Effects of COVID‐19 on sensory and cognitive perception of mild and severe diagnosed and recovered patients versus healthy consumers

Abstract

The objective of this research was to analyze the effects of the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus on the sensory and cognitive perception of mild and severe COVID‐19 diagnosed and recovered consumers versus healthy consumers. Three groups of 50 consumers each (healthy vs. mild and severe COVID‐19 diagnosed with 30 days after recovery) were used for the evaluation of instant coffee stimuli in concentrations: 4.40, 2.93, 2.20, 1.76, and 1.47% weight (w)/volume (v) and determine their discriminating power, emotions, and memories. Sensory tests were performed remotely. Results indicated that healthy consumers perceived higher intensities in most of the sensory attributes (with the exception of Burnt‐A, Bitter‐T, Acid‐T, and Astringent‐T attributes) compared to consumers who presented mild and severe COVID‐19. Therefore, consumers diagnosed with mild and severe COVID‐19 had a higher discrimination power in the attributes smell, basic tastes, and flavor. Healthy consumers could only discriminate two attributes that correspond to basic flavors. Consumers with mild and severe COVID‐19 diagnosis elicited the highest number of negatives emotions (such as bored, disgusted, worried, guilty, wild, and aggressive) and negative memories (disease, pain, death, hurt, obesity, conflict personal, addiction, stench poverty, and accident) than healthy consumers. It is concluded that there were no significant differences between the consumer panels for the identification of sensory attributes. However, P‐Healthy consumers perceived the highest intensities in most sensory attributes compared to those in the PCOVID19‐Mild and PCOVID19‐Severe panels. Finally, consumers diagnosed with mild or severe COVID‐19 used a higher number of emotions and memories than those of the healthy panel. Practical applications Investigating the effects of COVID‐19 on sensory and cognitive perception can be useful for industry and researchers in the sensory field who wish to understand the effects of the disease in order to generate new protocols for the selection and training of people, as well as the possible development and innovation of new products focused on perception of consumers recovered from COVID‐19.

Analysis of sensory and cognitive performance of generational consumers using artisan tortillas

“…For example, the memory artisanal food was only evoked by the BB and ZG generations, it may be because BB consumers long for rural or artisanal foods and their bond is essential while ZG consumers link their food nostalgia to industrialized foods with a stronger bond with friends, pets, and eating out consumption (Espinoza‐Ortega, 2021). In the case of positive memories referring to a time or season of the year (summer, fall, hot weather, cold weather, hot weather, mild weather) that were evoked by the four groups of consumers may be associated with the daily consumption of tortilla or at parties where the family gathers (Cabal‐Prieto, Sánchez‐Arellano, et al, 2022). The memory childhood evoked by consumers ZG should be understood as the link between nostalgia and a period of life, which is observed in the younger generations (Espinoza‐Ortega, 2021).…”

“…Recent research have studied consumers responses towards food products based on age, gender, education, nostalgia, COVID‐19, among others (Cabal‐Prieto, Sánchez‐Arellano, et al, 2022; Espinoza‐Ortega, 2021; Herrera‐Corredor et al, 2010; Santiago‐Cruz et al, 2021). However, the interaction between the experience of political and economic situations, familiarity with the food and dependence on technology could also be influencing the results generated by consumers (Priporas et al, 2017; Smith & Clurman, 1997; Wahyuningsih et al, 2022; Wiedmann et al, 2014).…”