Article

Predictors of Food Acceptance, Consumption and Satisfaction in Specific Eating Situations

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Abstract

Three studies were conducted to examine the relationship of pre-test ratings of consumer food preferences (liking/disliking in response to a food name), expected liking/disliking, and situational appropriateness with post-test measures of liking/disliking, consumption and satisfaction in specific eating situations. A pre-test survey of 115 consumers assessed general preferences, expected liking/disliking, and appropriateness of 22 foods and beverages in 10 different use situations. The data showed a strong association between pre-test ratings of food appropriateness and expected liking/disliking. In the first experiment, subjects received an appropriate or inappropriate food at a lunch meal. In the second, subjects received a food item in either an appropriate or inappropriate social situation. Liking/disliking and consumption were poorly predicted from simple food preference measures. Better prediction was obtained by a combination of pre-test variables, but the variance accounted for was low. A likely factor influencing the results was the subjects' pre-test assumptions about the specific characteristics of the meal situation and how these matched or mismatched the actual meal conditions. In the third experiment, subjects received food items that varied in sensory quality at either an appropriate or inappropriate mealtime. In addition to the variables measured in Experiments 1 and 2, pre-test expected sensory attributes, post-test sensory attributes, judgments of whether the foods were “better or worse than expected” and “satisfaction” were collected. Results showed significant effects of both food quality and food appropriateness on all post-test variables, and confirmed the high degree of association between appropriateness and expected liking/disliking ratings found previously. Food preferences were again found to be poor predictors of post-test measures, while appropriateness and expected liking ratings were found to be good predictors of post-test appropriateness and food satisfaction ratings. Lastly, satisfaction was better predicted by both pre- and post-test variables than were either liking/disliking or consumption measures. Overall, the results show that the prediction of any aspect of consumer behavior toward foods in real life situations is extremely difficult. Although judicious use of multiple pre-test variables can improve prediction, much of the variability in liking, satisfaction, or consumption still remains unaccounted.

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... Several papers discussed the relation between appropriateness and acceptability (e.g. Cardello, Schutz, Snow &Lesher, 2000). It was suggested that the term appropriateness implies a more normative aspect of how well the food fits in the contextual situation in which it is eaten, whereas in the case of liking/attractiveness there is more emphasis on the hedonic quality of the experience. ...
... Several papers discussed the relation between appropriateness and acceptability (e.g. Cardello, Schutz, Snow &Lesher, 2000). It was suggested that the term appropriateness implies a more normative aspect of how well the food fits in the contextual situation in which it is eaten, whereas in the case of liking/attractiveness there is more emphasis on the hedonic quality of the experience. ...
... Different outcome measures have been used in this research. Overall liking is a hedonic or affective measure that is being used in many types of consumer research, whereas appropriateness is more a cognitive judgment (Schutz, 1994), and 'the term 'appropriateness' implies some more normative aspect of how well a food 'fits' in the contextual situation in which it is eaten' Cardello, Schutz, Snow & Lesher, 2000). We included intention-to-use as a measure that was more closely related to actual behavior since consumer behavior and food choice is what we are actually interested in. ...
Thesis
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The environmental pressure caused by meat production together with the growth of global meat consumption necessitates a shift in our dietary behavior from an animal-based diet to a more plant-based diet. An alternative for meat could be plant-based meat substitutes since meat substitutes can have a lower environmental impact than meat. Despite the growth of the market of meat substitutes, the adoption of these products by consumers is a slow process. Not only the properties of the product itself but also contextual factors (e.g., the usage situation or the meal) could influence consumer acceptance of meat substitutes. The overall aim of this thesis was to identify the roles of the product, the context and consumer characteristics in the acceptance of meat substitutes. The experiences and perceptions that consumers had of meat substitutes were explored in consumer focus group discussions. These revealed that health aspects and easy preparation were regarded as positive aspects of meat substitutes, whereas lack of information on the package, and high price were reported as negative. Positive and negative sensory attributes were mentioned and when photographs of examples of meals with meat substitutes were presented, then most consumers found the use of meat substitutes appropriate in those dishes. A web-based survey was developed to let consumers (N=251) assess the use of meat substitutes in different dishes. Six different dishes (spaghetti, rice, wrap, pizza, pasta salad, and soup) were rated for their appropriateness for the use of meat substitutes. Subsequently, appropriateness, attractiveness, and use-intention were rated based on photographs of the six dishes prepared with meat substitutes that differed in shape and appearance. Respondents also had to indicate (un)desirable sensory properties of meat substitutes for every dish. Spaghetti, rice, and wrap were found more appropriate for the use of meat substitutes than the other dishes. The most appropriate meat substitute–meal combinations were those that are similar to common Dutch meal combinations (e.g., spaghetti with mince and rice with pieces). Attractiveness and intention scores were in line with the appropriateness scores. Furthermore, we found that users of meat substitutes and younger respondents gave higher appropriateness ratings. The role of meal context on the acceptance of meat substitutes was studied further in a central location test. A total of 93 participants tasted and rated meals with meat substitutes on overall liking, product liking (liking of the meat substitute in the meal), appropriateness and intention-to-use, and individual meat substitutes were rated on overall liking. Meat substitutes with similar flavor and texture, but with different shapes (pieces and mince), were rated differently in four meals (rice, spaghetti, soup, and salad) on product liking, appropriateness and intention-to-use, but not differently on overall liking of the meals. Meat substitutes with similar shapes, but different flavors and textures rated differently on overall liking when tasted separately, but did not always differ in product liking when tasted in a rice meal. Appropriateness seemed to be influenced by the appearance of the meat substitute-meal combination, and less by the experienced flavor and texture. Perceived situational appropriateness of meat, meat substitutes and other meat alternatives in different usage situations using an item-by-use appropriateness survey. Products were presented via photographs and for each combination of product and situation, the appropriateness was rated on a 7-point scale. Personal information included the consumption of meat and meat substitutes and Food Neophobia. An exploratory survey was conducted in 2004 and an online survey in 2019. Overall, meat products were perceived as more appropriate than their vegetarian equivalents (e.g., hamburger vs. vegetarian hamburger) in almost all situations. Meat alternatives (chickpeas, nuts) scored generally higher than meat substitutes on situational appropriateness. Age and gender affected appropriateness ratings: women and younger respondents gave higher ratings to meat substitutes and meat alternatives. Food Neophobia showed a small effect. Meat substitute consumption frequency was a predictor of overall appropriateness in 2019, whereas it was not in 2004. Finally, twenty in-depth interviews were performed to discover associations of Dutch current users of meat substitutes with the terms ‘eating vegetarian’ and ‘meat substitutes’. Furthermore, their motives for the appropriateness of the use of four meat substitutes in six different usage situations were investigated. The meat substitutes (vegetarian minced meat, vegetarian hamburger, vegetarian steak, and vegetarian stir-fry pieces) were presented as photographs and the usage situations (e.g., eating with family, having little time to cook) were described and the participants were asked to express why the meat substitutes were (in)appropriate in the usage situations. The term ‘Eating vegetarian’ was mostly associated with not eating meat or with specific meat alternatives, and the most mentioned motive for eating vegetarian was ‘environmental impact’, followed by ‘health’ and ‘animal welfare’. The thematic content analysis yielded seven categories for the motives given for the (in)appropriateness of the four meat substitutes in six usage situations: ‘functionality’, ‘convenience’, ‘properties’, ‘preferences’, ‘association with meat’, ‘association with meals’, and ‘nutrition’. Mainly motives in the categories convenience and functionality (function of the meat substitute in a meal) were mentioned for all situations and other motives were situation-specific. Concluding, meat substitutes could become successful alternatives to meat, as they are perceived as convenient and versatile products. Meal context should play a central role in the design of new meat substitutes, as the combination of the meat substitute and the meal, and not so much the meat substitute itself, determines the acceptance of these products. Situational context plays a role as well; e.g, meat substitutes are perceived as appropriate for a dinner at home with the family, but not for special occasions. Challenges that need to be faced are the dual image of meat substitutes of being plant-based, healthy and low fat on the one hand, and unnatural, fake and processed on the other hand. Consumer acceptance and appropriateness of meat substitutes is still lower than that of meat, but increasing their familiarity could help overcome this issue and pave the way for a successful societal shift toward a more plant-based diet.
... The scientific literature has given insights into a broad range of variables that can affect the pleasurable aspects of food and eating. First and foremost, the intrinsic product characteristics, such as the sensory properties of food, have been found to be highly related to both acceptance, degree of liking, food satisfaction and preference towards food items [12][13][14]. Thereby, the sensory properties have been determined to not only be an important factor for the sensory perception of a specific food but also to be able to evoke a hedonic component, which can motivate a person to eat even after satiation has occurred [6,7,12]. The pleasurable experience of eating a specific food can also be affected by expectations and prior experiences one may have with that particular type of food [14][15][16][17]. ...
... Expectations can be formed from many different inputs from a food; especially the packaging and serving context will influence the generation of expectations [17][18][19]. Prior expectations based on fond memories and nostalgia related to a food can also create expectations that will lead to a higher degree of liking or satisfaction [6,13,15,16,20]. Moreover, being positively surprised by a food, of which expectations were low, has also been shown to enhance liking and satisfaction [14,21,22]. ...
... The 'Sensory-driven pleasure' dimension, and its appertaining items, were rated as the most important aspects for the experience of food pleasure by the total sample. This result confirms previous findings of the sensory aspect of food being closely related to food hedonia and food-related wellbeing [12,15,24], as well as acceptance, liking and food choice and behaviour [13,14,77]. In addition, we found that having an experience of one's senses being positively stimulated in a collected way was regarded as equally important as the individual sensory properties to the experience of pleasure. ...
Article
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A greater comprehension of factors contributing to pleasure from food-related experiences could increase understanding of underlying processes around different eating behaviours. We explored drivers of food pleasure and whether certain consumer characteristics were associated with specific food pleasure profiles. This study aimed to investigate (1) how Danish consumers vary in terms of primary drivers of food pleasure, and (2) how differences in food pleasure are related to specific sociodemographic, lifestyle, health and eating behavioural personality traits. Three-hundred and fifty-five respondents (mean age 33.3 years) rated the importance of different drivers of food pleasure, along with sociodemographic, lifestyle, health and eating behaviour variables. Segmentation analysis was performed based on emerging food pleasure dimensions, and profiling of segments was conducted by multivariate regression analysis and calculations of odds ratios. The results demonstrated that five specific consumer segments could be defined, ‘Sensory-pleasure Seekers’ (50%), ‘Internal-pleasure Seekers’ (34%), ‘Contextual-pleasure Seekers’ (17%), ‘Exploratory-pleasure seekers’ (13%) and ‘Confirming-pleasure seekers’ (5%), each with specific characteristics. Importantly, this research indicates that a link between mental health, personality, eating behaviour and perceived food pleasure is evident. These insights contribute to the comprehension of the complex nature of food choices of importance to accommodating public health issues.
... A review of Australian CRP studies found liking explained only 21% and 36% of consumption for meals and snack items, respectively (Carins & Tennant, 2011). Liking has been shown to be a poor predictor of consumption in food studies generally (Cardello, Schutz, Snow, & Lesher, 2000). Therefore, this research examined Best-Worst Scaling (BWS) as an alternative method of determining consumers' preferences for ration items. ...
... Furthermore, the BWS method provided a higher level of discrimination between the products demonstrating the value of this approach, especially when assessing products that are similarly liked. The lack of equivalence between liking and choice is consistent with food choice theories that recognise the influence of many factors (beyond liking) on food choice and consumption, particularly when presented with challenging eating contexts (Cardello et al., 2000;Meiselman, 2010;Sobal, Bisogni, & Jastran, 2014). It has been suggested that liking (or specifically disliking) better predicts non-consumption rather than consumption (Hayes, 2020), a phenomenon also observed in military field studies (de Graaf et al., 2005). ...
... Matthew Meiselman, 2013) to include other food related factors that determine consumption. This includes, but is not limited to situational appropriateness (Giacalone, 2019), satisfaction (Cardello et al., 2000), and satiety (Merrill et al., 2004). The focus on choice in this study provides concrete information for decisionmakers recommending inclusion or removal of items during ration pack design-but provides limited information on food related factors that may inform product modification. ...
Article
Packaged military foods are often under consumed by personnel during training and operational situations, increasing the risk of diminished health and performance. Considerable effort is therefore committed to selecting or improving foods to increase the likelihood of consumption. These decisions are commonly informed by hedonic liking—a single, but important influence on choice and consumption. This paper examined the utility of Best-Worst Scaling (BWS) in a military context as a measure of choice to extend measurement beyond liking and closer to the desired goal of consumption. Two studies (involving n = 303 civilians; n = 300 military personnel) compared ratings of liking and choice (BWS) and examined choice patterns across evoked military scenarios. Results confirmed hedonic liking was a poor predictor of choice at a product level (50% of the variance explained) and at an individual level (26% of the variance explained). BWS provided better discrimination between products than liking. At a group level, choice patterns were relatively consistent across scenarios. BWS was used to identify most preferred and least preferred products. When there was variation in choice patterns within the group, ‘certain winners’, ‘polarising products’ and ‘definite losers’ could be identified. This demonstrates how Best-Worst Scaling could be used as a decision making tool during military ration pack development.
... appropriateness, Schutz, 1994) has previously been shown to affect food evaluations. In a study by Cardello et al. (2000), participants consumed and evaluated a lunch meal that they had previously judged as either appropriate (e.g. pizza) or inappropriate (e.g. ...
... The 15 other situations were included to distract participants from the purpose of the questionnaire, preventing them from generating expectations about the contexts they would be exposed to later on. Additional situations were adapted from previous studies (Cardello, Schutz, Snow, & Lesher, 2000;Giacalone, Frost, Bredie, Pineau, Hunter, Paisley, et al., 2015), including: It is a pleasant afternoon; As a treat for myself; You are feeling quite hungry; You are home alone sitting on your couch; It is a very warm morning; You are alone sitting somewhere indoors; You are with a small group of people that you don't know well sitting somewhere indoors; At a bar-restaurant with friends; You are celebrating an achievement; At work; At a public house (bar, pub, etc); On a camping or fishing trip; At home in front of the TV. To assess potential effects of repeated exposure on perceived food-context congruity, participants filled in the same questionnaire again immediately after the fifth exposure day (session 6). ...
... Upon tasting, then, no effects of food-context congruity were found on average liking scores, corroborating the assumption that expected liking prior to consumption and liking during consumption are measuring different aspects of the consumption experience (Cardello et al. 2000) and underlining the importance of how food acceptance is experimentally assessed in understanding and managing consumer acceptance (Zandstra & Lion, 2019). This discrepancy between anticipated and actual hedonic perception may be explained by the additional sensory information that becomes available once a product is tasted: consumers will presumably rely less on prior experiences and more on the actual sensory input when evaluating foods. ...
Article
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Prior research using immersive technology has shown that consumption contexts can be successfully recreated to elicit effects on hedonic food evaluations, but the food-specificity of these effects is as of yet unclear. The current study investigates how repeated exposure to foods in congruent and incongruent immersive contexts affects hedonic perception over time. Two groups of participants (N=23, N=18) were exposed to three food products (sushi, popsicle and iced tea) in either an immersive beach context or an immersive sushi restaurant context for seven days. On the eighth day, participants were exposed to the same foods once more, but switched to the other context. Hedonic evaluations were collected prior to and during tasting at initial exposure (day 1), after repeated exposure to the same context (day 7) and in the switched context (day 8); consumption behavior was monitored on exposure days (days 2-6). Results showed that prior to tasting, expected liking and desire to eat were higher for congruent food-context combinations (popsicle at the beach, sushi in the sushi restaurant) than for incongruent combinations (popsicle in the sushi restaurant, sushi at the beach). Upon tasting, no differences were found in average food liking, but individual liking ratings for congruent (vs. incongruent) food-context combinations were more consistent over time. Immersive contexts also elicited general effects, such that a typical consumption environment (sushi restaurant) increased food consumption and yielded more consistent product liking ratings over time. Findings underline the importance of taking a holistic view on consumer testing, and showcase the potential of immersive technology.
... Perhaps an explanation for this could be that when asked to think of a special pleasurable meal, many people will think of situations where something extraordinary was present, such as different company than you experience on an everyday basis. The social context of a meal has, in previous studies, been found to significantly increase the satisfaction of a meal [49][50][51][52]. Likewise, one or more sensory aspects of food pleasure were apparent throughout the results regarding the most important aspects of the questionnaire and the interviews. ...
... This was somewhat expected, as other studies using the FPS have consistently shown that the sensory aspects of a meal are the primary driver of food pleasure [27][28][29]. Moreover, the sensory aspects of a meal have previously been shown to increase both the acceptability, liking, and satisfaction of foods [52][53][54]. ...
Article
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The development of scales and questionnaires to assess pleasure perception has gained prominence, particularly for evaluating anhedonia in mental disorders. The Food Pleasure Scale is a comprehensive tool exclusively dedicated to measuring pleasure perception from food and food-related experiences. This study aimed to evaluate the face validity and consistency reliability of the Food Pleasure Scale using a mixed methods approach. Twenty-two participants completed the Food Pleasure Scale questionnaire and participated in in-depth interviews to understand their interpretation of the scale items. The interview data underwent thematic analysis, and the quantitative survey data was compared to the qualitative interview responses. Results indicated a high level of understanding of all items in the Food Pleasure Scale, confirming its face validity and applicability. The mixed methods approach supported the consistency reliability, showing consistency between quantitative measures and participants’ explicit and implicit expressions of food pleasure. Furthermore, the study revealed a novel aspect related to food pleasure: the concept of “making an effort”. Overall, this study highlights the comprehensibility, validity, and potential of the Food Pleasure Scale in consumer studies. It effectively captures the subjective experience of pleasure derived from food and food-related encounters, making it a valuable tool for further research in this domain.
... To further determine if these products are comparable to conventional food products, understanding how consumers may eat these products in normal eating situations may be a consideration. Previous studies have focused on the food-eating experience and emotions as predictors of consumer acceptance and food-choice behavior [64][65][66][67]. Consumer liking and positive emotions were found to increase when consumers deemed food products appropriate [66][67][68]. ...
... This can be supported as the selection of satisfied increased (p < 0.05) after the consumption/evaluation of all dishes. This emotion may relate to the food satisfaction participants may perceive in certain eating situations, which may relate to food appropriateness and acceptance [64]. To the authors' knowledge, the relation between emotions such as satisfied and food satisfaction has not been studied, something which may give more insight in the future acceptance of new food products such as insects. ...
Article
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This study was conducted to evaluate three different food products containing cricket powder for consumer acceptability, emotional response, satiety, and plate waste. US untrained consumers (n = 108), from the San Luis Obispo, CA area, were recruited to evaluate three food products (sausage, pasta, and brownies) as components in a three-course meal that either contain cricket powder (CP) or not (Control). The CP sausage was found to have lower liking scores than the Control for the attributes tested (p < 0.05). The CP pasta was found to be higher in overall liking than the Control (p < 0.05). The CP Brownies were rated highly across the attributes, except for texture and aftertaste (p < 0.05). Though the CP products were found to be as acceptable as the Controls, the use of cricket powder may have affected the texture and flavor profile of both the CP sausage and brownies. The participants selected more positive emotions terms for both the CP and Control products than negative emotions. Negative terms selected, such as worried, decreased once the products were consumed (p < 0.05). Plate waste and subjective satiety may also be indicators of consumer acceptability. Significant correlations were found between appearance liking and satiety as well as taste liking and plate waste for both the Control and CP products/dishes (p < 0.05). Based on this work, future acceptance of insect-based products may be encouraged by evaluating the products throughout an eating experience.
... To place emphasis on the generalised hedonic quality of the simulated eating experience as opposed to more conventional food-specific ratings of liking/disliking (Cardello et al., 2000), expected reward was operationalised using two questions on enjoyment and pleasantness ("How much do you expect to enjoy the experience?", "How pleasant do you expect the experience to be?") previously used by Biswas and Szocs (2019) and an additional question on the expected comfort of the experience ("How comforting do you expect the experience to be?"). These questions were rated on a 9-point scale from 1: "Not at all" to 9: "Extremely" with "Moderately" at the intermediate point. ...
... imagined consumption does not necessarily follow a linear relationship. In fact, in cases comparing pre-and post-test ratings of expected liking/disliking of food products, actual tastings did not match the hedonic expectations (Cardello & Maller, 1982;Cardello et al., 2000;Cardello & Schutz, 1996;Piqueras-Fiszman & Jaeger, 2015). Furthermore, our participants were recruited online, which drastically limited our ability to control environmental influences such as physical location of the participant, presence of others during the study, temperature of the surroundings, time of day, etc. ...
Article
While scientific research has been largely engaged with untangling the psychological and emotional factors contributing to comfort eating, the potential impact of the physical eating environment on comfort eating behaviour has not been investigated. A limited amount of literature suggests that relaxing background music may lead to healthier food choices. However, it remains to be seen how the integration between visual and auditory elements of physical context – and their respective associations with comfort eating – might moderate the putative healthy effects of relaxation due to sound alone. The present study examined how evoked consumption contexts comprised of music (relaxing vs. stressful) in combination with location (at home vs. outside), influenced comfort eating desire, simulated energy intake, and expected hedonic reward. In an online experiment, participants (N=399) performed a simulated pasta dish assembly and eating task in one of four audio-visual contexts. Results showed that desire to eat comfort food and expected hedonic reward were dependent on the interaction between music and location: more specifically, the presence of either relaxing music or home location significantly increased the desire to eat comfort food and expected hedonic reward, compared to when both music and location were not associated with comfort-eating. Furthermore, desire to eat comfort food was a significant predictor of the calorie content of the dishes. Our results highlight the importance of the interplay between multisensory elements and challenge the view that a relaxing atmosphere necessarily supports healthy food choices. This work provides insights for both industry and private consumers to promote healthier behaviour and more enjoyable food experiences through a holistic consideration of different components in the eating environment.
... It included two items investigating the participants' beliefs about the sustainability and nutritional implications of consuming mushrooms and two items investigating the perceived overall liking and desire to eat the blended burger again. In our analysis, we grouped the overall liking and desire to eat in one latent construct, namely "Food Acceptance" to represent the liking/disliking ratings of the foods that have actually been tasted/eaten (Cardello, Schutz, Snow, & Lesher, 2000). The plating and presentation of the burger was identical every day; this way, we controlled the visual aspects of the food that can influence expectations. ...
... It is common in food research to investigate consumer acceptability to predict the consumption or purchasing of food products in future occasions (Cardello et al., 2000). Our findings emphasize the role of combined perceived and expected overall liking experiences to explain most of the attitude and behavioral intention to try this new product in the future. ...
Article
Reduction of meat intake and increase in vegetable consumption have attracted considerable attention from researchers and food businesses. We conducted a field experiment in a university canteen with the aim of investigating the main behavioral factors determining the consumption of a blended meat-mushroom burger. 296 students who consumed the blended burger completed a structured survey including hedonic and attitudinal questions. We then contacted the same sample after 1 month to measure their reported behavior. Our results show that providing information highlighting the sustainability attributes of mushrooms has the most significant and positive impact on acceptability in comparison to information related to nutrition and indulgence. In addition, the participants' beliefs about the health and sustainable benefits of mushrooms positively impact their attitude toward the blended burger. This then significantly influences their behavioral intention to purchase the product, which proves to be a good predictor of the consumption behavior. Our findings suggest marketing opportunities arising from blending plant-based ingredients with meat products.
... Nonetheless, liking ratings are, in and of themselves, poor predictors of consumer choices (Cardello, Schutz, Snow, & Lesher, 2000;Köster & Mojet, 2007), especially when comparing products of similar and high sensory quality (Rosas-Nexticapa, Angulo, & O'Mahony, 2005). This limitation has prompted sensory and consumer scientists to take an interest in performance measures that go "beyond liking," with interest primarily focusing on product-elicited emotions and conceptualisations and situational appropriateness. ...
... 2016, Jaeger et al., 2020a;Spinelli et al., 2019) and confirmed that that liking in and of itself is insufficient as a predictor of consumption, in line with past findings (Cardello et al., 2000;Rosas-Nexticapa, Angulo, & O'Mahony, 2005). While prediction of past consumption was improved by combining liking and "beyond liking" measures in both studies (EF2), the "beyond liking" datasets that contributed to this improvement differed, hereby pointing to study-specific influences. ...
Article
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Sensory and consumer science is concerned with measuring perceptual and affective responses to consumer products. Historically, hedonic responses (degree of liking or preference for a set of test products) have been the primary measure of product performance in food-related consumer research, but recent years has seen an increase in the uptake of perceptual measures that go “beyond liking”, with interest primarily focusing on product-elicited emotions, conceptualisations and situational appropriateness. Although the ultimate purpose of collecting such responses is that they are predictive of what consumers will like, choose and consume in their everyday life, such data are very rarely validated against actual consumer behaviour. Against this backdrop, the present research aimed to evaluate the ability of emotional, conceptual, and situational appropriateness responses to predict a behaviourally relevant measure of product performance – frequency of past consumption. Two (online) consumer studies were conducted with US adults, using salads (Study 1, n=606) and non-alcoholic beverages (Study 2, n=603) as product categories. In each study, the predictive ability of each set of measures was benchmarked against that of expected liking to identify the optimal (most predictive of consumption) combination of product-related measures. Both studies provided evidence that all included measures (liking, emotional, conceptual, and situational responses) were significantly correlated with frequency of past consumption, and importantly, that inclusion of “beyond liking” measures improved behavioural prediction over and above models based on hedonic responses only. These findings confirmed that liking in and of itself is insufficient as a predictor of consumption and supported calls for the purposeful combination of different response types using “global” or multi-response approaches. Differences between the two studies pertaining to the relative importance of liking and the best combination of predictors were uncovered, suggesting that the optimal combination of “beyond liking” measures in practical applications is likely to be study-specific.
... The developed recipe for plant-based snacks, such as waffles made from fermented red bean seeds, allows for the creation of new snacks with great consumer recognition. This suggests the possibility of their frequent consumption by potential consumers as a diet diversification or as an element enriching the diet [45]. ...
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Legumes are an interesting matrix for food production. The aim of this study was to develop functional plant-based snacks using fermented red bean (RBB) seeds enriched with the following additives: marjoram—RBM (2%); carrot—RBC (30%); and red beetroot—RBRB (15%). In the process of constructing the snacks, the focus was on the maximum use of the raw material, including aquafaba, to improve nutritional properties, sensory acceptability, and biological activity. The chemical composition, protein digestibility, antioxidant activity, and phenolic content were analyzed. In addition, the effect of the in vitro digestion process on biologically active compounds and their interactions with intestinal microflora was analyzed. Sensory analysis and consumer evaluation were performed. It was found that fermentation with lactic acid bacteria increased the content of total protein (by 2%), reducing the presence of substances (by 8%) and phenolic compounds (by 13%) in red bean seeds. Snacks with marjoram (RBM) showed the highest antioxidant activity (increase by 42%) and content of polyphenolic compounds (increase by 25%) compared to the basic variant (RBB). During digestion, the content of phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity reached the highest values in the last section of the digestive tract, i.e., in the large intestine, with RBM achieving the best results (5.61 mg GAE/g and 28.82 mg TE/g). The snack variants with red beetroot (RBRB) and marjoram (RBM) were rated the best by consumers. The results obtained confirm that the obtained snacks can be innovative products with health-promoting properties, and marjoram turned out to improve their properties, including antibacterial ones.
... Regarding jellyfish, some preliminary information on potential food pairings was collected in Italy [22] and Latin America [20], but this information referred to only expectation conditions since the studies were run online. In particular, the Italian research recommended verifying the obtained results with sensory tests since it was highlighted that consumers' responses in expectation situations could be poor predictors of real food consumption contexts [49]. Thus, the present study is the first to investigate food pairings after a real tasting of jellyfish samples. ...
Article
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Although jellyfish represent a food source in Asia, limited attention has been devoted to investigating Western consumers’ perception and acceptance. This study explored the role of jellyfish body parts and presentation form in determining consumer perception. A local consumer test with 106 untrained subjects (57.5% female, 18–45 years) was performed in Italy over two days on six samples of jellyfish (Rhopilema esculentum Kishinouye) differing in terms of body parts (umbrella and oral arms) and presentation form (minced, striped, and pieced). For each sample, participants expressed their overall liking and, through three check-all-that-apply tests, described their perceived sensory properties and emotions and potential preferred food pairings. The results showed a significant effect of presentation form on liking (with striped and minced samples liked more than pieced samples), 18 sensory properties, four emotions, and five food pairings. Moreover, different drivers of liking and emotions were observed for three clusters of subjects named “In favour of”, “Against”, and “Picky towards” eating jellyfish. In conclusion, this study found that at least one segment of consumers could accept jellyfish as novel food. Moreover, the provided results could be useful for developing innovative jellyfish-based products and dishes that meet consumers’ expectations.
... cream resulted in heightened familiarity with different sensory inputs such as aroma, taste, flavor, and texture. The findings align with previous research by Cardello et al. (2000), suggesting that food acceptance is influenced by consumers' perceptions and preferences for taste, flavor, and texture. Similarly, Burgess-Champoux et al. (2006) proposed that appearance, color, and familiarity significantly impact food acceptance. ...
Article
This study investigated the effects of repeated exposure on acceptability, emotional responses, and purchase intention of a novel symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY) ice cream, compared to a control (no extra additives) and a guar gum ice cream sample, using three sessions: a survey (SCOBY information) and two tasting sessions (repeated‐exposure effect). Participants initially conducted blind evaluations of all samples, followed by an informed tasting. The blind tasting sessions evoked high arousal emotions for the SCOBY ice cream and positive emotions for the control and guar gum samples. The second session showed a rise in liking for sweetness (5.6–6.5) and texture (5.6–6.7) of the SCOBY samples. Sensory attributes such as flavor (odds ratio = 1.7) and texture (odds ratio = 1.7), coupled with positive emotions such as “happy” (odds ratio = 3.8), “pleasant” (odds ratio = 0.4), and “interested” (odds ratio = 3.8) affected purchase intention. The findings of this study provide valuable insights into participants' liking and emotional responses during repeated exposures to stimuli. Practical Applications The study's findings show that repeated exposure to novel products enhances consumer acceptance and emotional responses, challenging the current formats of traditional sensory studies. This implies that the introduction of novel products can be successful with repeated tasting exposure strategies. The focus on improving familiarity with sensory attributes, especially flavor and texture, can positively impact purchase intention. This insight can guide product positioning, marketing campaigns, and flavor development efforts, encouraging the successful integration of innovative products into the market.
... In this context, it is an important focus of this study to investigate whether the variables of food satisfaction and ecolabeling play a significant role in reducing respondents' plate waste. The concept of food satisfaction [68], which is defined as "a positive response to food after receiving it and food-related physical and psychological well-being sensations", is influenced by a variety of factors, including traditional menus, authenticity, variety of cooking methods, unique flavors, originality, an affective image of food, an image of local cuisine, cultural heritage, uniqueness and price of food [69], its value, utility, appropriateness [70], diversity, and quality. However, the existing literature hardly covers the relationship between food satisfaction and plate waste. ...
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This study examines the effects of dispositional greed, impulsivity, food satisfaction, and ecolabeling on consumers’ plate waste in all-inclusive hotels. Using a moderated mediation research model, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1253 tourists of different nationalities, all staying in five-star hotels in Alanya, Türkiye. The results show that both dispositional greed and impulsivity positively predict and significantly contribute to plate waste. Conversely, food satisfaction was found to be an influential variable that moderates the effects of greed and impulsivity on plate waste, highlighting its critical role in waste reduction strategies. Ecolabels, despite their intended purpose, were not found to have a significant impact on consumer attitudes toward plate waste. Future research is encouraged to explore strategies to counteract dispositional greed and impulsivity, given their significant impact on plate waste behavior. At the same time, refining methods to promote food satisfaction and the effective use of ecolabels may contribute significantly to reducing plate waste in all-inclusive resorts. This research contributes to our understanding of the psychological factors that influence consumer behavior in buffet settings and provides guidance to hospitality industry practitioners seeking to reduce waste.
... Insect-based food prepared as salty food [42] is considered more acceptable [38,43,44]. According to these authors, consumers consider the testing of sweet insect food less acceptable or even inappropriate [38,45,46]. In addition, the kind of food (e.g., traditional, authentic, ethnic, exotic, or artisanal) has an influence on the decision of trying insect-based food [47]. ...
Article
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Social marketing campaigns are widely used to inform, educate, communicate, and promote healthy behaviors that add benefits to the individual, but also to society and the environment. Considering the low cost and high quality of insect-based food, this research aims to identify the main factors which can be used by social marketing campaigns to help people to try new foods, such as insect-based food. Although it is considered an important alternative to protein, there are a few countries that have not experienced it. In many Western countries, insect-based food is perceived as being disgusting. Neophobia is also a barrier to trying these foods. The main goal is to analyze if social marketing campaigns might influence perception (familiarity, preparation, visual, and information). Our model proves this assumption because we obtained high path coefficients, indicating that perception influences social beliefs, individual beliefs, and consumption intention. Thus, they will increase the consumption intention.
... Creating and enhancing the relationship among the customers will help them to have a positive image of customer attitudes and behaviors. Based on the research conducted by Cardello et al. (2000) among the two groups about the attitudes and behavior they found that factors that provide information about the foods where they serve, location type will be considered as one of the signals for important consideration for improving the quality of service in the industry. ...
Conference Paper
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The purpose of this paper is to develop assessment framework for customer loyalty in quick-service restaurants. Building customer loyalty is a key factor in influencing repeat purchases in the designated restaurant. This framework used multi-grade fuzzy for assessment and importance performance analysis is used to identify the weaker attributes that need to be improved. The case study has been conducted in a quick-service restaurant. Based on the case-analysis promised and on-time service, attentive staff, and a range of foods are weaker attributes. This framework enables restaurant managers to identify and improve customer satisfaction, which will have a direct influence on customer loyalty.
... Rozin illustrates this nicely with the example of a dieter who prefers cottage cheese to ice cream, even though the ice cream is liked more (Rozin and Vollmecke, 1986). Finally, some additional confusion arises from a secondary usage of "preference" to refer to rated liking for food names (as in a food preference survey (e.g., Drewnowski and Hann, 1999;Duffy et al., 2007), in contrast to rated liking for sampled food, which is termed "acceptance" in the literature (Cardello et al., 2000). Notably, liking ratings for sampled food and food names have correlations in the range of +0.43 to +0.64 (Hayes et al., 2010). ...
... The alcoholic beverage industry has long struggled with an issue in consumer research; namely, why the beverages that are liked/disliked in consumer research are not necessarily the ones that sell well/poorly in the market? This incongruence between consumers liking and their consumption was also pointed out by Giacalone et al. (2022) and observed in several studies (Cardello et al., 2000, Köster & Mojet, 2007, Rosas-Nexticapa et al., 2005. It is essential for sensory and consumer scientists to lead manufacturers in the right direction of product development based on a correct understanding of consumers. ...
... In general, however, from a plethora of research studies, scientists have shown that it is extremely difficult to predict consumer behavior in terms of food in real life situations. Although the use of multiple variables before testing may improve predictability, much of the variability in preference, satisfaction or consumption continues to remain unclear, in the sense that it cannot be predicted (Cardello et al., 2000). ...
Conference Paper
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The COVID-19 pandemic spread at an inconceivable rate all over the world. The terrifying speed of contagion forced governments to resort to the introduction of restrictive measures, in order to reduce the spread of the virus and to curb the death rate, in the absence of suitable medical treatments and vaccines (till the last days of 2020) against the virus. The spread of the pandemic, in combination with the measures, had a serious impact on almost all aspects of the economy. It cannot be denied that the pandemic has changed consumers’ psychology and behavior, which affected their preferences, differentiating them in various ways. This study approaches and examines the effects of COVID-19 on fresh products and their trade, which were significantly affected by the pandemic. It should be noted that these products are produced in Greece and exported to a significant extent. This study makes a comparative study of the available data collected from previous trading periods, including the views obtained through a qualitative survey of people who play an important role in the production and marketing of this product, in order to clarify all aspects of the impact on the marketing of asparagus, grapes and kiwi. The findings show significant economic damage, mainly through falling prices, loss of markets, redistribution of the quality grades finally preferred by the markets, unsold quantities at the markets and the general uncertainty caused by the unprecedented conditions that have prevailed.
... It is interesting to note that the two groups showed a similar pattern regarding the seven most chosen aspects providing pleasure from food, and that the main theme of many of these aspects is that they belong to the sensory modality of food pleasure perception. This result support previous findings on drivers of food-related pleasure and satisfaction from food [55][56][57][58][59]. Furthermore, these results emulate those found in previous studies using the Food Pleasure Scale [60,61]. ...
Article
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Psychological stressors frequently occur in modern society, and are associated with general anhedonic traits (inability to experience pleasure) and altered eating behavior. As eating behavior is largely motivated by a desire for pleasure, the Food Pleasure Scale (FPS) was introduced as a new research tool for investigating aspects of pleasure from food-related experiences. Thereby, insights on whether some aspects of pleasure are more affected by stress than others can be investigated, and can help explain why changes in eating behavior are seen when under the influence of stress. A consumer survey including n = 190 Danish consumers all with moderate or high levels of perceived stress was conducted to explore the perception of pleasure from food, general appetite, meal patterns, as well as specific food preferences. The study showed that the majority found pleasure in the sensory modalities of food, as well as in the ‘comforting’ aspects of food pleasure. Furthermore, the moderately stressed respondents had fewer main meals and more post-dinner snacks and night meals, as compared to before falling ill, whereas the highly stressed group showed signs of anhedonic traits and losing appetite altogether. The present study contributes to our understanding of how a common condition, such as chronic stress, can affect individual, as well as public, health.
... En tal sentido, la calidad de la comida es vista por los clientes como deliciosa, nutritiva y visualmente atractiva por lo que es un predictor característico de la satisfacción del consumidor (Ryu y Han, 2010). Un indicador apropiado para establecer la calidad de la comida es la aceptabilidad del consumidor (Cardello et al. 2000). La calidad de la comida se ha estudiado con mayor énfasis en relación con las propiedades sensoriales como el sabor, el olor, la presentación y el aspecto visual de los alimentos en el plato como la textura, el color, la temperatura y el volumen de las porciones (Djekic et al. 2016). ...
Article
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El objetivo de este artículo es formular un modelo de calidad de servicio que permita el fomento de la competitividad de restaurantes de cocina tradicional ecuatoriana de la ciudad de Guayaquil. El diseño de investigación es no experimental descriptivo, predictivo. La técnica encuesta fue aplicada a trescientos cuatro clientes de restaurantes de comida típica ecuatoriana. Tuvo un instrumento con treinta y dos ítems para la variable gestión de la calidad y sesenta y cuatro para la variable competitividad. Los datos fueron analizados mediante pruebas estadísticas de regresión logística ordinal. Entre los resultados más importantes, el modelo teórico indica una competitividad desfavorable relacionada con el servicio brindado por los establecimientos, deficientes protocolos de bioseguridad y desconexión de la arquitectura de los establecimientos con el entorno cultural costeño ecuatoriano.
... Liking is often used to inform product development or substitutions decisions, following the assumption that a product that is well liked will be frequently chosen and consumed. However, liking is only one contributor to food choice, and several other factors are involved (Cardello, Schutz, Snow, & Lesher, 2000;Meiselman, 2010;Sobal, Bisogni, & Jastran, 2014), and liking has been shown to be a poor indicator of consumption (Carins et al., 2022). Future studies could include other variables that influence choice such as liking, suitability or appropriateness (Giacalone, 2019) compatibility (Jimenez et al., 2015) and emotions (Thomson, 2010) to understand which factors are driving choice and consumption. ...
Article
Best-Worst Scaling (BWS) has the potential to improve menu design by determining the most and least preferred combat ration pack (CRP) items by military personnel. However, individual differences among large groups means that a ration pack design based on the average of preferences may leave many individuals dissatisfied. This paper extends the existing literature by segmenting Australian military personnel based on the preferences for specific ration pack items. Military personnel (n = 300) provided BWS data via an online survey providing product preferences for 21 items. Participants were randomly allocated to one of four different military scenarios developed and refined by Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel, ensuring consistency with typical operational and training exercises. The four scenarios were presented with two environment variations (hot/dry or hot/humid) and two resupply variations (daily or resupply on day four and day seven) creating four survey sub-groups. Two-step cluster analysis revealed three military segments (Snackers, Balanced eaters, and Mindful eaters) with distinct CRP item preferences across the larger military group. This study provides insights of the feasibility and usefulness of segmenting military personnel based on ration pack item preferences. This approach could streamline the process for decision makers responsible for designing and developing ration packs, and ultimately increase consumption so that personnel obtain essential nutrition to support their performance.
... Figura 3 -Frequencia observada de consumidadores de alimentos orgânicos Dos participantes, 90% dizem que já consumiram ou consomem alimentos orgânicos, 6% não consumiram e 4% não sabem se consumiram. Segundo Cardello et al. (2000) o estudo do comportamento do consumidor tem se baseado em duas classes de variáveis dependentes: as variáveis atitudinais e as comportamentais. Em relação às atitudinais, encontram-se estudos que envolvem medidas afetivas, como a aceitação, a preferência do consumidor por determinado produto, entre outras. ...
Article
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O objetivo do presente trabalho foi identificar as dificuldades dos consumidores na aquisição de alimentos orgânicos da cidade de Unaí-MG . Os métodos utilizados para este trabalho foram através de uma pesquisa exploratória e também por amostragem não probabilística por conveniência estruturado em forma de formulário. Os resultados ilustram que as dificuldades encontradas pelos consumidores ao adquirir alimentos orgânicos em Unaí-MG, em primeiro lugar destaca-se o preço para 44% dos respondentes, seguido pela falta destes alimentos nos mercados para 38% dos respondentes, pois segundo os respondentes os alimentos são caros, e a falta nos mercados. Outro achado da pesquisa foi que os respondentes que incluiram alimentos orgânicos não só, tem uma alimentação mais saudável para 66% dos respondentes, mas também uma melhora na qualidade de vida, para 86% dos respondentes.
... This result is in line with forgoing studies, which have found the sensory properties are the most important aspects of food pleasure Duerlund, Andersen, Alexi, et al., 2020). Furthermore, sensory characteristics of food have been found to be positively related to acceptance, preference and liking, as well as food choice and behaviour (Cardello et al., 2000;Köster, 2009;Rozin & Tuorila, 1993). Within the 'Sensory-driven Pleasure' factors, the aspect of 'Food Taste' (understood as flavour) was rated highest of all items for both samples, which matches findings of several other studies too Moskowitz & Krieger, 1993). ...
Article
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Cross-cultural research with a focus on understanding food consumer behaviour is becoming increasingly relevant and important, not least because of the globalization of food markets. A better understanding of the relative importance of factors contributing to food pleasure could advance our understanding of different food behaviours. Two identical consumer surveys were conducted with a Chinese (n=306) and a Danish sample (n=280) to explore the importance of several drivers to food pleasure in each sample. Exploratory factor analyses were utilized for investigating underlying constructs of drivers of food pleasure. Most important drivers of food pleasure for each sample were investigated and a cross-cultural comparative analysis of main drivers of food pleasure was performed. Both samples found ‘Sensory-driven Pleasure’ to be most important for experienced food pleasure. In addition, the Danish sample had two secondary drivers of food-related pleasure; ‘Exploratory-driven Pleasure’ and ‘Confirming-driven Pleasure’. The Chinese sample had three secondary drivers of food pleasure: ‘Cognition-driven Pleasure’, ‘Curiosity-driven Pleasure’ and ‘Symbolic-driven Pleasure’. Thereby, the sensory-driven pleasure could be regarded the primary driver of food pleasure on a cross-cultural level, whereas secondary drivers seem to distinguish food-related pleasure in different cultures. These findings are relevant in several areas, as they provide new insights and knowledge of cultural differences in food choice and eating behaviour between China and Denmark, as well as contribute to the important field of cross-cultural research. This knowledge can support food researchers and food industry for a better understanding of what drives food pleasure, and ultimately food choice too.
... Indeed, according to Gallup, Americans consume fewer low-calorie products and exercise less in the winter than in warmer seasons, thus leading to fat gain (Mendes, 2011). Eating contexts and environmental cues-including those elicited in virtual environments-influence food choices and preferences (e.g., Ammann et al., 2020;Cardello et al., 2000;Cherulnik, 1991;Jaeger & Rose, 2008;King et al., 2004;Pennanen et al., 2020). Their role in developing overweight and obesity has been acknowledged (Wells et al., 2007). ...
Preprint
In the recent decade, marketing literature has acknowledged the advantages of applying an evolutionary lens to understand consumer behavior in different domains. Food choice context is one such domain, having implications for societal well-being, especially for public health and addressing environmental issues. In this thesis, I investigate how mechanisms that have emerged as adaptations to food scarcity—frequent throughout human history—affect modern consumers’ food preferences, potentially leading to maladaptive outcomes. In Paper I, we highlight that selection pressures adjusted humans to forage in ancestral, hostile environments when they were wandering between periods of food scarcity and food sufficiency. Consequently, consumers often fail to choose foods appropriate to their current needs in contemporary retail contexts. Rather than attempting to override these hardwired and evolutionarily outdated food preferences, we recommend policymakers leverage them in such a way that facilitates healthier food choices. A series of studies reported in Paper II show that exposing people to climate changeinduced food scarcity distant in time and space shifts their current food preferences. Specifically, people exposed to such video content exhibit a stronger preference toward energy-dense (vs. low-calorie) foods than their peers exposed to a control video. In Paper III, we aimed to account for potential confounds stemming from the control video used in studies reported in Paper II. Additionally, we strived to conceptually replicate these earlier findings by exposing participants to subtle cues to food scarcity—a winter forest walk. Although not all studies yielded significant results at conventional levels, this empirical package—when taken together—corroborated the earlier findings. Despite that studies described in Papers II–III provided a shred of empirical evidence showing a potency of food scarcity cues in increasing preferences toward energy-dense (vs. low-calorie) products, it was still unclear what drove such a shift in food liking. Thus, in Paper IV, we have developed and psychometrically validated the Anticipated Food Scarcity Scale (AFSS), measuring the degree to which people perceive food resources as becoming less available in the future. Aside from being a candidate mechanism partially explaining findings reported in Papers II–III, anticipated food scarcity (AFS) is also related to some aspects of prosociality. Studies presented in this thesis suggest that when environmental cues to food scarcity are present, people show a stronger preference toward energy-dense (vs. low-calorie) foods than their peers unexposed to such cues. Policymakers should consider these results when designing climate change and other similar campaigns, as such communication often depicts food scarcity. Additional research may explore the possibility that exposure to food scarcity cues affects food choices. Considering that we found AFS correlated with certain prosocial attitudes, it is a new psychological construct that warrants future investigation through multidisciplinary research.
... Digital immersive techniques may be distracting at initial exposure (Hathaway & Simons, 2017), and therefore, researchers may want to consider prior adaptation of their study participants to the study protocol when using novel immersive techniques. Furthermore, digital immersion may increase appropriateness ratings compared to in a sensory booth, which is important as increased ratings of appropriateness of eating context have previously been associated with increased ratings of (expected) liking (Cardello, Schutz, Snow, & Lesher, 2000). ...
Article
The environments and/or contexts typically used to determine consumer affective and sensory responses have been questioned for their ecological validity. However, conducting consumer testing in real-life scenarios is costly, logistically complex, and hard to standardise between participants due to a lack of control over external cues and product preparation. Immersive environments, representative of product consumption contexts, may provide more ecologically valid data. Recently, digital immersion technologies have been proposed to contextualise consumer studies whilst maintaining experimental control. This narrative review summarised published consumer studies including digital immersion in addition to traditional sensory booths and/or a real-life immersive contexts measuring outcomes and the impact of these contexts on liking, emotional response and intensity of sensory attributes. The findings suggest that emotional response ratings is more comparable to real-life, and that consumer engagement and reliability increases, when testing is conducted using digital immersive techniques compared to traditional sensory booths. Therefore, digital immersive techniques look promising to improve ecological validity of consumer testing, but further development and research is required.
... Participation in a given social group obliges to comply with the standards in force in it (Manstead, 2018). The elements of the social environment that are important from the point of view of influencing the choice of food include, first of all, the family and peer groups, as well as opinion leaders and model-forming groups (Cardello et al., 2000). ...
... In the controlled quiet sensory laboratory context, participants expressed more neutral affective ratings (mild, secure, nostalgic) when consuming the biscuits in comparison to the slices, where biscuits are commonly consumed as a snack in a quiet home or office context. This strongly supports the earlier consumer testing methodological framework by Schutz (Schutz & Martens, 2001;Schutz, 1994) on the concept of "situational appropriateness" where perceived appropriateness of the food-products for a consumption situation should be rated concurrently with liking ratings to obtain better prediction of food choice (Cardello, Schutz, Snow, & Lesher, 2000). In the past decade, work by Piqueras-Fiszman and Jaeger (2014a, 2014b has also highlighted the importance of evaluating products in perceived "appropriate" contexts when measuring emotional response. ...
Article
Sensory evaluation for the investigation of food consumption is often conducted in a controlled laboratory environment, which does not reflect consumption behaviour in real world. Here, we compared the effect of consumption setting (traditional sensory booth, mixed reality projection café, and a café) on consumer affective responses, and to investigate the effectiveness of using Microsoft HoloLens technology, an Augmented Mixed Reality device, as an ecologically valid alternative to natural consumption eating for sensory evaluation. Participant [(n = 120): 86 females/34 males, aged 18–65 years] affective response (overall liking, attribute liking, emotional response, and snack choice) towards two commercially available tea break snacks (caramel slice and chocolate digestive biscuit) was assessed in three different consumption settings using a balanced crossover design. There were no significant differences for most affective ratings between data obtained from the HoloLens evoked café and real café (p ≥ 0.10), suggesting that mixed reality could provide an ecologically valid context for consumer research. However, response differences were observed between these two contexts and the sensory booths. For example, interested, joy, enthusiastic emotion terms were rated slightly higher in the evoked café in comparison to the booth context and slightly higher emotional engagement was observed for joy in the café compared to the booths (all p < .10). This study highlights key considerations for deciding where consumer testing should be conducted and the importance of using a combination of overall liking, attribute liking and emotional response to obtain data representative of real-world environments in consumer studies.
... The three ideas above have not yet been tested in real life, but we hope to test them in the future, according to resources and opportunities we may have. We do not discard the possibility of failure in these future tests: according to Cardello et al. (2000), when regarding to foods it is extremely difficult to predict any aspect of consumer behavior in real life. ...
Article
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In this paper, we analyze the consumption habits and perceptions of Brazilians and Americans regarding the consumption, preparation and handling of the coffee product and its packaging, in order to better think about translating the packaging of coffee produced in southern Minas Gerais to the USA market. Through bibliographic research and other resources, information such as preparation, reasons for consumption, and place of consumption were compared between the two populations to understand if there were relevant cultural differences. The packaging of eight coffee brands, four from each country, was also compared in order to notice any differences and similarities between them. The results show that there are indeed differences between the two cultures, both in their habits and in their packaging. Some examples are the valorization of the semantic field of coffee in Brazilian packaging, and the preference for quick methods of brewing the product for the Americans. We conclude that any translation of Brazilian coffee for the American public must consider these differences. Finally, we present some possibilities for packaging translation, using for this the idea of country brand and its influences on consumers, as well as the concepts of Localization, Intersemiotic Translation and Paratranslation.
... Indeed, according to Gallup, Americans consume fewer low-calorie products and exercise less in the winter than in warmer seasons, thus leading to fat gain (Mendes, 2011). Eating contexts and environmental cues-including those elicited in virtual environments-influence food choices and preferences (e.g., Cherulnik, 1991;Jaeger & Rose, 2008;Cardello, Schutz, Snow, & Lesher, 2000;Pennanen, Närväinen, Vanhatalo, Raisamo, & Sozer, 2020;Ammann, Hartmann, Peterhans, Ropelato, & Siegrist, 2020;King, Weber, Meiselman, & Lv, 2004). Their role in developing overweight and obesity has been acknowledged (Wells, Ashdown, Davies, Cowett, & Yang, 2007). ...
Article
Winter cues signal a scarcity of food. Birds and mammals respond to such environmental cues by consuming more energy. They convert this surplus into body fat that serves as a buffer against impending food shortages. Similarly, humans exhibit higher obesity rates among food-insecure populations. However, to date, it has been unclear whether winter cues qualitatively affect consumers’ food preferences. Results from five studies (N = 865), with one of them preregistered, show that watching videos depicting winter cues elicits thoughts about energy-dense foods and survival. Such cues elicit higher preferences for energy-dense than low-calorie foods, as verified by meta-analytic evidence, with this effect likely differing between women and men. Taken together, our results support an evolutionary account postulating that humans have developed sex-specific responses to perceivable cues of food scarcity. As a result, winter cues induce people to favor products they deem higher in calories. Given the importance of limiting energy-dense food consumption for addressing environmental and public health issues, policymakers and marketers should be aware of this phenomenon when designing public communication campaigns.
... The 'item-by-use' (IBU) approach in which consumers evaluate products across a range of relevant usage situations (Schutz, 1988(Schutz, , 1994 is popular for measurement of situational appropriateness, and previous research has shown that appropriateness (IBU) ratings are associated with expected liking (Cardello et al., 2000;Jaeger et al., 2019), willingness to pay (Elzerman et al., 2015), frequency of consumption (Sosa, Martínez, Arruiz, Hough, & Mucci, 2005) and emotional responses (Piqueras-Fiszman & Jaeger, 2019). When co-elicited with hedonic ratings for tasted products, samples that are similarly liked often differ in appropriateness (Cardello & Schutz, 1996;Lähteenmäki & Tuorila, 1995, 1997Jaeger, Lee, et al., 2019 indicating that appropriateness enables product differentiation beyond liking. ...
Article
Full-text available
Measures of product performance that effectively predict food and beverage choices are sought after. A simple method to add value to hedonic data is that of item-by-use (IBU) appropriateness, where consumers are presented with a list of possible consumption situations and asked to indicate how well a product fits them. A persistent misconception surrounding this approach is that it is relevant for discriminating between different products, but not between variants within the same product category, which is often a focus of sensory and consumer studies. To provide a deeper understanding of the sensory underpinnings of appropriateness, the present work presents experimental evidence from six consumer studies (116–210 consumers per study) employing unbranded product variants from the same category. Products were successfully discriminated based on IBU appropriateness in all studies, even when sensory variation was unidimensional and controlled (such as a basic lemonade recipe varying in sugar content). While product differentiation based on the sensory profiles was greater than differentiation based on appropriateness, the results clearly show that sensory variation, in and of itself, is sufficient to elicit differences in perceived appropriateness. As expected, the degree of inter-product differences in appropriateness was approximately linearly related to the degree of differences in sensory profiles. Finally, while some sensory properties independently affected perceived appropriateness, the magnitude (and in some cases the direction) of the effects often depended on the level of product liking.
... Indeed, according to Gallup, Americans consume fewer low-calorie products and exercise less in the winter than in warmer seasons, thus leading to fat gain (Mendes, 2011). Eating contexts and environmental cues-including those elicited in virtual environments-influence food choices and preferences (e.g., Ammann et al., 2020;Cardello et al., 2000;Cherulnik, 1991;Jaeger & Rose, 2008;King et al., 2004;Pennanen et al., 2020). Their role in developing overweight and obesity has been acknowledged (Wells et al., 2007). ...
Preprint
Full-text available
Winter cues signal a scarcity of food. Birds and mammals respond to such environmental cues by consuming more energy. They convert this surplus into body fat that serves as a buffer against impending food shortages. Similarly, humans exhibit higher obesity rates among food-insecure populations. However, to date, it has been unclear whether winter cues qualitatively affect consumers’ food preferences. Results from five studies (N = 865), with one of them preregistered, show that watching videos depicting winter cues elicits thoughts about energy-dense foods and survival. Winter cues elicit higher preferences for energy-dense than low-calorie foods, with this effect likely being different for women and men. A meta-analysis corroborate this conclusion. Accordingly, our results support the evolutionary account postulating that humans have developed sex-specific responses to perceivable cues to food scarcity. As a result, winter cues induce people to favor products they deem higher in calories. Given the importance of limiting energy-dense food consumption for addressing environmental and public health issues, policymakers and marketers should be aware of this phenomenon when designing public communication campaigns.
... Beyond individual traits (e.g., age, sex, and BMI), portion size and visual cues, previous experience, expectations, and environmental situation, are well recognized to have strong impacts on everyday food intake. 31,33,35,52,58,59,67,71,72 It is also possible that palatability itself effects satiation. 16 Some of the individual studies included in the review report such an effect, 48,51 hence our interest in acceptability in reference to the sensory and physical food characteristics that effect satiation, although these effects of acceptability on satiation were not reported in all studies that investigated them. ...
Article
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This systematic review with meta‐analyses aimed to identify the sensory and physical characteristics of foods/beverages which increase satiation and/or decrease/delay subsequent consumption without affecting acceptability. Systematic searches were first undertaken to identify review articles investigating the effects of any sensory and physical food characteristic on food intake. These articles provided some evidence that various textural parameters (aeration, hardness, homogeneity, viscosity, physical form, added water) can impact food intake. Individual studies investigating these effects while also investigating acceptability were then assessed. Thirty‐seven individual studies investigated a textural manipulation and provided results on food intake and acceptability, 13 studies (27 comparisons, 898 participants) investigated effects on satiation, and 29 studies (54 comparisons, 916 participants) investigated effects on subsequent intake. Meta‐analyses of within‐subjects comparisons (random‐effects models) demonstrated greater satiation (less weight consumed) from food products that were harder, chunkier, more viscous, voluminous, and/or solid, while demonstrating no effects on acceptability. Textural parameters had limited effects on subsequent consumption. Between‐subjects studies and sensitivity analyses confirmed these results. These findings provide some evidence that textural parameters can increase satiation without affecting acceptability. The development of harder, chunkier, more viscous, voluminous, and/or solid food/beverage products may be of value in reducing overconsumption.
... The development and success of a new encapsulated product is dependent on the consumer's behavior and attitude, such as perception, preference, acceptance and choice of the product [161]. Factors that affect consumers' choices may be: (a) biological (e.g., palatability, hunger, satiety); (b) economic (e.g., cost, income, education, knowledge level); (c) physical (e.g., time or skills); (d) meal attributes (e.g., convenience, familiarity); (e) social determinants (e.g., culture, relatives, family norms); (f) physiological determinants (e.g., mood, stress, history influences); and (g) other (belief, optimistic bias, restrictions) [162]. ...
Article
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Initially used extensively as an additive and ingredient in the food industry, alginate has become an important compound for a wide range of industries and applications, such as the medical, pharmaceutical and cosmetics sectors. In the food industry, alginate has been used to coat fruits and vegetables, as a microbial and viral protection product, and as a gelling, thickening, stabilizing or emulsifying agent. Its biocompatibility, biodegradability, nontoxicity and the possibility of it being used in quantum satis doses prompted scientists to explore new properties for alginate usage. Thus, the use of alginate has been expanded so as to be directed towards the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries, where studies have shown that it can be used successfully as biomaterial for wound, hydrogel, and aerogel dressings, among others. Furthermore, the ability to encapsulate natural substances has led to the possibility of using alginate as a drug coating and drug delivery agent, including the encapsulation of probiotics. This is important considering the fact that, until recently, encapsulation and coating agents used in the pharmaceutical industry were limited to the use of lactose, a potentially allergenic agent or gelatin. Obtained at a relatively low cost from marine brown algae, this hydrocolloid can also be used as a potential tool in the management of diabetes, not only as an insulin delivery agent but also due to its ability to improve insulin resistance, attenuate chronic inflammation and decrease oxidative stress. In addition, alginate has been recognized as a potential weight loss treatment, as alginate supplementation has been used as an adjunct treatment to energy restriction, to enhance satiety and improve weight loss in obese individuals. Thus, alginate holds the promise of an effective product used in the food industry as well as in the management of metabolic disorders such as diabetes and obesity. This review highlights recent research advances on the characteristics of alginate and brings to the forefront the beneficial aspects of using alginate, from the food industry to the biomedical field.
Article
Food images generated using artificial intelligence (AI) are becoming more common in research, and in the everyday world. The objective of this study was to identify how consumers' perception of a food image (AI‐generated or a genuine image), influenced their perception and emotional response to the food. Participants ( n = 154) were asked to look at ten different images (five were AI‐generated and five were genuine (referred to as standard images)) of food items common to those living in Atlantic Canada. The participants were asked to evaluate their willingness to consume, the healthiness, the naturalness, the appeal, and their perception of AI use for each image. The study also assessed their emotional response to the images. The results found the participants were able to identify when an image was created using an AI generator. The participants' perception of AI was negatively correlated to participants' willingness to consume the food product, as well as their perception of the healthiness, naturalness, and appeal of the product. Furthermore, the participants' emotional response was different when evaluating AI generated images compared to standard images. The results highlight the use of AI‐generated images in surveys can influence the participants perception, but this topic needs to be further explored in future studies.
Chapter
Large amounts of money, time and effort are devoted to sensory and consumer research in food and beverage companies in an attempt to maximize the chances of new products succeeding in the marketplace. Many new products fail due to lack of consumer interest. Answers to what causes this and what can be done about it are complex and remain unclear. This wide-ranging reference collates important information about all aspects of this in one volume for the first time. It provides comprehensive, state-of-art coverage of essential concepts, methods and applications related to the study of consumer evaluation, acceptance and adoption of new foods and beverages. Combining knowledge and expertise from multiple disciplines that study food sensory evaluation and consumer behaviour, it covers advanced methods including analytical, instrumental and human characterization of flavour, aspects of food processing and special research applications of knowledge and methods related to consumers’ evaluation of new food products. Researchers and professionals working in food science and chemistry are sure to find this an interesting read.
Article
We have calculated an entropy or information measure of previously reported experimentally determined temporal dominance of sensations (TDS) data of texture attributes for two sets of emulsion filled gels throughout the mastication cycle. The samples were emulsion filled gels and two‐layered emulsion filled gels. We find that the entropy measure follows an average curve, which is different for each set. The specifics of the entropy curve may serve as a fingerprint for the perception of a specific food sample.
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Emotions and food products are intimately related. Individuals’ emotions modulate eating behaviors, and negative emotions may induce food disorders. On the other hand, the consumption of food or drink products may trigger different emotional states in individuals. Thus, the relationship between food or drink products and emotion is dynamic and complex. In this chapter, after describing the strong link between food products and emotions and the role of associative learning, we propose a definition of emotion and feelings. The chapter mainly focuses on the measure of verbal emotional responses triggered by food products. This measure refers to feelings, or the conscious verbalization of the emotional response. Although the unconscious emotional response related to physiological and behavioral responses should not be underestimated and is described, the chapter provides a broader review on a methodology developed to measure food-elicited feelings in consideration of cross-cultural differences. A series of examples is presented to illustrate the use of this methodology in sensory and consumer test settings for food product development. We also propose that investigations should be undertaken into the effects of changing the product label, packaging, and color on consumer emotional expectations and on the overall emotional response when the product is experienced. Finally, examples of research conducted in ecological settings and virtual environments are provided.Key wordsEmotionsFeelingsFoodsExpectationCulture
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This study aimed at examining factors that effect of food taste, food quality, service quality, perceived price, responsiveness, restaurant environment on customer satisfaction and revisit intention. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire survey of fast food restaurant customers in a selected metropolitan area from Colombo district and students from University of Sri Jayewardenepura. The data were analyzed using SPSS 21.0 and R Studio 3.5.1 software. The study has found that food quality and perceived price are the important antecedents of restaurant customer satisfaction. Further, the results clearly showed a significant role of customer satisfaction on revisit intention and crucial impact of perceived price on customer satisfaction. In addition, revisit intention towards the fast food restaurant is directly influenced by food tastes. This study collected data from two selected groups; students from University of Sri Jayewardenepura and one metropolitan area, and data has analyzed further based on demographic characteristics further to confirm the results. Therefore, this study provides valuable insight to restaurant managers on attracting, retaining and satisfying their customers.
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Engineering healthy diets from sustainable food resources undoubtedly constitutes a major global challenge. One solution to the problem of developing healthy and sustainable diets involves the incorporation of various novel/unfamiliar foods into our diets (e.g., insect-based foods, cultured meats, plant-based meat alternatives, and 3D printed foods). However, the consumer acceptance of novel/unfamiliar foods still poses something of a challenge. Although a growing body of research has started to reveal that situational factors (e.g., social companions, eating venue) can influence food preferences, it remains unclear how exactly they influence the consumer’s acceptance of novel/unfamiliar foods (including unfamiliar ingredients, food produced by novel processes/technologies). Across three studies, we examined the influence of social companions (alone, friend, family, acquaintance, partner) and venue (home, cafe, bar, pub, food festival, restaurant), on the anticipated willingness to try a number of novel/unfamiliar foods (insect-based foods, cultured meats, plant-based meat alternatives, and 3D printed foods). Using the category name and descriptions of novel/unfamiliar foods, our results demonstrated that situational factors influence anticipated acceptance differently depending on the type of novel/unfamiliar foods. Eating with friends and at food festivals plays an important role in the anticipated acceptance of insect-based foods, cultured meats, and 3D printed foods in a similar way. Moreover, expected positive and negative emotions might help to explain why these situational factors increase the anticipated acceptance of these foods. In contrast, the environmental situations that increase the anticipated acceptance of plant-based meat alternatives are similar to those increasing the acceptance of typical (rather than novel) foods. Taken together, these findings reveal the role of situational factors in the anticipated eating of a variety of novel/unfamiliar foods, thus providing practical implications on how/where to introduce such foods or engineer appropriate situations to increase the acceptance of, and exposure to, such novel/unfamiliar foods.
Article
Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) Salers and Cantal are two French uncooked semi-hard cheeses. Despite a quite similar cheese-making process, both types of cheeses exhibit specific sensory attributes. Salers and Cantal cheeses are produced with either Salers milk or with milk from “other cow breeds.” The aim of this study is to evaluate the specific sensory properties in order to differentiate both types of cheese: Cantal versus Salers combining a consumer test (n = 152) using the CATA method and a sensory profile with a trained panel (n = 9). Ten cheeses (Salers cheeses; n = 6 and Cantal cheeses; n = 4) were selected, after 12 months of ripening and storage in the same maturing cellar. A clear discrimination of Cantal cheeses and Salers cheeses was achieved by using sensory and CATA terms. More precisely, Cantal cheeses were characterized by their texture, whereas Salers cheeses were differentiated by aromatic profile and appearance. The CATA method offers a good description of cheeses (14 attributes out of 16 were discriminant) even if consumer preference scores were slightly close. Although the sensory profile allows a more detailed product characterization than CATA terms, both methods provided similar information about the sensory characterization. Overall, these results suggest the validity of CATA method and once again, show the interest of using it for the sensory characterization by consumers applied on cheese samples with subtle differences. Practical Applications The findings of this study are useful for French artisanal cheese producers as they make it possible to use a sensory approach to differentiate cheese categories from different cheese-making process. This sensory distinction contributes to the improvement of qualities of PDO French cheeses. Hence, these specific sensory attributes could be useful to the supply chain to communicate and to better explain to consumers the sensory differences between these two cheese categories, which are sometimes poorly distinguished by consumers during purchase. In addition, the good agreement between sensory profile and the CATA method demonstrated similarities about the sensory description of cheeses. In spite of the fact that the liking scores were very close between the cheeses, consumers were able to distinguish the Salers and Cantal cheeses by using the CATA method.
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Addressing consumer needs is key to success in new product development. Due to COVID-19, however, gathering feedback on food products has become challenging. Our preliminary research on the food industry revealed that the socially distanced lifestyle has deprived food practitioners of in-person testing platforms, inspiring our research questions. Although a myriad of virtual methods for food testing have been reported in the past two decades, the literature does not provide systematic assessment of their applicability. Therefore, in this review of 108 papers, we delineate the landscape of virtual technologies for food testing and present their practical implications. From our analysis, VR emerged as a promising tool, yet it was not being used by practitioners. Other technologies (e.g. flavor simulators) were too preliminary to be adopted in industry. Furthermore, the types of technologies were fragmented, leaving much room for cross-tech integration. Future research goals to address the gaps are discussed.
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There has been an increase in the relationship between tourists’ destination preferences, food and drink habits, and local products; in other words, local characteristics have been increasingly affecting the preferences of visitors (UNWTO, 2012, 3). This change in the preferences is in line with the increasing interest in ‘experiencing’ instead of ‘consuming’. At this point, different factors, either increasing or decreasing the desire to taste the final product, come together; the processes of obtaining the raw material, choosing the combination and cooking technique, preparing the food are all significant in obtaining a successful final meal that leads tourists to try new tastes. According to the literature analysis, it can be said that satisfaction from restaurant experience, food image, food recognition, and neophobia are the significant elements that have the potential to affect and shape the intention to consume, experience local food. The variables that will be analyzed in the scope of this research study are chosen in the frame of this information. The target population of the study, which aims at determining the impact of the above- mentioned factors on tourist behaviors, is made of ethnic restaurant visitors. There are similarities between visiting an ethnic restaurant and a tourist destination; experiencing something new in a specific culture and having pleasure from it are the common points of these two seemingly different actions (Lego et al., 2002, 61). From this viewpoint, it can be said that a positive ethnic restaurant experience may not only increase the possibility of re-visiting that destination but also lead tourists to visit the specific region where that meal is originally cooked restaurant. As known, people nowadays increasingly tend to experience gastronomic heritage elements and visit original destinations. The factors of satisfaction, image, recognition, and neophobia, which are the factors that affect gastronomy experience in tourism, are significant and thus analyzed in this study. 2 This chapter is based on the doctorate thesis of the author. 265 It has been possible to reveal the common effects of different factors and see the possible relationship between local food consumption at a destination and behavioral intentions. Although there are many research studies in the literature about the effect of the above-mentioned factors on behavioral intentions (Chi et al. 2013; Min and Lee, 2014; Cohen and Avieli, 2004), there is not a comprehensive study focusing on the effect of ethnic restaurant experience on the intention of visiting a destination and experience local food. This effect on behavioral intentions is analyzed in this study; the analysis is based on the satisfaction levels of Germans visiting Turkish restaurants in Berlin. On the other hand, their level of recognizing foods specific to Turkish cuisine, neophobic tendencies, and the images of the presented food are the other factors carefully analyzed in this research study. Ethnic restaurants reflect unique features of a culture, region, or country and they are the representatives of gastronomic heritage (Ebster and Guist, 2005, 43; Lego et al., 2002, 61). Restaurants give visitors the chance to experience local, special, and original tastes (Turgeon and Pastinelli, 2002, 247). The basic purpose of this research is to analyze the behavioral intentions of Germans visiting Turkish restaurants in Berlin in terms of their experiences in the destination and consuming local food. Studies in the related literature about ethnic restaurants mostly focus on assessing and evaluating experiences; studies researching the behavioral intentions of tourists, on the other hand, ignore the effect of ethnic restaurant visits on these intentions. In light of this information, this study aims at filling this gap in the related literature by focusing on these two factors in tourist experiences.
Chapter
The eating environment is a complex phenomenon involving a number of factors which, either individually or synergistically, have the ability to influence the meal experience. The study of emotions in such circumstances is important as, for example, emotions have the ability to influence behavioral intentions, which in turn influence overall satisfaction and can be effective in the event of service failure. The techniques used to measure emotions in a typical environment tend, for the moment at least, to be restricted to questionnaires, and more recently, interviews, although other techniques continue to be developed. The choice and nuances of a questionnaire require careful deliberation, as no single instrument represents the ideal, and may need to be adapted to fit the circumstances. Similar considerations also apply to interviews along with the sample size. Thereafter, the practicalities of the actual data collection are not something which should be left to chance and each aspect needs to be carefully thought through.
Article
Private label brands (PLB) have been increasing both perceived quality and consumer acceptance in the last decades, which has compelled national brands (NBs) to invest in maintaining consumer confidence and preference. Recent economic crisis led consumers to become more price sensitive and more worried about cutting on daily needs, such as food consumption. However, taste is still one of the most important factor of decision for consumers regarding food products. Despite such importance of taste in decision‐making, most research on consumer senses still relies on traditional methods of surveying consumers, which are unable to measure the consumers' autonomic emotional reactions. The current paper uses a psychophysiological method to measure emotional arousal–electrodermal activity (EDA) and a self‐assessment manikin to measure pleasure. Emotions are then tested to assess their influence on perceived quality and willingness to buy (WTB). Findings show that NB are still perceived by consumers as superior, but consumers' WTB is not higher for NB. These results show that consumers' decisions are not always in favor of the product which is perceived to have a better quality which suggests that the “quality gap” is fading and the “branding gap” is gaining momentum.
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The study of the human response to food is a complex and rapidly evolving field. It encompasses a wide range of scientific disciplines, ranging from food science and technology to nutrition, biochemistry, physiology, psychology, marketing and catering. As may be expected in such an interdisciplinary area, numerous scientific concepts have evolved to describe various aspects of the phenomenon under investigation. However, the terminology used to describe these concepts, as well as the methods for measuring them, differ from one discipline to another. Food ‘acceptance’ is one such concept. Since the focus of this chapter concerns factors that influence food acceptance, I would first like to describe and define food acceptance and then to detail the operational approach that we have used to measure it in the laboratory.
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Expectations are generated by a variety of factors. We indicate a flow chart for the role of expectations at the point of choice and in influencing sensory perception at the time of consumption. We review the sparse literature on how advertising, packaging and information generate sensory expectations. The application of various theories to explain the observed effects of sensory expectations are reviewed. There is overwhelming evidence for assimilation-contrast effect, although no studies have been specifically designed to detect it. Finally we review the reasons why individuals might differ in the way that expectations influence sensory perception. These reasons include ideas from persuasion literature and private body consciousness. A number of behavioral hypothesis that follow from these theories are developed.
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Social influences on eating were investigated by paying 63 adult humans to maintain 7-d diaries of everything they ingested, time, subjective hunger, and number of people present. Meals eaten with others contained more carbohydrate, fat, protein, and total calories; had smaller deprivation ratios; and had larger satiety ratios than meals eaten alone. The number of people present was positively correlated with meal size even when meals eaten alone were excluded. Adding the number of people present as a factor in a multiple-regression prediction of meal size more than doubled the variance accounted for, without altering the influence of other predictors, suggesting that social factors are associated independently with an increase in meal size. Meal size was positively correlated with the postmeal interval for meals eaten alone but not for meals eaten with other people. This suggests that social factors increase amounts eaten and disrupt postprandial regulation.
Article
Throughout the history of the scientific measurement of food acceptance, there has been a growing recognition that the use of preference alone, in the sense of pure affective judgement, is an insufficient measure as an explanatory variable for food choice. As evidenced by the data on the prediction of food consumption behavior illustrated by the work of (Kamenetzky et al. 1957), (Lau et al. 1979), (Pilgrim and Kamen 1963 ), (Sidel et al. 1972), the prediction of food consumption behavior from preference judgments at best accounts for only about 50% of the variance in consumption. The relevance of cognitive processes in food acceptance has been considered by (Olson 1981), (Thomson and McEwan 1988), (Rappaport & Peters 1980), (Worsley 1963). The consumer and market research community have also recognized the importance of so-called situational variables in understanding consumer behavior an indicated in the paper by (Belk 1975), and in particular usage conditions as represented by (Kakkar and Lutz 1981) and a pioneering work by (Stefflre 1971). The use of Kelly’s personal construct theory (1955) and repertory grid, illustrated by the work of (McEwan and Thomson 1963) as one approach for evaluating the contextual aspects of food acceptance.
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In response to a question about individual differences in replenishing fluid losses, Adolph (1964) was quick to point to the critical role of experiential and environmental factors in controlling human fluid intake. He stated (Adolph 1964): man is the most difficult species to work with because all men are conditioned by past experience in water drinking and by the advertising that has been shot at them over the years. If we force a group of people to hike in the desert for a few hours, until they are ready to drink, we discover all sorts of drinking patterns and preferences. Some refuse water because it is warm, others because it is not flavored with grape juice but something else. Therefore we prefer to use another species where individuals can be raised on a relatively uniform regimen, and in this way obtain less biased subjects.
Article
During the past 50 years, the development of a set of organized principles and methods based on scientific data has led to the establishment of sensory evaluation as a scientific discipline.
Article
• A set of naturalistic observations was conducted to examine Schachter's theory that obese individuals are more responsive to external food cues than persons of normal weight. During six days of observation at a large hospital cafeteria, experimenters manipulated the accessibility of high- and low-calorie desserts. No differences in selection by obese, overweight, and normalweight individuals of meals or desserts were observed. All weight groups were equally responsive to the experimental manipulation of food cues.
Article
Normal-weight subjects were presented with various single- or mixed-flavour meals of different palatability levels. Their chewing and swallowing movements were continuously recorded on an oscillograph and the resulting graphs, the “edograms”, allowed a precise temporal analysis of the eating sequences. Increasing palatability induced an increase in meal size and duration, and a decrease of such parameters as chewing time and number of chewing movements per food unit. Chewing time per food unit and interval between food units increased from the beginning to the end of the meals, probably due to growing satiation. These observations confirm the edogram as a useful tool for the study of food motivation.
Article
In the hedonic scale method the stimuli (actual samples or food names) are presented singly and are rated on a scale where the 9 categories range from "dislike extremely" to "like extremely." History, methods of use in laboratory and field, analysis of the data, reliability, essential characteristics, applications, special effects requiring control, and interpretation of results are discussed and evidence is cited for the method's validity for predicting food behavior. Major advantages of the method are: Ss can respond meaningfully without prior experience, it is suitable for use with a wide range of populations, the data can be handled by the statistics of variables, and results are meaningful for indicating general levels of preference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Acceptabilly of school-served food items was assessed by three methods: a five-point hedonic scale (HED); a five-point scale on which students estimated the amount they had eaten (AMT); and weighed plate waste. Reliability of HED scale was highlv sienificant: reliability of AMT scale was significant for all but one item. AMT scores. had closer relationship to food consumption than did HED scores. A statistical model was constructed for predicting food consumption from ratings; it was possible to obtain an indication of consumption by elementary students from either scale. Application of methods is discussed. Use of student ratings for predicting consumption by elementary students seemed feasible in test-retest situations.
Article
Four combinations of cookie and juice were presented to 42 subjects for ratings of pleasantness of the items and their combinations (Experiment 1). Pleasantness of juice contributed to the pleasantness of a combination more than that of cookie (multiple regression analysis). In Experiment 2, subjects (N=41) rated each combination after ad libitum consumption in four separate sessions. Pleasantness of a cookie contributed more to the pleasantness of a combination than that of juice, and the average R2 obtained in multiple regression analysis was higher than in Experiment 1, suggesting that ratings after ad libitum consumption are more reliable. Pleasantness ratings explained ad libitum consumption of an item up to 23%, but perceived hunger and thirst, and consumption of the other item were at least equally good predictors. It is concluded that the pleasantness is only one among the multiple factors affecting amounts consumed in laboratory conditions.
Article
Three studies were conducted to assess the effects of disconfirmed consumer expectations on food acceptability. In the first, disconfirmed expectations for the sensory attributes of an edible film had a negative effect on acceptability of the film. Greater disconfirmation resulted in lower acceptance and purchase intent. In the second study, written product information was used to establish three levels of expected acceptability and expected bitterness for a novel fruit beverage. Comparison of preexposure (expected) and postexposure (perceived) ratings of acceptability and bitterness supported an assimilation model of disconfirmation effects for conditions in which expectations of acceptability were high and expectations of bitterness were low. A contrast effect was observed for bitterness judgments when expectations of bitterness were high. Associative effects resulting from the expectation manipulation were observed on other sensory attributes. In the third study, expectations were manipulated to influence both direction (positive versus negative) and degree of disconfirmation for the acceptance of cola beverages. Results provided further support for an assimilation model of these effects.
Article
The aim of this study was to determine whether the item-by-use appropriateness of drinks with varying sweetener and fat content are perceived differently on the basis of sensory characteristics. Participants (n = 243) were divided into four groups; each group tasted a pair of drinks. The pairs of drinks were low- and high-sweet juices, sweetened with sucrose or aspartame, non-fat and low-fat milk or chocolate milk. Participants rated the pleasantness of the samples and their appropriateness for 18 use contexts. The differences in appropriateness profiles between low-sweet and high-sweet options were distinct for juices sweetened with aspartame, so that low-sweet and high-sweet juices differed from each other in use contexts that related to pleasure. In some use contexts skimmed milk was rated as more appropriate than low-fat milk but chocolate milks with varying fat contents had identical profiles. Those who found the drinks pleasant also assessed them more appropriate in almost all use contexts. If appropriateness ratings were low, pleasantness made very little difference to the level of appropriateness.
Article
The objective of this study was to measure the impact of differences in taste test liking ratings of two samples of processed cheese upon consumption of those cheeses when they were sewed as part of a normal lunch. Firstly, forty subjects participated in a taste test to rate their liking for both cheeses, and then in a series of four lunches. Lunches consisted of the cheese plus 8 other items. Individual subjects' consumption of each food item was measured at the lunch. Ratings of hunger, prospective consumption (how much of each of the food served the subject thought he/she could eat) and post-consumption liking were obtained. Judges preferred the full-fat cheese to the fat-free cheese in both taste tests and post-consumption liking ratings. They ate more of the full-fat cheese and consumed more total fat and more total calories when the full-fat cheese was served. The amount of cheese eaten at lunch was related to both the liking of that cheese and to the amount of cheese the subjects thought they would be able to eat.
Article
ABSTRACTA study was conducted to assess relationships between food preference ratings and food acceptability ratings. Acceptability ratings for each of two discriminably different samples of nine food items were obtained using the 9-point hedonic scale. Regression analysis indicated that no linear relationship existed between these ratings and either hedonic or frequency preference ratings of the foods. In addition, the range of acceptability ratings was smaller than the range of corresponding’preference ratings. Panelists’expressed preferences had no effect on their assignment of differential acceptance ratings to different samples of the items. Correlations between preference ratings of laboratory panelists and military field panelists were good, in spite of higher absolute preference ratings assigned by the laboratory panel.
Article
Twenty-nine laboratory taste tests were conducted, each with from 27 to 38 consumers. During each test, one or more food products were tested for preference/acceptability and then rated for their appropriateness in 10 different use situations. Additional tests were conducted to assess any biasing effect of collecting the appropriateness data on the obtained acceptance ratings and the applicability of appropriateness scaling to conceptual products. Results indicated that: (1) appropriateness ratings had very similar patterns for products that varied little in basic physical properties that might influence use; (2) there were significant differences among products in their appropriateness ratings for certain use situations, enabling useful distinction of the products; (3) products that did not differ in preference/acceptability had significant differences in their appropriateness for certain food use situations; (4) the testing procedure was equally effective for use with actual and conceptual products; and (5) there was no evidence of a preference-appropriateness interaction effect. It is concluded that appropriateness ratings can be obtained in taste tests without jeopardizing the validity of preference/ acceptability judgments. In addition, appropriateness judgments obtained as part of routine sensory evaluation can provide valuable information to guide product development and to maximize product utility in the intended use situation.
Article
Current research in human eating is assessed from the perspective of current research methods which stress laboratory research, the use of artificial foods rather than real meals, shorter term studies, animal models, and abnormal eating models and an emphasis on sensory and physiological factors rather than social, cultural and contextual factors. The proposal is made to refocus more human eating research on real people eating real foods in real eating situations.
Article
College students (N = 64, 50, and 36 in three replications) were asked to complete the statement, "I usually stop eating a meal when ...". A number of alternatives were offered, together with an open (write-in) option. By far the most common completion was "... I feel full". The hedonic alternatives, "... the food stops tasting good" (first study) or "the food tastes less good" (first replication) were chosen by very few of the subjects, though explicitly presented as alternatives. In a second replication, subjects rank-ordered in importance the various reasons for ending a meal; not all subjects ranked the hedonic alternative at all, and most of those who did ranked it low in importance. Though hedonic shifts during a meal have been repeatedly shown to occur, these data suggest that they are of little salience, and perhaps of little importance, as factors in meal termination.
Article
The objective was to compare taste-and-spit pleasantness ratings of open sandwiches to ratings after ad libitum consumption. In the latter test, open sandwiches were ingested one at a time at a laboratory breakfast. Three rye breads of different acid and NaCl concentrations (non-sour + normal NaCl, sour + low NaCl, sour + normal NaCl) were evaluated with butter or margarine with two levels of NaCl (1 or 2 per cent). Subjects (N = 27) rated the samples more pleasant after consumption than in taste-and-spit tests. Mean pleasantness ratings by sample in taste-and-spit and postconsumption tests correlated with the amount of bread consumed (r = 0.63, r = 0.82, respectively). The taste-and-spit ratings of individual subjects correlated poorly with the amount of bread consumed, only three correlation coefficients out of 27 being significant. Taste-and-spit pleasantness ratings can perhaps be used to predict the average consumption of a product but not consumption by individual subjects. The laboratory tests should be developed further to reflect better food acceptability in natural conditions.
Article
The amount eaten by humans in spontaneously ingested meals is positively correlated with the number of other people present. This could be due to a social facilitation or may occur as an artifact of a covariation produced by changes in intake occurring over weekends. This possibility was investigated by paying 315 adult humans to maintain 7-day diaries of everything they ingested, when and where they ingested it, and the number of other people present. During weekends, larger meals were ingested, in the presence of more people than during weekdays. However, strong, positive, and significant correlations between meal size and the number of other people present were found separately for meals eaten only during week-days and for those eaten only during weekends. The results suggest that the correlation results from a true social facilitation of eating and that this facilitation is an important determinant of the eating behavior of normal humans.
Article
Three studies on the behavioral economics of food choice were presented. In Experiment 1 subjects were provided a choice of working for food on concurrent VR4 VR20 schedules, and subjects allocated the majority of their responding to the VR4 schedule. Subjects in Experiment 2 were provided a choice between two foods differing in ratings of subjective liking. The lower rated food was available on an FR1 component of a concurrent schedule, while the higher rated food was available on the other component across six comparisons ranging from FR1 through VR32. Subjects initially chose to work for the higher rated food, but as the constraints for this food increased, subjects chose to work for the lower rated food. In Experiment 3, subjects were provided the choice of a breakfast they liked or the monetary equivalent during deprivation and non-deprivation conditions. The food and money were first compared on equal FR1 schedules. Schedule requirements for money were subsequently maintained on a VR2 schedule, while access to food was presented in four phases from VR4 through VR32. Under deprivation, subjects allocated their time to get the preferred food instead of money only at the FR1 FR1 comparison. Under non-deprivation subjects allocated almost all their responding to work for money. These results suggest that the laboratory choice task is sensitive to schedule differences when food is used as a reinforcer, that subjective liking and schedule constraints for food are both important in determining food choice, and that alternative reinforces can complete with food, but the effect is dependent on both the level of deprivation and constraints on access to food.
Article
The amount eaten by humans in spontaneously ingested meals is positively correlated with the number of other people present. In order to investigate whether this social facilitation of eating was due to an increase in arousal, emotionality, hunger, or social interactions, analyses were performed on the data obtained from 82 adult humans. They were paid to maintain 7-day diaries of everything they ingested, when and where they ingested it, the number of other people present, and their subjective states of hunger, elation, and anxiety. The presence of other people was found to be associated with the duration of meals and not the rate of intake, whereas self-rated hunger was found to be associated with the rate of intake and not the duration of meals. Self-rated anxiety was not found to be associated with the number of people present, whereas self-rated elation was positively correlated with the presence of others. Multiple regression analyses suggested that the presence of other people facilitates intake and increases elation independently. It also suggested that social facilitation operates by independently increasing the size and the duration of meals and that it operates independently of the subjective state of the individual. These results contradict the predictions of increased arousal, increased hunger, and increased emotionality models but support attentional, disinhibitory, and time extension models of social facilitation.
Article
Hedonic ratings of foods, obtained by laboratory taste-and-spit tests, are often used to determine the optimal concentration of sugar in a commercial food. However, the predictive value of these tests on actual consumption has not been demonstrated. Does the optimal sugar concentration in a specific food, as determined by a short exposure taste test, induce maximum intake of that food? In the present experiment, a standard food (yogurt) was presented in five sucrose concentrations (from 2% to 29%) to 18 subjects. The five types of yogurts were first tasted and rated for pleasantness. Secondly, they were presented in ad lib consumption tests. Discrepancies appeared between taste test ratings and ingestive responses, e.g., in subjects who preferred medium to high sucrose concentrations, the optimal concentration (in terms of intake) was lower than the "preferred" one (as determined by taste-and-spit tests). The results of taste-and-spit should be taken cautiously when trying to predict ingestion.
Article
This study was undertaken to quantify the relationship between palatability ratings and food consumption and to determine whether the initial rate of eating was affected by changes in food palatability without a change in nutrient content. Both men and women were given small samples of foods at a brief exposure taste test and asked to rate how much they liked or disliked them on a 9-point scale (like extremely to dislike extremely). Those who gave at least a 2-point difference in rating between a banana colada frozen yogurt drink with and without adulteration with cumin were given these foods to eat to satiety on non-consecutive days, and the same 9-point scale was used to rate these foods after they had been eaten as meals. Cumin was used as an adulterant because it is not intrinsically unpalatable, but is not liked by many individuals in yogurt-based foods. Intake was approximately 100 g different for every unit of difference on the scale, and higher for liked than disliked food. Intake was significantly different between the adulterated and unadulterated meals. The percentage of variance explained by the difference in palatability was 34% of the total variance but was 67% of the variance within subjects. Correlation between intake and ratings were poor across subjects for both palatability levels (i.e. adulterated and unadulterated). The initial rate of eating was significantly higher under the better liked than under the less liked food. These results indicate that quantification of effects of hedonic ratings on intake within subjects is possible, but that hedonic ratings may not be good discriminators of intake differences between subjects. The initial rate of eating reflects partly on palatability.
Article
A set of naturalistic observations was conducted to examine Schachter's theory that obese individuals are more responsive to external food cues than persons of normal weight. During six days of observation at a large hospital cafeteria, experimenters manipulated the accessibility of high- and low-calorie desserts. No differences in selection by obese, overweight, and normal-weight individuals of meals or desserts were observed. All weight groups were equally responsive to the experimental manipulation of food cues.
Article
Expected and actual liking for novel and familiar foods were examined under various conditions of sensory and verbal information with 121 subjects who differed in food neophobia. The possible mediating roles of uncertainty about product identity and resemblance to familiar foods were also investigated. Subjects were divided into three verbal information groups (no information; product name; ingredient and use information) balanced for neophobia, age and gender. All groups rated test samples under three sensory conditions: (1) appearance only, (2) appearance and smell and (3) appearance, smell and taste. Neophilics rated novel foods more favorably than did neophobics. Accumulating sensory experience (appearance, smell, taste) decreased liking for novel foods but increased liking for familiar foods. Verbal information generally increased liking for all samples. Liking and certainty of product identity were curvilinearly related for novel foods, but linearly related for familiar foods. Liking for products judged to closely resemble the test product predicted up to 64% of the variability in expected and actual liking. Eight weeks later, subjects rated one of the two novel foods higher than in the first exposure, but no other exposure effects were observed. Our data suggest that information (possibly via reduced uncertainty), resemblance to more familiar foods, and exposure contribute to reducing initially negative responses to novel foods; furthermore, neophobia decreases liking for novel foods similarly at all levels of sensory input (visual, smell and taste).
Article
How the presence of other people increases the amount eaten in meals was investigated by studying the impact of different companions on the spontaneous intake of free-living humans. 515 adults were paid to maintain 7-day diaries of everything they ate or drank, the time of occurrence, self-rated hunger, anxiety, and elation, the number of other people present, and their gender and relationship to the subject. Meals eaten with other people were larger and longer in duration compared to meals eaten alone regardless of the relationship of the eating companion to the subject. However, relative to other companions, meals eaten with spouse and family were larger and eaten faster, while meals eaten with friends were larger and of longer duration. This was independent of the time of day with similar effects occurring with morning, noontime, and evening meals. In addition males produced greater social facilitation of intake in females but not in males. These results suggest that the presence of other people at a meal increases intake by extending the time spent at the meal, probably as a result of social interaction, and that family and friends have an even larger effect, probably by producing relaxation and a consequent disinhibition of restraint on intake.
Article
The consistency of hedonic responses to three brands of vanilla ice cream over 5 weeks was examined using two procedures. Respondents (n = 40) came to the test after their usual lunch and rated their liking for ice creams side-by-side (three samples in one session) and after ad libitum consumption (one sample at a time). The quantity of ice cream consumed in ad libitum procedure was recorded. Respondents also assessed the appropriateness of the three samples of vanilla ice cream to ten usage situations, including "as a dessert" which was the context in the test situation. The consistency of hedonic responses was low over replicates (r = 0.03 to 0.48). In the side-by-side condition, only 48% of the liking responses in replicates were within one point (not at all = 1, extremely = 9), and 63% in the after-consumption condition. Some respondents ate more of all brands than other subjects did in both replicates, unrelated to differences in liking. The appropriateness ratings of brands were similar but the ratings of appropriateness "as a dessert" differentiated the brands. In the after-consumption condition the ratings of liking and appropriateness, together with consumption measures, appeared to be slightly more consistent at the individual level than those made in the side-by-side situation.
Article
The effect of the number of others present on the amount of food eaten was investigated in the Netherlands by studying spontaneous meal size in 50 free-living young males and females. Subjects recorded food consumption, number of others present, hunger, taste of the food, food availability, and atmosphere at each eating or drinking moment for four (n = 30) or seven consecutive days (n = 20). The results of the study with four and the study with seven recording days were comparable. The mean Pearson within-person correlation coefficient between the number of other present and meal size was 0.24 (n = 50, p < 0.05). This correlation was significant for breakfast (0.40, p < 0.05) and snacks (0.18, p < 0.05), but not for lunch (r = 0.19, p > 0.05) and dinner (r = 0.15, p > 0.05). A path analysis showed no direct effect of the number of others on meal size, but revealed that social facilitation of spontaneous meal size was mediated by meal duration.
Article
Efficient psychological and nutritional measures by which food acceptance can be predicted were sought. Three-fourths of the variation in percentage of enlisted military personnel who take the foods at the serving table is predictable from knowledge of food preferences, the subjective satiety or "fillingness" of the food, and the amount of two major nutrients, fat and protein, the food contains.
Sensory evaluation guideline for testing food and beverage products Consistency of liking and appropriateness ratings and their relation to consumption in a pro-duct test of ice cream Item-by-use appropriateness of drinks varying in sweetener and fat content
  • L Tuorila
Appetite, 17, 229±238. IFT (1981). Sensory evaluation guideline for testing food and beverage products. Food Technology, 35(11), 50±59. Lahteenmaki, L., & Tuorila, H. (1995). Consistency of liking and appropriateness ratings and their relation to consumption in a pro-duct test of ice cream. Appetite, 25, 189±198. Lahteenmaki, L., & Tourila, H. (1997). Item-by-use appropriateness of drinks varying in sweetener and fat content. Food Quality and Preference, 8, 85±90.
Social facilitation and inhibition of eating Not eating enough: overcoming underconsumption of military operational rations
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de Castro, J. M. (1995). Social facilitation and inhibition of eating. In B. Marriott, Not eating enough: overcoming underconsumption of military operational rations (pp. 373±392). Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Sensory evaluation guideline for testing food and beverage products
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IFT (1981). Sensory evaluation guideline for testing food and beverage products. Food Technology, 35(11), 50±59.
Social facilitation of duration and size but not rate of the spontaneous meal intake of humans
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Cardello, A. V., & Schutz, H. G. (1996). Food appropriateness measures as an adjunct to consumer preference/acceptability evaluation. Food Quality and Preference, 7(3/4), 239±249. de Castro, J. M. (1990). Social facilitation of duration and size but not rate of the spontaneous meal intake of humans. Physiology and Behavior, 47(6), 1129±1135.
Food acceptability research: comparative utility of three types of data from school children
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Social facilitation and inhibition of eating
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