Do Consumers Want Seaweed in Their Food? A Study Evaluating Emotional Responses to Foods Containing Seaweed.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Moss R
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8621969 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:In China, food has become safer over the past five years, especially commonly consumed foods. Food supervision sampling has played an important role in improving food safety. However, consumer acceptance of the results of food safety supervision have not kept pace. Communicating actual food safety risks to consumers and improving the public trust in food safety supervision sampling inspection has become an important issue. This study focused on food safety surveillance sampling of commonly consumed foods. In total, 4408 adult consumers were surveyed between August and October 2021. Structural equation modeling was performed for data analysis. This study found significant differences along gender lines and across different cities and levels of education with respect to evaluating competence trust and care trust on food supervision sampling inspection. This study identified the public's competence trust, care trust, and perception of food safety as factors that significantly affect one's attitude toward supervision sampling inspection. Care trust showed a more pronounced effect on trust enhancement than competence trust. The present study also provides some practical measures for food safety supervisors to improve public trust in the national food inspection. Specifically, the sampling process should be open and transparent.
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Project description:Food classification systems have been proposed to improve food quality criteria. Among these systems, "processing level" has been used as a criterion. NOVA classification, as the denotation "ultra-processed" food (UPF), has been widely used in different countries. However, even though some studies have pointed out some controversial aspects, no study has evaluated its comprehension by the population where it is used as reference. Therefore, this study explored the understanding of the term UPF for Brazilian consumers, where this denotation has been used in the last 8 years. A questionnaire was used, with questions referring to different aspects of self-assessment of knowledge about UPF. Altogether, 939 valid participants completed the questionnaire, and 81.9% of them declared to know the term UPF. For 78.2%, a better definition for UPF should be "foods that have gone through many processes in industry". Finally, it was concluded that the term UPF is still confusing for most Brazilians, indicating the risk of use and the urgent necessity to improve the classifications systems and consequently consumer understanding. Only when all parties interested in healthy food work together could this problem be solved.
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Project description:The conventional method for the sensory evaluation of wine is based on visual, olfactory and gustatory perceptions described by a domain-specific language. This is a complex task, requiring extensive training, which is not feasible from a consumer perspective. The objective of this study was to apply a wine tasting sheet, including sensory and emotional responses, to simplify the recognition of fine white wines by consumers. First, a panel of 15 semi-trained judges evaluated eight sensory attributes through Optimized Descriptive Profile (ODP) methodology. Then, a group of 104 consumers evaluated five white wines with different sensory characteristics using an improved emotional wine tasting sheet. The emotions and sensations most frequently associated with white wines were obtained through the Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) approach. The eight sensory attributes were significant (p-value < 0.05) in the distinction of wines by the ODP. Likewise, the distinction of the wines also provided significant differences in all the emotional and sensory attributes (p-value < 0.05). The different wine styles could be distinguished by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) using the semi-trained judges or the consumer responses. The highest score in the "global evaluation" was given to two young, fruity wines characterized by high aromatic "initial impression". The two fine wines, including a 2004 Burgundy Pouilly-Fuissé, were the lowest rated in "initial impression" and "global evaluation", although they were considered by the consumers among the most complex and persistent. These wines were also most frequently associated with unpleasant emotions by the CATA test. The recognition of these fine wine attributes and their incongruity with emotional responses can be used in a rapid way by professionals to explain the different wine styles to consumers.
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Project description:indicator front-of-package nutrition labelling schemes are gaining momentum. In Europe, an example of such a scheme is Nutri-Score, which was first introduced in France. Supported by additional research, the scheme has the potential to expand into other countries. Such a scenario opens a series of questions related to the use of Nutri-Score in the territories with pre-existing food labelling schemes. A key question is whether different nutrition labelling schemes would provide conflicting information for consumers when applied to same foods. The goal of our study was, therefore, to evaluate the alignment of different front-of-package nutrition labelling schemes. The study was conducted using cross-sectional data on the composition of selected categories of prepacked foods with high penetration nutrition/health claims and symbols in the Slovenian food supply. We evaluated a variety of existing front-of-package nutrition labelling schemes: three interpretive nutrition rating systems (Nutri-Score, Health Star Rating (HSR), Traffic light system), four health symbols (Protective Food symbol, Choices, Finnish heart, and Keyhole symbol), and also three nutrient profile models developed for other purposes (Office of Communications (United Kingdom, Ofcom), World Health Organization Regional office for Europe (WHOE) and Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ)). Overall, our results indicate that interpretive nutrition rating systems (i.e., Nutri-Score) are mostly less strict than the nutrient profiles of tested health symbols. A risk of conflicting information would happen in a scenario where food is eligible to carry a health symbol, but is at the same time rated to have lower nutritional quality by an accompanying interpretive nutrition rating system. When Protective Food symbol and Nutri-Score are used together, this would occur for 5% of foods in our sample. To avoid such risks, schemes for health symbols could be adapted to be stricter than interpretive nutrition rating systems used in the same territory/market, but such adaptations are challenging and should be well planned. While our study showed that, in most cases, Nutri-Score is a less strict model than tested health symbols, the rating-system approach might offer useful support and incentive for food producers towards gradual food reformulation.
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Project description:Providing information about the sugar content of packaged foods on product labels is an important strategy to lower consumers' sugar intake. This study assessed the effect of exposure to different sugar labels on consumers' understanding of the sugar content of foods and their food choices. In the first phase, five focus groups were conducted with a convenience sample of Brazilian adults to explore their perceptions about food labelling in general and sugar labelling in particular. Based on the qualitative results, four sugar label formats were developed and subsequently tested in a five-arm study on 1,277 adults via a randomised controlled online survey. The formats were: (i) no sugar information-control, (ii) total and added sugar content displayed in the Nutrition Information Panel (NIP), (iii) a front-of-package (FoP) octagonal warning for "high-in-sugar" products, (iv) a FoP magnifying glass warning for "high-in-sugar" products, and (v) a "high-in-sugar" warning text embedded on the NIP. Participants from the focus groups reported being confused about the meaning of "sugar" and "added sugar" on food labels and indicated that more interpretive labels, such as the FoP warnings, would help them choose products with low sugar content. In the experiment, all intervention sugar label formats improved participants' understanding of the sugar content of the tested food products, with the FoP warnings (iii and iv) showing the best results. While non-significant differences among label conditions were observed for food choices, the FoP octagonal warning prompted participants to choose high-in-sugar products less often. Given current public policy agendas aiming to reduce added sugar intake, there is a need to strengthen food labelling policies and nutrition disclosure policies that target the display of added sugar and build consumer awareness in using these tools to avoid high-in-sugar products.
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Project description:Seaweeds, or macroalgae, may be a good dietary iodine source but also a source of excessive iodine intake. The main aim in this study was to describe the iodine status and thyroid function in a group of macroalgae consumers. Two urine samples were collected from each participant (n = 44) to measure urinary iodine concentration (UIC) after habitual consumption of seaweed. Serum thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (fT4), free triiodothyronine (fT3), and peroxidase autoantibody (TPOAb), were measured in a subgroup (n = 19). A food frequency questionnaire and an iodine-specific 24 h recall were used to assess iodine intake and macroalgae consumption. The median (p25-p75) UIC was 1200 (370-2850) μg/L. Median (p25-p75) estimated dietary iodine intake, excluding macroalgae, was 110 (78-680) μg/day, indicating that seaweed was the major contributor to the iodine intake. TSH levels were within the reference values, but higher than in other comparable population groups. One third of the participants used seaweeds daily, and sugar kelp, winged kelp, dulse and laver were the most common species. Labelling of iodine content was lacking for a large share of the products consumed. This study found excessive iodine status in macroalgae consumers after intake of dietary seaweeds. Including macroalgae in the diet may give excessive iodine exposure, and consumers should be made aware of the risk associated with inclusion of macroalgae in their diet.
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Project description:Wine tasting is a multidimensional experience that includes contextual information from tasting environments. Formal sensory tastings are limited by the use of booths that lack ecological validity and engagement. Virtual reality (VR) can overcome this limitation by simulating different environmental contexts. Perception, sensory acceptability, and emotional responses of a Cabernet Sauvignon wine under traditional sensory booths, contextual environments, and VR simulations were evaluated and compared. Participants (N = 53) performed evaluations under five conditions: (1) traditional booths, (2) bright-restaurant (real environment with bright lights), (3) dark-restaurant (real environment with dimly lit candles), (4) bright-VR (VR restaurant with bright lights), and (5) dark-VR (VR restaurant with dimly lit candles). Participants rated the acceptability of aroma, sweetness, acidity, astringency, mouthfeel, aftertaste, and overall liking (9-point hedonic scale), and intensities of sweetness, acidity, and astringency (15-point unstructured line-scale). Results showed that context (booths, real, or VR) affected the perception of the wine's floral aroma (dark-VR = 8.6 vs. booths = 7.5). Liking of the sensory attributes did not change under different environmental conditions. Emotional responses under bright-VR were associated with "free", "glad", and "enthusiastic"; however, under traditional booths, they were related to "polite" and "secure". "Nostalgic" and "daring" were associated with dark-VR. VR can be used to understand contextual effects on consumer perceptions.
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Project description:Consumers perceive organic foods as more nutritious, natural, and environmentally friendly than non-organic or conventional foods. Since organic foods developed, studies on consumer behavior and organic foods have contributed significantly to its development. The presesent study aims to identify the factors affecting consumer buying behaviour toward organic foods in the United States. Survey data are collected from 770 consumers in the Midwest, United States. ANOVA, multiple linear regression, factor analysis, independent t-tests, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis are used to analyze the collected primary data. This research confirms health consciousness, consumer knowledge, perceived or subjective norms, and perception of price influence consumers' attitudes toward buying organic foods. Availability is another factor that affected the purchase intentions of consumers. Age, education, and income are demographic factors that also impact consumers' buying behavior. The findings help marketers of organic foods design strategies to succeed in the US's fast-growing organic foods market.
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