Effect of Familiarity on a Cross‐Cultural Acceptance of a Sweet Ethnic Food: A Case Study withKorean Traditional Cookie (Yackwa)

Abstract

This study was conducted to understand the relationship between familiarity and cross-cultural acceptance for an ethnic sweet treat (Yackwa; Korean traditional cookie) by Korean, Japanese and French consumers. Descriptive analysis and consumer testing were performed on six Yackwa samples. Overall, the samples received favorable responses from the foreign consumers. Korean consumers liked samples with a soft and cohesive texture, whereas Japanese and French consumers liked flaky and crispy texture. French consumers rated stronger sweetness to be more appropriate for Yackwa compared to Korean and Japanese consumers. Texture liking was strongly correlated with familiarity rating in all three countries, indicating that the consumers' previous experience with similar products might affect their preference for certain textural attributes. Familiarity was correlated with all hedonic ratings by Korean consumers, who are most familiar with Yackwa, but with overall and texture liking by Japanese consumers and flavor and texture liking by French consumers. These results suggest that familiarity partly contributes to a foreign consumers' hedonic rating. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSGlobalization and cultural diversity have increased interest in ethnic foods. This trend is motivating food industries to expand into the ethnic food market sector. In this study, the sensory attributes and the cross-cultural acceptability of Yackwa (Korean traditional cookie) were evaluated and the potential role of familiarity in determining consumer acceptance was measured. The outcome of this study will help food exporters, R&D scientists and food marketers in ethnic food market to optimize an ethnic food for other cultural communities by educating them to consider familiarity as an important factor for product development and promotion. bs_bs_banner Journal of Sensory Studies * Standard deviation values are shown in parentheses. The highest and the lowest mean scores for a given sensory attribute were highlighted in bold. † Means of four replicates from the eight panelists; mean values within a row not sharing a superscript letter are significantly different (P < 0.05, Duncan's multiple range test). CROSS-CULTURAL ACCEPTANCE OF YACKWA J.H. HONG ET AL.

Variations in U.S. Consumers’ Acceptability of Korean Rice Cake, Seolgitteok, with respect to Sensory Attributes and Nonsensory Factors

“…In addition, Figure (C) shows that they liked the Seolgitteok sample with the highest amount of sugar (W25B75_H) significantly more than those with lower amounts of sugar (W75B25_L and B100_L), indicating that U.S. consumers prefer highly sweetened Seolgitteok ; the traditional Seolgitteok is made with half the amount (10%) of that of the sample with the highest level (20%) of sugar. This result is consistent with the previous findings that Europeans and North Americans preferred sweetness more than did Asians (Bertino and others ; Hong and others ). In addition, Asian people have previously been found to be more sensitive and discriminating with respect to sweet‐tasting stimuli than North American people (Bertino and others ; Ishii and others ).…”

“…The x‐axis (t1) and the y‐axis (t2) represent the added levels of sugar and white rice flour, respectively. The W25B75_H sample, the one most favored by U.S. consumers (Figure ), was found to be associated with “sweet taste,” “metallic flavor,” “adhesiveness to teeth,” “moistness of mass,” and “roughness of mass.” This result supports the previous research that North Americans preferred sweetness more than did Asians (Bertino and others ; Hong and others ). Although healthiness was considered as the reason for liking of Korean style beverages among Korean consumers, sweetness was found to be one of positive attributes of preferred Korean style beverages among the U.S. consumers (Chung and others ).…”

Identifying Key Attributes for Protein Beverages

“…This may be due to greater familiarity with milk and whey proteins and their specific health benefits. Studies have proved the positive effect of familiarity (with a product or concept) on liking (Hansen and Wänke ; Hong and others ). Milk and whey proteins have been shown to have health benefits beyond basic nutrition such as bioactive compounds with antimicrobial or antiviral activity, immune promoting compounds, anticarcinogenic properties and cardiovascular health‐promoting features (Solak and Akin ).…”

Modification of a traditional Korean food product (Gochujang) to enhance its consumer acceptability as an ethnic food

“…The effect of familiarity and perceptual fluency on cross-cultural acceptance of an ethnic food was reported by Hong et al [4], who presented a case study on a Korean traditional cookie, Yackwa. This study involved Korean, Japanese, and French consumers and showed that Korean consumers liked samples with a soft and cohesive texture, whereas Japanese and French consumers liked a flaky and crispy texture.…”