Relations between consumer's concern with own health and their perception about frankfurters with functional ingredients

A Comprehensive Review of Cured Meat Products in the Irish Market: Opportunities for Reformulation and Processing

Cured meat products constitute one of the meat categories commonly consumed in Ireland and has been part of the Irish cuisine and diet for many years. Ham, gammon, and bacon are some of the products that involve curing as part of the traditional processing methods. Common among these products are high levels of salt and the addition of nitrites. These products undergo processing treatments to create variety, preserve shelf-life, and develop their unique quality and safety characteristics. However, consumers are becoming more conscious of the level of processing involved in these products, and the effects of some components and ingredients might be perceived as unhealthy. Meat product developers have been exploring ways to reduce the amount of ingredients such as salt, saturated fat, and chemical preservatives (e.g., nitrites), which are linked to health concerns. This is a challenging task as these ingredients play an important techno-functional role in the products' quality, safety, and identity. While innovative processing techniques are being introduced and progress has been made in reformulation and packaging technologies, much is still unknown, especially regarding the applicability of many of the proposed interventions to a wide range of meat products and their sustainability at the industrial scale.

White and honey Chlorella vulgaris: Sustainable ingredients with the potential to improve nutritional value of pork frankfurters without compromising quality

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the chlorophyll-deficient microalgae mutants, honey (yellow) and white Chlorella vulgaris, (3%) on the nutritional, physicochemical, microbiological, and sensory characteristics of frankfurters. The presence of microalgae resulted in increased PUFA content and higher PUFA/SFA ratio, but lower n-6/n-3 ratio and lipid indices (P < 0.05). C. vulgaris inclusion in frankfurters increased (P < 0.05) Na, K, Ca, P, and Zn and improved the Na/K ratio, but lowered Mn, and in the case of white C. vulgaris, Cu content, compared to the control. The higher protein content decreased water release from emulsions elaborated with microalgae. White C. vulgaris inclusion decreased cohesiveness and springiness of the frankfurters. Due to the presence of pigment, microalgae inclusion led to a decrease in redness and an increase in yellowness of frankfurters. The presence of microalgae resulted in lower (P < 0.05) bacterial counts and did not affect TBARs during storage. The addition of microalgae in frankfurters produced acceptable sensory characteristics but resulted in lower scores compared to reference products.

Communicating Function and Co-Creating Healthy Food: Designing a Functional Food Product Together with Consumers

Functional food is lately an interesting topic from the new product development perspective; complex motivation and expectations of consumers regarding it present a challenge when new products are designed. Co-creation is an interesting alternative to the standard practices by the R & D departments since it directly involves consumers in the various stages of the creation process. This work aims to describe experiences of engaging consumers in different development stages of a functional food product within a project realized at a food research institute. Four consecutive studies were conducted: the first study explored current trends in Serbia regarding the way consumers use functional food and are informed about it; the second study described development of a raspberry seeds extract with antioxidant and anti-proliferative activity confirmed in vitro; the third study tested the same extract in a sample of consumers, validating its usability in food products; and the fourth study described a co-creation session with 18 participants, during which a number of activities were realized to stimulate idea generation. Rather than the final product idea itself, this work is valuable because of detailed insights into the various phases of the co-creation process. It is shown that consumers and food researchers can together engage in the new food product development process as long as the communication between them is rich and with mutual understanding.

How buyer-focused projective techniques can help to gain insights into consumer perceptions about different types of eggs

This study aimed to analyze the consumer perception (n = 840) about different types of eggs using Product Personality Profiling and Shopping List tasks. White egg, brown egg, organic egg, free-range egg, and eggs enriched with omega 3 and vitamins were evaluated. The consumers associated the white egg with unhealthy, sedentary, and overweight individuals in the Product Personality Profiling task and people that are not concerned with health in the Shopping List task. The brown egg was associated with a person who does physical activity and has a healthy diet in the Product Personality Profiling task. The omega 3 egg was associated with a person concerned with health in the Shopping List task, which does physical exercises and follows a healthy diet in the Product Personality Profiling task. The vitamin-enriched egg was associated with people with health disorders in the Shopping List task and following a vegetarian/vegan diet in the Product Personality Profiling task. The free-range egg was associated with a man with a rugged personality, a healthy diet, and animal welfare concern. Finally, the organic egg was associated with a person concerned with animal welfare and a vegetarian/vegan diet. Shopping list and Product Personality Profiling projective techniques proved to be useful tools for understanding consumer perceptions and beliefs about eggs, providing similar or complementary results. The Shopping List was more appropriate in eliciting egg buyers' profile, while the Product Personality Profile shows the "target buyer".

Game Meat Consumption-Conscious Choice or Just a Game?

Game meat is constantly present on the European meat market, but a limited number of consumers are interested in its consumption. Considering the unique features of wild animal meat, we should explore what pushes consumers to include it in their diet. To identify the motives determining the choice of game meat, a quantitative survey based on the computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) method was conducted among 450 participants. The statistical analysis based on the logistic regression model allowed us to assess the significance of emotional motives leading to game eating and to investigate the importance of the rational motives related to the quality attributes of game for consumers. It was shown that rational motives influence the consumers’ choice more than emotional factors, while the most important motives are connected with healthcare issues. Consumers, for whom the crucial attributes of quality are taste, nutritional value, and low fat content, constitute a group that might more often include game in their diet in the future. Among the emotional motives, the familiarity, described as a feeling of knowing the product, also has a statistically significant impact on the consumers’ choice. The results obtained may be useful for academic theoreticians and market experts as well.

Can dietary fiber improve the technological characteristics and sensory acceptance of low-fat Italian type salami?

To meet the needs of new consumers, meat researchers need to develop healthier products. Dietary fibers can be added for structural purposes, to present functional characteristics or to change the composition of the final product. In this study, mixture design was used to investigate the effects of partial substitution of pork fat by inulin, fructooligosaccharides and α-cyclodextrin on the technological and sensory quality characteristics of low-fat Italian type salami. The partial substitution of fat using dietary fibers shows no effect on weight loss, Aw and pH during ripening time. However, the addition of up to 2% α-cyclodextrin increased lightness and reduced redness and yellowness. Up to 2% of inulin or fructooligosaccharides added improved the sensory acceptance, texture parameters and redness. Healthier low-fat Italian type salami can be produced using inulin or fructooligosaccharides as fat substitute for pork fat and still obtain good technological and sensorial results.