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Understanding American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable product attributes using focus groups and projective mapping.

ABSTRACT: Craft chocolate is a relatively new and fast-growing segment of the American chocolate market. To understand American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable chocolate product attributes, we conducted a mixed-methods study using focus groups and projective mapping. Projective mapping revealed that participants segmented products in terms of quality based upon usage occasion rather than cost or other factors. We found that American premium chocolate consumers use search attributes such as segmentation, price, availability, and packaging as quality determinants. Additionally, they desire credence attributes that convey trust through, for example, the presence or absence of sustainability certifications, or a semblance of meaning. Premium chocolate consumers seek out experience attributes such as utility and/or joy, which are achieved by purchasing a chocolate product as a gift, for its nostalgic purposes, or for desired post-ingestive effects. We propose a Desirable Chocolate Attribute Concept Map to explain our findings.

SUBMITTER: Brown AL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7641343 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Understanding American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable product attributes using focus groups and projective mapping.

Brown Allison L AL Bakke Alyssa J AJ Hopfer Helene H

PloS one 20201104 11

Craft chocolate is a relatively new and fast-growing segment of the American chocolate market. To understand American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable chocolate product attributes, we conducted a mixed-methods study using focus groups and projective mapping. Projective mapping revealed that participants segmented products in terms of quality based upon usage occasion rather than cost or other factors. We found that American premium chocolate consumers use se ...[more]

PMID: 33147215

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Project description:Currently beer is booming, mainly due to the steady rise of craft breweries worldwide. Previous surveys for occurrence of mycotoxins in beer, were mainly focussed on industrial produced beer. The present survey reports the presence of mycotoxins in craft beer and how this compares to industrial produced beer. More than 1000 beers were collected from 47 countries, of which 60% were craft beers. A selection of 1000 samples were screened for the presence of aflatoxin B1, ochratoxin A (OTA), zearalenone (ZEN), fumonisins (FBs), T-2 and HT-2 toxins (T-2 and HT-2) and deoxynivalenol (DON) using a mycotoxin 6-plex immunoassay. For confirmatory analysis, a liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and applied. The 6-plex screening showed discrepancies with the LC-MS/MS analysis, possibly due to matrix interference and/or the presence of unknown mycotoxin metabolites. The major mycotoxins detected were DON and its plant metabolite deoxynivalenol-3-?-D-glucopyranoside (D3G). The 6-plex immunoassay reported the sum of DON and D3G (DON+D3G) contaminations ranging from 10 to 475 ?g/L in 406 beers, of which 73% were craft beers. The popular craft beer style imperial stout, had the highest percentage of samples suspected positive (83%) with 29% of all imperial stout beers having DON+D3G contaminations above 100 ?g/L. LC-MS/MS analysis showed that industrial pale lagers from Italy and Spain, predominantly contained FBs (3-69 ?g/L). Besides FBs, African traditional beers also contained aflatoxins (0.1-1.2 ?g/L). The presence of OTA, T-2, HT-2, ZEN, ?-zearalenol, 3/15-acetyl-DON, nivalenol and the conjugated mycotoxin zearalenone 14-sulfate were confirmed in some beers. This study shows that in 27 craft beers, DON+D3G concentrations occurred above (or at) the Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI). Exceeding the TDI, may have a health impact. A better control of brewing malts for craft beer, should be put in place to circumvent this potential problem.

Dataset Information

Understanding American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable product attributes using focus groups and projective mapping.

Publications

Understanding American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable product attributes using focus groups and projective mapping.

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