Consumer perception of plant-based yoghurt: Sensory drivers of liking and emotional, holistic and conceptual associations.

Plant-based (PB) yoghurts is a rapidly expanding food category with the potential to reduce many of the negative environmental impacts associated with the farming of dairy cattle and related greenhouse gas emissions. Within the context of growing consumer demand for PB products, this research aimed to identify the main drivers of consumer acceptance of PB yoghurts through data drawn from a consumer study of 113 adult New Zealand participants who tasted a representative range of commercially available vanilla-flavoured PB yoghurts, and provided sample evaluations using a multi-variable measurement approach comprised of liking ratings, emotional responses, sensory characterisations, and holistic / conceptual perceptions. The primary finding of this study was that the overall acceptability of currently available PB yoghurts is low, leading to poor attitudes and low willingness to consume PB yoghurts. The examined products were characterised by the presence of several sensory attributes that negatively impacted consumer liking, either because they were unexpected or because their intensity level was too high. Among the main sensory issues identified were perceived sourness (acidity), lumpy appearance and non-white colour. In contrast, vanilla flavour and a creamy/smooth texture were identified as the main drivers of liking. The multi-response approach used in this study enabled a comprehensive characterisation of the products. One of the key insights gained was that negative emotional activation, caused by the presence of unexpected sensory attributes in the samples, was the main driver of product rejection. This was likely due to the disparity between consumers' sensory expectations, formed primarily based on their experience with dairy yoghurts, and the actual experience upon tasting the PB yoghurts. Overall, the findings indicate that the sensory properties of currently available PB yoghurts are a significant barrier to their adoption by most consumers and that addressing these sensory deficiencies is essential to achieving mainstream market acceptance of these products.

Emoji for Food and Beverage Research: Pleasure, Arousal and Dominance Meanings and Appropriateness for Use.

Emoji have been argued to have considerable potential for emotion research but are struggling with uptake in part because knowledge about their meaning is lacking. The present research included 24 emoji (14 facial, 10 non-facial) which were characterized using the PAD model (Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance) of human affect by 165 consumers in New Zealand and 861 consumers in the UK. The results from the two countries were remarkably similar and contributed further evidence that emoji are suitable for cross-cultural research. While significant differences between the emoji were established for each of the PAD dimensions, the mean scores differed most on the Pleasure dimension (positive to negative), then on the Arousal dimension (activated to deactivated), and lastly on the Dominance dimension (dominance to submissive). The research also directly measured the perceived appropriateness of the 24 emoji for use with foods and beverages. The emoji face savoring food, clapping hands and party popper were in the top-5 for the highest appropriateness in food and beverage context for both studies, as was a strong negative expression linked to rejection (Study 1: face vomiting; Study 2: nauseated face). On the other hand, zzz and oncoming fist were considered as the least appropriate to be used in a food and beverage context in both studies. Again, the results from the UK and NZ were in good agreement and identified similar groups of emoji as most and least suitable for food-related consumer research.