Consumer's perception of food pairing products with usual, novel and unusual flavour combinations: A segmentation approach.

In saturated markets, companies are continually launching new products. Food innovations particularly play a decisive role in this case. One new concept is food pairing, which signifies that the more aromatic compounds two foods have in common, the better they taste together. Food pairing offers an opportunity to develop innovative foods. However, some consumers are risk-averse or exhibit food neophobia. Studies on food neophobia indicate that innovative foods could face rejection. The factor that represents a marketing barrier is not only the sensory rejection of the products when tasting them but also the refusal to even try such innovative products. Therefore, the idea of whether consumers are generally open to food pairing is important to examine. Nonetheless, research into this issue is lacking thus far. The subject of how consumers judge usual, novel, and unusual pairing principles was investigated in this study. The topic of whether a target group for food pairing products exists and characterized the target group was also analysed. To achieve the objective of the study, an online survey of German consumers (n = 1,064) was conducted; these consumers judged the five flavour combinations of each category (usual, novel, unusual). The results revealed a four-cluster solution, with one-third of the sample expressing an openness to food pairing. The whole sample judged the usual combinations as suitable; by contrast, the novel and unusual combinations were deemed to be mainly appropriate for the food pairing cluster. The proposed measurement methodology for testing the openness of food pairing, which distinguishes between usual, novel, and unusual pairings, has demonstrated its usefulness. Those consumers who are open to food pairing have a high level of food involvement and a low degree of food neophobia. Furthermore, they show the highest organic food purchase frequency.

Does Allulose Appeal to Consumers? Results from a Discrete Choice Experiment in Germany.

Reducing the sugar content in food is an important goal in many countries in order to counteract obesity and unhealthy eating. Currently, many consumers eat a number of foods with too much sugar content. However, mankind has an innate preference for sweet foods, and thus one strategy is to have food products which taste sweet but consist of a reduced calorie and sugar content. Allulose is a rare monosaccharide and is considered a safe ingredient in foods, for example in the US, Japan, Singapore, and Mexico, while in Europe, it is in the approval process as a novel food. Thus, it is relevant to find out how consumers perceive the different attributes of allulose in comparison to other sweeteners. Therefore, an online survey consisting of a choice experiment was conducted in Germany to find out consumer preferences of sweeteners. The survey data were analyzed using a mixed logit model. The results reveal that taste is the most important attribute for sweeteners, which explains about 40% of the choice. In the attribute level, a typical sugar taste is preferred. As allulose has a typical sugar taste, the likelihood that it appeals to consumers is high. The second most important attribute is the base product.

The influence of the Nutri-Score on the perceived healthiness of foods labelled with a nutrition claim of sugar.

High sugar intake in humans is associated with the development of overweight and other diet-related diseases. The World Health Organization and other health organizations recommend limiting the sugar intake to 10% of the total energy intake. There have been different approaches of front-of-pack labelling to reduce the amount of sugar in food products. Companies use nutrition claims to advertise the sugar content (e.g., without added sugar, 30% less sugar). Such nutrition claims can lead to false assumptions about the healthiness of foods and can lead to health-halo effects. Nutrition claims make products appear healthier than they really are, the aspect advertised in the nutrition claim is transferred to the entire food product. As a result, food products can be perceived as healthy even though they are not. Recently, the Nutri-Score was introduced in an increasing number of countries throughout Europe to provide consumers with an overview of the overall nutritional quality of a product. This study analyzes if the Nutri-Score can help to prevent health-halo effects caused by nutrition claims on sugar. Therefore, an online survey consisting of a split-sample design with more than 1,000 respondents was assessed. The results show that, depending on the initial perceived healthiness of a product, the Nutri-Score is able to prevent health-halo effects caused by claims on sugar. Making the Nutri-Score mandatory when using nutrition claims would be one possible way to reduce misperceptions about unhealthy food and reduce health-halo effects caused by claims on sugar.

Nutrition Policy and Individual Struggle to Eat Healthily: The Question of Public Support.

The evidence for the effectiveness of nutrition policy interventions is growing. For the implementation of such interventions, social acceptability is crucial. Therefore, this study provides insight into public support for nutrition policy measures such as labelling and taxation. Further it analyses the level of acceptance in a quantitative segmentation approach. A new element to our approach is the comparison of different policy instruments, focusing on the interaction between policy acceptance and the perceived individual struggle to eat healthily. The survey was conducted in November 2017 and a total of 1035 German consumers are included in the data. The results indicate that the majority of German citizens accept nutrition policy interventions. Based on a cluster analysis, five different target groups according to the general acceptance of policy interventions and their own struggle to eat healthily are derived. The five-cluster solution reveals that both consumers who tend to eat a healthy diet as well as those who have problems with their diet support nutritional interventions. This shows that the perceived own struggle to eat healthily does not predict whether consumers accept nutrition policy interventions.