Development of a questionnaire to measure consumer wellness associated with foods: The WellSense Profile™

Adaptation and Validation of the Well-Being Related to Food Questionnaire (Well-BFQ©) for the French-Speaking General Adult Population of Québec, Canada

Efforts to develop effective strategies that improve dietary intake are needed; however, this improvement in diet quality must not be at the expense of well-being. The Well-Being related to Food Questionnaire (Well-BFQ©) is a tool that has been developed in France to comprehensively measure food well-being. Even though the same language is spoken in France and in Québec, cultural and linguistic differences are present, which supports the importance of adapting and validating this tool before its use in the Québec population. This study aimed to adapt and validate the Well-BFQ© for the French-speaking general adult population of Québec, Canada. The Well-BFQ© underwent a full linguistic adaptation process, including an expert panel adaptation step, a pretest among 30 French-speaking adult (18-65 years) Quebecers, and a final proofreading. The questionnaire was thereafter administered to 203 French-speaking adult Quebecers (49.3% females, M_AGE = 34.9, SD = 13.5; 88.2% Caucasians; 54.2% with a university degree). The exploratory factor analysis showed a two-factor structure: (1) food well-being related to physical and psychological health (27 items) and (2) food well-being related to symbolic/pleasure of food (32 items). Internal consistency was adequate, with a Cronbach's α of 0.92 and 0.93, respectively, for the subscales, and 0.94 for the total scale. The total food well-being score, as well as the two subscale scores, were associated with psychological and eating-related variables in expected directions. Overall, the adapted version of the Well-BFQ© was found to be a valid instrument to measure food well-being in the French-speaking general adult population of Québec, Canada.

Emotion and Wellness Profiles of Herbal Drinks Measured Using Different Questionnaire Designs

The emotion and wellness profiles of herbal drinks were assessed using six different questionnaire designs. The questionnaire designs were constructed from two formats of questionnaire items, including words and sentences, and three types of measuring scales, including a rating scale (5-point intensity; 1 = ‘not at all’, 5 = ‘extremely’), a checklist scale (check-all-that-apply, CATA), and a combination of CATA and rating scales (rate-all-that-apply, RATA; 5-point intensity; 1 = ‘slightly’, 5 = ‘extremely’). The 39 emotional terms of the EsSense Profile^® and the 45 wellness terms of the WellSense Profile^TM were translated into Thai, then screened for relevance to herbal drinks. The seven positive emotional terms (active, energetic, good, happy, polite, satisfied, and warm), three negative emotional terms (bored, disgusted, and worried), and five wellness terms (comforted, healthy, invigorated, relaxed, and refreshed) were selected and included in the questionnaire. A central location test was performed to determine the emotion and wellness profiles of five herbal drinks: roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) drink, chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat) drink, ginger (Zingiber officinale) drink, Jubliang (a mixture of eight herbs) drink, and Krachai Dam (Kaempferia parviflora) drink. For herbal drinks, measuring emotion and wellness with a questionnaire using full sentences did not show increased benefit over questionnaires using words alone. All three measuring methods—a rating scale, CATA, and RATA—produced similar emotion and wellness profiles. However, each method has different advantages and limitations, which researchers should carefully consider.

Sensory Drivers of Consumer Acceptance, Purchase Intent and Emotions toward Brewed Black Coffee

The link between coffee aroma/flavor and elicited emotions remains underexplored. This research identified key sensory characteristics of brewed black coffee that affected acceptance, purchase intent and emotions for Thai consumers. Eight Arabica coffee samples were evaluated by eight trained descriptive panelists for intensities of 26 sensory attributes and by 100 brewed black coffee users for acceptance, purchase intent and emotions. Results showed that the samples exhibited a wide range of sensory characteristics, and large differences were mainly described by the attributes coffee identity (coffee ID), roasted, bitter taste, balance/blended and fullness. Differences also existed among the samples for overall liking, purchase intent and most emotion terms. Partial least square regression analysis revealed that liking, purchase intent and positive emotions, such as active, alert, awake, energetic, enthusiastic, feel good, happy, jump start, impressed, pleased, refreshed and vigorous were driven by coffee ID, roasted, ashy, pipe tobacco, bitter taste, rubber, overall sweet, balanced/blended, fullness and longevity. Contrarily, sour aromatic, sour taste, fruity, woody, musty/earthy, musty/dusty and molasses decreased liking, purchase intent and positive emotions, and stimulated negative emotions, such as disappointed, grouchy and unfulfilled. This information could be useful for creating or modifying the sensory profile of brewed black coffee to increase consumer acceptance.

Food Consumption and Emotions at a Salad Lunch Buffet in a Multisensory Environment

The food experience is multisensory and multisensory external stimuli may affect food choice and emotions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a multisensory eating environment on food choice, intake and the emotional states of the subjects in a salad lunch buffet setting. A total of 30 female subjects consumed a salad lunch twice in the multisensory laboratory. The two test conditions (control and multisensory condition with environmental stimuli) were randomized and the visits were scheduled one week apart. Subjects selected and ate a meal from a salad buffet including 14 food items and the intake of each item was weighed. They answered an online questionnaire about the meal and their emotional states (20 different emotion terms) after the lunch. There was no significant difference in the food consumption between the control and multisensory conditions. The subjects were very satisfied with their lunch for both study visits but the pleasantness of the eating environment was rated higher under the multisensory condition. In emotional terms, the subjects selected the term "happy" significantly more frequently under the multisensory condition compared with the control. In conclusion, the multisensory eating environment in this study was not related to food intake but may be associated with positive emotions. The effect of the eating environment on food choice and experience deserves further study with a larger study population in a real lunch restaurant setting.

Community Supported Agriculture as a Driver of Food-Related Well-Being

Background: There is a growing amount of research interest to understand the role of food in well-being. The demand for community supported agriculture (CSA), bringing people spatially, economically, and socially closer to food, is continuously expanding. CSAs play an important role in both sustainable agriculture practices and influencing consumers’ food-related practices, but yet have received little attention in well-being research. Methods: This study explores food-related well-being among CSA members by using an exploratory, qualitative research design and a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews. Results: The findings stress the relevance of psychological, social, and spiritual aspects of food-related well-being beyond the nutritional characteristics of food in CSA. Conclusion: The role of sustainable agriculture in contributing to food-related well-being becomes particularly evident based on consumers’ experiences. These results are important in convincing people that their food-related experiences belong to their perceived well-being as well as stimulating people to elevate their multidimensional expectations in relation to food.

The Potential Influence of Organic Food Consumption and Intention-Behavior Gap on Consumers' Subjective Wellbeing

This paper applied a self-administered survey to investigate the impact of organic food behavior and the intention-behavior gap in organic food consumption (OIBG) on consumers’ subjective wellbeing including physical, emotional, social and intellectual dimensions. The survey was carried out with 385 consumers. Furthermore, the study conducted a food test to explore the different impacts of organic and conventional food samples on the mental and physical conditions of consumers’ wellbeing applying a psychological questionnaire. The food test took place in a sensory lab with a panel of 63 untrained German consumers. The research findings demonstrated a positive impact of the organic food consumption on consumers’ subjective wellbeing, while no negative impact of OIBG has been perceived. Moreover, during the food test, consumers distinguished no differences between the impact of organic and conventional stimuli on their mental and physical status. Understanding how consumers perceive the impact of organic food consumption on their wellbeing is one important aspect. However, in the interest of narrowing the OIBG, it is more important to understand how consumers perceive the impact of this gap on their daily-life wellbeing.

Subjective Sensations related to Food as Determinants of Snack Choice

Comprehending the complexity and determinants of food choices can help understand facets of the growing obesity epidemic. Focusing on consumers' subjective sensations as determinants of food choices can provide essential insights into eating behaviors. We explored subjective sensations linked to appetite, desire, wellbeing and energy. This study aims to 1) quantify subjective temporal sensations, and 2) study the effects of these sensations on snack choice. Two-hundred and fifty-three participants (mean age 20.5) evaluated subjective sensations using a visual analogue scale. The choice of one of six snacks was offered to the participants; choices were recorded as implicit choice measures. The results demonstrated that especially sensory specific desire sensations (Salty, Fatty, Sweet desire) affected, either positively or negatively, snack choice. Furthermore, wellbeing sensations (Overall, Mental, Physical wellbeing) also showed significant effects for snack choice. Health-conscious females chose healthy snacks, and males chose unhealthy snacks. Importantly, this research indicates the relevance of subjective sensations in consumer studies that focus on diverse determinants of food choice. Sensory specific desires and wellbeing sensations were notably shown to be important determinants of snack choice. The contribution of different sensations to food choice is imperative, and helps us to understand aspects of snacking behavior. This could have broader implications concerning public health issues and obesity.

Effects of Visual Cues on Consumer Expectation, Emotion and Wellness Responses, and Purchase Intent of Red Chili Powders

The effects of visual cues on familiarity, expected heat intensity, liking of appearance, emotional and wellness responses, and purchase intent (PI) before and after disclosing information associated with red chili powders were determined using a 3-point scale, a 15-cm line scale, a 9-point hedonic scale, a 15-cm line scale, and a binomial scale, respectively. In this study, consumers only visually evaluated red chili powder samples without sniffing nor tasting. Eight chili powders were prepared according to a 2³ factorial design: roasted (Ro) compared with unroasted (Un); whole pod with seeds (Wh) compared with seedless (Sl); coarsely (Cr) compared with finely ground (Gr). Thai consumers (N = 230) were generally more familiar with samples having coarse particles and more reddish color (lower hue angle and higher a^* values) than samples having finely ground particles and less reddish/more yellowish color (higher hue angle and lower a^* values). The expected heat intensity and liking scores for appearance were lower for samples with higher hue values, particularly RoWhGr and RoSIGr samples. All scores for emotion/wellness terms, except curious, were generally higher for samples with lower hue angle and higher a^* values (redness). The consumer familiarity to the appearance of the samples influenced expected heat intensity, liking of appearance, and emotion/wellness responses. PI increased by >10% after presenting "organic," "aflatoxin free," and "organic and aflatoxin free" product statements to consumers. Results showed that familiarity, overall liking of appearance, color liking, fine particles liking, and healthy as well as wild terms were significant predictors for PI (odds ratio = 1.282, 1.519, 1.314, 1.158, 1.056, and 0.939, respectively) of red chili powders. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: This study showed that consumer familiarity to the appearance (visual cues) of red chili powder affected expected heat intensity, liking of appearance, and emotion/wellness responses, which, in turn, affected purchase intent (PI). Samples with more reddish color and coarse particles were perceived to be more familiar than those with more yellowish color and finer particles. Familiarity, overall liking of appearance, color liking, fine particles liking, and healthy and wild terms were significant predictors for PI of chili power. The results demonstrated the importance of visual cues on the consumers' expectation and PI of red chili powder, thus offering valuable information for manufacturers.

Dynamic Changes in Post-Ingestive Sensations after Consumption of a Breakfast Meal High in Protein or Carbohydrate

The obesity epidemic urges exploration of several parameters that play an important role in our eating behaviours. Post-ingestive sensations can provide a more comprehensive picture of the eating experience than mere satiety measurements. This study aimed to (1) quantify the dynamics of different post-ingestive sensations after food intake and (2) study the effect of protein and carbohydrate on hedonic and post-ingestive responses. Forty-eight participants (mean age 20.4) were served a breakfast meal high in protein (HighPRO) or high in carbohydrate (HighCHO) on two separate days using a randomised controlled crossover design. Post-ingestive sensations were measured every 30 min, for 3 h post intake using visual analogue scale (VAS). Results showed a significant main effect of time for all post-ingestive sensations. HighCHO induced higher hedonic responses compared to HighPRO, as well as higher ratings for post-ingestive sensations such as Satisfaction, Food joy, Overall wellbeing and Fullness. HighPRO, on the other hand, induced higher ratings for Sweet desire post intake. The development of sensations after a meal might be important for consumers' following food choices and for extra calorie intake. More detailed knowledge in this area could elucidate aspects of overeating and obesity.

An ethnopharmacological study of aromatic Uyghur medicinal plants in Xinjiang, China

CONTEXT

An ethnobotanical survey was completed in a remote village and surrounding country of Xinjiang, where most Uyghur medicinal plants could be collected. This work clarifies and increases ethnobotanical data.

OBJECTIVES

We surveyed and organized aromatic medicinal plants that are commonly used in clinical settings to provide a significant reference for studying new medical activities.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In the survey, informants who have traditional knowledge on aromatic Uyghur medicinal plants were interviewed between March 2014 and September 2014. Aromatic medicinal plant species and pertinent information were collected. Some therapeutic methods and modes of preparation of traditional aromatic medicinal plants were found.

RESULTS

A total of 86 aromatic medicinal plant species belonging to 36 families were included in our study. We identified 34 plant species introduced from different regions such as Europe, India and Mediterranean areas. Fruits and whole plants were the most commonly used parts of plant, and most aromatic medicinal plants could be applied as medicine and food. We assigned the medicinal plants a use value (UV). Knowing the UV of species is useful in determining the use reliability and pharmacological features of related plants.

CONCLUSIONS

Xinjiang is an area in which indigenous aromatic medicinal plants are diversely used and has therefore established a sound dimensional medical healthcare treatment system. Some aromatic Uyghur medicinal plants are on the verge of extinction. Hence, further strategies for the conservation of these aromatic medicinal plants should be prioritized.

Longitudinal multigroup invariance analysis of the satisfaction with food-related life scale in university students

This study examined longitudinal measurement invariance in the Satisfaction with Food-related Life (SWFL) scale using follow-up data from university students. We examined this measure of the SWFL in different groups of students, separated by various characteristics. Through non-probabilistic longitudinal sampling, 114 university students (65.8% female, mean age: 22.5) completed the SWFL questionnaire three times, over intervals of approximately one year. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine longitudinal measurement invariance. Two types of analysis were conducted: first, a longitudinal invariance by time, and second, a multigroup longitudinal invariance by sex, age, socio-economic status and place of residence during the study period. Results showed that the 3-item version of the SWFL exhibited strong longitudinal invariance (equal factor loadings and equal indicator intercepts). Longitudinal multigroup invariance analysis also showed that the 3-item version of the SWFL displays strong invariance by socio-economic status and place of residence during the study period over time. Nevertheless, it was only possible to demonstrate equivalence of the longitudinal factor structure among students of both sexes, and among those older and younger than 22 years. Generally, these findings suggest that the SWFL scale has satisfactory psychometric properties for longitudinal measurement invariance in university students with similar characteristics as the students that participated in this research. It is also possible to suggest that satisfaction with food-related life is associated with sex and age.

Umami Increases Consumer Acceptability, and Perception of Sensory and Emotional Benefits without Compromising Health Benefit Perception

This study was undertaken to understand how consumers in the United States perceive umami-rich products, specifically low sodium chicken noodle soup. Results suggest that the addition of monosodium l-glutamate (MSG) at a concentration of 0.1% to 0.5%, alone or in synergy with 5'-ribonucleotides of inosine monophosphate (IMP) at 0.1% not only increases consumer acceptance but also positively impacts other aspects of consumer perception. Regardless of concentration of MSG and IMP, samples enhanced in umami compounds were perceived as more savory, flavorful, and less bland while providing a more homemade, fresh, and healthy wholesome taste than a control sample. From a functional and emotional benefit standpoint, when consuming umami-rich samples, consumers reported feeling significantly higher general satisfaction (they felt more content, relaxed, satisfied, less disappointed, dissatisfied…) and heightened positive emotions (happy, excited, indulgent…) than under the control condition. The feeling of being healthy while consuming the dish was not compromised. Last, when asked how they would feel if serving the soup sample to their family or friends, consumers projected feeling more positively under the umami-rich conditions (more happy, competent, loving, less dissatisfied or disappointed) compared to the control condition.