Global Profile: Going beyond liking to better understand product experience

Plant-Based Alternatives Need Not Be Inferior: Findings from a Sensory and Consumer Research Case Study with Cream Cheese

Reliance on animal foods must be reduced to improve planetary and human well-being. This research studied plant-based cheese alternatives (PBCA) relative to dairy cheese in a consumer taste test with 157 consumers in New Zealand. A case study approach used cream cheese (commercially available) as the focal product category (2 PBCA, 2 dairy) and implemented a multi-response paradigm (hedonic, sensory, emotional, conceptual, situational). "Beyond liking" insights were established, including drivers of liking (sensory, non-sensory) and sensory drivers of non-sensory product associations. Two consumer segments were identified, of which the largest (n = 111) liked PBCA and dairy samples equally (6.5-6.7 of 9). In this PBCA Likers cluster, the key sensory drivers of liking were 'creamy/smooth mouthfeel', 'dissolves quickly in mouth', and 'sweet', while a significant penalty was associated with 'mild/bland flavour'. The non-sensory data contributed additional consumer insights, including the four samples being perceived as differently appropriate for 9 of 12 use situations, with PBCA being regarded as less appropriate. In the limited confines of this case on cream cheese, the findings show that PBCA need not be inferior to their dairy counterparts despite a general narrative to the contrary. Of note, the results were obtained among participants who were open to eating a more PB diet but were not vegetarian or vegan.

A Prospective Review of the Sensory Properties of Plant-Based Dairy and Meat Alternatives with a Focus on Texture

Consumers are interested in plant-based alternatives (PBAs) to dairy and meat products, and as such, the food industry is responding by developing a variety of different plant-based food items. For these products to be successful, their textural properties must be acceptable to consumers. These textural properties need to be thoroughly investigated using different sensory methodologies to ensure consumer satisfaction. This review paper aims to summarize the various textural properties of PBAs, as well as to discuss the sensory methodologies that can be used in future studies of PBAs. PBAs to meat have been formulated using a variety of production technologies, but these products still have textural properties that differ from animal-based products. Most dairy and meat alternatives attempt to mimic their conventional counterparts, yet sensory trials rarely compare the PBAs to their meat or dairy counterparts. While most studies rely on consumers to investigate the acceptability of their products' textural properties, future studies should include dynamic sensory methodologies, and attribute diagnostics questions to help product developers characterize the key sensory properties of their products. Studies should also indicate whether the product is meant to mimic a conventional product and should define the target consumer segment (ex. flexitarian, vegan) for the product. The importance of textural properties to PBAs is repeatedly mentioned in the literature and thus should be thoroughly investigated using robust sensory methodologies.

Consumer perception of plant-based yoghurt: Sensory drivers of liking and emotional, holistic and conceptual associations

Plant-based (PB) yoghurts is a rapidly expanding food category with the potential to reduce many of the negative environmental impacts associated with the farming of dairy cattle and related greenhouse gas emissions. Within the context of growing consumer demand for PB products, this research aimed to identify the main drivers of consumer acceptance of PB yoghurts through data drawn from a consumer study of 113 adult New Zealand participants who tasted a representative range of commercially available vanilla-flavoured PB yoghurts, and provided sample evaluations using a multi-variable measurement approach comprised of liking ratings, emotional responses, sensory characterisations, and holistic / conceptual perceptions. The primary finding of this study was that the overall acceptability of currently available PB yoghurts is low, leading to poor attitudes and low willingness to consume PB yoghurts. The examined products were characterised by the presence of several sensory attributes that negatively impacted consumer liking, either because they were unexpected or because their intensity level was too high. Among the main sensory issues identified were perceived sourness (acidity), lumpy appearance and non-white colour. In contrast, vanilla flavour and a creamy/smooth texture were identified as the main drivers of liking. The multi-response approach used in this study enabled a comprehensive characterisation of the products. One of the key insights gained was that negative emotional activation, caused by the presence of unexpected sensory attributes in the samples, was the main driver of product rejection. This was likely due to the disparity between consumers' sensory expectations, formed primarily based on their experience with dairy yoghurts, and the actual experience upon tasting the PB yoghurts. Overall, the findings indicate that the sensory properties of currently available PB yoghurts are a significant barrier to their adoption by most consumers and that addressing these sensory deficiencies is essential to achieving mainstream market acceptance of these products.

Consumer Studies: Beyond Acceptability—A Case Study with Beer

Beer is one of the most consumed alcoholic beverages in the world; its consumption and preference are evolving from traditional industrial beers of low complexity to novel craft beers with diverse flavour profiles. In such a competitive industry and considering the complexity of consumer behaviour, improvement and innovation become necessary. Consequently, consumer science, which is responsible for identifying the motivation behind customer preferences through their attitudes, perception and behaviour, has implemented strategies ranging from simple hedonic measurements to several innovative and emerging methodologies for a deeper understanding of the variables that affect the product experience: sensory, affective and cognitive. In this context, we offer a review inspired by previous research that explores some of the quantitative and qualitative methods used in consumer studies related to beer consumption, ranging from traditional approaches (acceptability, purchase intention, preference, etc.) to techniques that go beyond acceptability and allow a different understanding of aspects of consumer perception and behaviour (segmentation, expectations, emotions, representation, etc.). Also, innovative applications (contexts, immersive technologies and virtual reality, implicit measures, etc.) and current trends related to consumer science (Internet, social media, pairing, product experience, etc.) are addressed.

Mediating Role of Perceived Health Risk on Customer Experience and Customer Satisfaction: Evidence from the Airline Industry in India During COVID-19

With a steep decrease in the rate of COVID-19 infection, and a corresponding increase in the number of vaccinated people, countries have begun to re- open borders to foreign travellers, triggering the resumption of aviation services. However, people are still apprehensive, and are avoiding travel, hindering air travel to get back to the pre-COVID era. This paper determines the experience of air travellers’ during the pandemic applying EXQ model. Additionally, it investigates the role of perceived health risk as a mediating variable in an extended EXQ model. We collected data from a sample of 122 air travelers during the pandemic and analyzed it using IBM SPSS. The outcome of this study sheds light on the experiences of pandemic-affected airline passengers, revealing in the process, factors that passengers value much more now than ever before. The findings confirm that perceived health risk significantly mediates the relationship between customer experience and satisfaction.

A Hedonic Analysis of Processed Tomato Prices Using Italian Regional Markets Data

The Italian market of processed tomatoes (whole peeled and unpeeled tomatoes, chopped tomato pulp, tomato purée, and concentrated tomato paste) rose, thanks to the Italian tradition of using such products in many recipes of cuisine, until early 2000; since then, it has declined to date. Moreover, such products are traditionally considered low-price products, and their market is characterized by intense price competition. Thus, recently, producers have started to differentiate their products as a way to achieve higher margins, and escape from competition in price. By using the sales data of Italian processed tomatoes sold in several retail stores and a hedonic price model, we estimated the implicit prices associated with several attributes that are currently available in processed tomato products on the market. We find that a protected designation of origin, organic certification, and flavoring, as well as the indication of tomato variety, are the most valuable features of processed tomato products sold in the Italian market. This implies that product differentiation strategies that could be suggested to producers as the most effective are those aimed at enhancing the territorial link of the product, the environmental sustainability of the production process, and organoleptic product features, as well as its convenience.

Sensory drivers of perceived situational appropriateness in unbranded foods and beverages: Towards a deeper understanding

Measures of product performance that effectively predict food and beverage choices are highly 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 the 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.

Comparison of Home Use Tests with Differing Time and Order Controls

Consumer tests are classified in terms of the location of testing as laboratory tests or central location tests (CLTs) and home use tests (HUTs). CLT is generally used in sensory tests due to the ease of test control, whereas HUT has higher validity because of real consumption. However, the lack of test control in HUT is a major issue. In order to investigate the error occurrence and efforts required to minimize errors, three groups of tests were designed differing time and order control and evaluation was conducted using six snacks with texture differences. Errors related to time, order, and consumer or sample number were higher for more controlled conditions, however, most errors were recoverable using identification information except for cases of no response. Additionally, consumers preferred to consume all snacks in the evening at home, which differed from the typical 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. evaluation time in CLT. However, the timing differed for consumers with self-reported snacking time. The research title that included the term 'home' might have influenced the participants' choice of location for evaluation. Overall, there was no significant difference between the results of groups despite different time and order controls, which could increase the applicability of HUT.