Predictors of food acceptance, consumption and satisfaction in specific eating situations

Interdependency of food and water intake in humans

Throughout the history of the scientific measurement of food acceptance, there has been a growing recognition that the use of preference alone, in the sense of pure affective judgement, is an insufficient measure as an explanatory variable for food choice. As evidenced by the data on the prediction of food consumption behavior illustrated by the work of (Kamenetzky et al. 1957), (Lau et al. 1979), (Pilgrim and Kamen 1963 ), (Sidel et al. 1972), the prediction of food consumption behavior from preference judgments at best accounts for only about 50% of the variance in consumption. The relevance of cognitive processes in food acceptance has been considered by (Olson 1981), (Thomson and McEwan 1988), (Rappaport & Peters 1980), (Worsley 1963). The consumer and market research community have also recognized the importance of so-called situational variables in understanding consumer behavior an indicated in the paper by (Belk 1975), and in particular usage conditions as represented by (Kakkar and Lutz 1981) and a pioneering work by (Stefflre 1971). The use of Kelly’s personal construct theory (1955) and repertory grid, illustrated by the work of (McEwan and Thomson 1963) as one approach for evaluating the contextual aspects of food acceptance.

Appropriateness as a measure of the cognitive-contextual aspects of food acceptance

A study was conducted to assess relationships between food preference ratings and food acceptability ratings. Acceptability ratings for each of two discriminably different samples of nine food items were obtained using the 9-point hedonic scale. Regression analysis indicated that no linear relationship existed between these ratings and either hedonic or frequency preference ratings of the foods. In addition, the range of acceptability ratings was smaller than the range of corresponding’preference ratings. Panelists’expressed preferences had no effect on their assignment of differential acceptance ratings to different samples of the items. Correlations between preference ratings of laboratory panelists and military field panelists were good, in spite of higher absolute preference ratings assigned by the laboratory panel.

Relationships Between Food Preferences and Food Acceptance Ratings

Consumer sensory evaluation is usually performed towards the end of the product development or reformulation cycle. At this time, the alternative product prototypes have usually been narrowed down to a manageable subset through the use of analytical sensory tests. Frequently, the sensory testing is followed by additional testing done through market research. The big difference between consumer sensory and marketing research testing is that the sensory test is generally conducted with coded, not branded, products, while market research is most frequently done with branded products (van Trijp and Schifferstein, 1995). Also, in consumer sensory analysis the investigator is interested in whether the consumer likes the product, prefers it over another product, or finds the product acceptable based on its sensory characteristics. The consumer sensory specialist often has no interest in purchase intent, effect of branding, and/or cost factors. Thus, a product will not necessarily be financially successful just because it had high hedonic scores (was well liked) or because it was preferred over another product. Success in the marketplace is also affected by price, market image, packaging, niche, etc. However, a product that does not score well in a consumer acceptance test will probably fail despite great marketing.

James M. Mecredy

Papers

Correlation between hedonic ratings and consumption of beer