The effect of intrinsic and extrinsic quality on the willingness to pay for a convenient meal: A combination of home‐use‐test with online auctions

Sensory Perception and Food-Evoked Emotions of Older Adults Assessing Microwave-Processed Meals with Different Salt Concentrations

This study employed a home-use test to explore the sensory perception and evoked emotions of older adults in the assessment of chicken pasta meals with different salt concentrations. Ready-to-eat (RTE) meals with three salt levels (100%, 75%, and 50%) and two treatments-with and without added herbs-were tested. Multiple sensory attributes and overall meal liking were evaluated by participants (n = 54; 60-86 years of age) with hedonic and just-about-right scores. Twenty-five food-evoked emotions were also tested. Sensory results suggested a 50% salt reduction is possible with minimal impact on the overall liking, while a 25% salt reduction did not affect the saltiness and flavor liking of the meals. Herb addition positively impacted the aroma, flavor, and spiciness liking of the meals. The emotions that differed (p < 0.05) among meals were active, aggressive, bored, calm, happy, and wild, with the meals with herbs added eliciting more positive emotions. A questionnaire elicited information about participants' interest in healthy eating, food technology neophobia, and picky behaviors to determine the influence of these factors on participants' salt consumption habits. Sensory acceptance data combined with questionnaires explored what influenced this group of older adults in their acceptance of and interest in RTE meals.

Consumer Acceptance of a Ready-to-Eat Meal during Storage as Evaluated with a Home-Use Test

A home-use test (HUT) is one method that provides a measure of ecological validity as the product is consumed in home under common daily use circumstances. One product that benefits from being evaluated in-home are ready-to-eat (RTE) meals. This study determined consumer acceptance of microwave-thermally-pasteurized jambalaya, a multi-meat and vegetable dish from American Cajun cuisine, and a control (cooked frozen jambalaya) through an on-line home-use test (HUT) over a 12-week storage period. Paralleling the HUT, an online auction determined consumers’ willingness to pay. The study also explored how the social environment may impact the liking of the meals when a partner of the participants joined the sensory evaluation of the meals. Consumers (n = 50) evaluated microwave-processed jambalaya stored at 2 °C and a control (cooked frozen jambalaya stored at −31 °C) after 2, 8 and 12 weeks of storage. Consumer liking of different sensory attributes was measured. Participants could choose to share the meals with a partner as a way to enhance ecological validity. The responses from 21 partners to the sensory-related questions were collected. After the sensory evaluation, the participants bid on the meal they had just sampled. Results showed that processing method (microwave vs. control) did not significantly influence the measured sensory attributes. Only flavor liking decreased over storage time (p < 0.05). The inclusion of partners significantly increased (p = 0.04) the liking of the appearance of the meals. The mean values of the bids for the meals ranged from $3.33–3.74, matching prices of commercially available jambalaya meals. This study found suggests that the shelf- life of microwave-processed meals could be extended up to 12 weeks without changing its overall liking. The study also shows the importance of exploring HUT methodology for the evaluation of consumers’ acceptance of microwave-processed jambalaya and how including a partner could contribute to enhance ecological validity.