texture and flavour were key drivers for food choice. Difficulty in eating meat products was evident, e.g., beef jerky was found too dry and hard. Older consumers in China and Australia differed in responses to the four food categories investigated in terms of product traits and segmentation. Both the conjoint analysis and QMA showed that demographics have an impact on consumer preferences towards food. This research suggested that there is an opportunity to create ready-to-eat, nutrient dense products to enhance the wellness of older consumers.
Packaging is the first impression consumers have of food products which determines likelihood of purchasing. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of chocolate packaging ...design on sensory liking and willingness to purchase (WTP) of consumers (n = 75) under three conditions:(1) blind product, (2) packaging, and (3) informed product and packaging. The same chocolate tasted in (1) was wrapped in six different packaging concepts (bold, fun, every day, special, healthy, premium) developed based on TNS NeedScope™ model for (3). There were significant differences in liking towards taste based on packaging. Liking scores for (3) reduced when expectations created by packaging were not met. Regression analysis explained, taste had strongest association (r = 0.73) towards WTP. Cochran's Q and McNemar tests showed significant differences in frequencies of emotion-based terms between packaging and informed conditions. These findings can be used in product design to evaluate product attributes by enhancing emotional attachment towards chocolate.
Eye fixations on packaging elements are not necessarily correlated to consumer attention or positive emotions towards those elements. This study aimed to assess links between the emotional responses ...of consumers and the eye fixations on areas of interest (AOI) of different chocolate packaging designs using eye trackers. Sixty participants were exposed to six novel and six familiar (commercial) chocolate packaging concepts on tablet PC screens. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate analysis were performed on eye tracking, facial expressions, and self-reported responses. The results showed that there were significant positive correlations between liking and familiarity in commercially available concepts (
= 0.88), whereas, with novel concepts, there were no significant correlations. Overall, the total number of fixations on the familiar packaging was positively correlated (
= 0.78) with positive emotions elicited in people using the FaceReader™ (Happy), while they were not correlated with any emotion for the novel packaging. Fixations on a specific AOI were not linked to positive emotions, since, in some cases, they were related to negative emotions elicited in people or not even associated with any emotion. These findings can be used by package designers to better understand the link between the emotional responses of consumers and their eye fixation patterns for specific AOI.
The global sheepmeat industry aspires to increase consumer liking for cull ewe meat and thereby increase its value; dry ageing application can increase the consumer appeal of this meat. In order to ...develop novel consumer-liked dry aged sheepmeat products, an innovation process aligned with design thinking principles was initiated. The objective was to understand optimal dry aged sheepmeat product formats from chef, butcher, producer and consumer perspectives, and use these findings to develop "highly liked" and "premium" dry aged cull ewe meat dishes. The methodology used and the results of stakeholder engagement, perceptual mapping, and quantitative consumer assessments are reported. Stakeholder engagement showed the importance of how novel products are introduced to the consumer and to the chef. Perceptual mapping highlighted that chef-perceived product "premiumness" was driven by eating quality and complexity of the dish. Consumer assessment validated these findings with increases in dish liking associated with increased premiumness and complexity in dish presentation. Overall, the described approach was successful; eight highly liked dry aged cull ewe meat dishes were developed (all scored > 7.69 on a 9-point hedonic scale for liking), and four of the eight dishes were rated "at the level of a very premium food".
Sensorial perceptions change as people age and biometrics analysis can be used to explore the unconscious consumer responses. Investigation was conducted of effects of consumer age (younger, ...22–52 years; older, 60–76 years) on facial expression response (FER) during consumption of beef patties with varying firmness (soft, medium, hard) and taste (±plum sauce). Video images were collected and FERs analysed using FaceReader™. Younger people exhibited higher intensity for happy/sad/scared and lower intensity for neutral/disgusted, relative to older people. Interactions between age and texture/sauce showed little FER variation in older people, whereas younger people showed considerable FER variation. Younger people, but not older people, had lowest intensity of happy FER and highest intensity of angry FER for the hard patty. Sauce addition resulted in higher intensity of happy/contempt in younger consumers, but not older consumers. FER collected using FaceReader™ was successfully used to differentiate between the unconscious responses of younger and older consumers.
•Unconscious consumer responses through biometrics combined with self-reported responses provide a better understanding of meat products' acceptability•Older consumers preferred familiar beef patties for liking and willingness to buy compared to younger consumers who preferred unique options•The use of a novel native plum sauce enhanced beef patty liking for younger consumers•Neutral was the predominant facial expression among both age groups. However, differences in facial expressions were found according to age
•Dry-ageing induced yield reduction increased with ageing period.•Dry aged yields vary by cut and level of fabrication applied.•Increased fat depth mitigates dry ageing induced moisture loss in ...loin.•Increased hot carcase weight mitigates dry ageing induced moisture loss in loin.•Increased ‘yearling weight’ breeding values increased moisture loss in dry-aged leg.
Dry-ageing of sheepmeat is a novel application, and there is an opportunity to optimise process yields through the selection of appropriate animals and or carcases for dry-ageing. The effects of carcase characteristics and sheep breeding values (post-weaning and yearling; fat depth, muscling and weight) on yields from wet- and dry-aged sheepmeat were investigated. Bone-in leg and loin primals from 96 multipurpose merino cull ewe carcasses were wet- or dry-aged for 14, 28, 42 or 56 days. The yield components’ primal moisture loss %, trim yield %, saleable meat yield % and retail cut yield % were determined. For loin and leg, dry ageing increased primal moisture loss but decreased saleable meat yield and retail cut yield compared to wet ageing (P< 0.001 for all). In addition, loin primal moisture loss reduced with increasing hot carcase weight, fat score and post weaning fat depth (P< 0.05 for all). Leg primal moisture loss reduced with increasing fat score and increased with yearling weight (P < 0.05 for all). The magnitude of dry ageing induced yield reduction (due to primal moisture loss) was found to depend on the finishing stage of the product; e.g. the dry-aged loin primal was more impacted by moisture loss than the rack retail cut fabricated from the loin. In conclusion, the association of yield with carcase characteristics and Australian sheep breeding values could be utilised to identify animals, carcasses and primals with superior dry-aged yield.
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