The effects of contextual variables on food acceptability: A confirmatory study

King, Silvia C.; Meiselman, Herbert L.; Hottenstein, Annette W.; Work, Therese M.; Cronk, Valerie

doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2005.07.014

Cited by 156 publications

(82 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…The latter could have had a positive influence on the evaluation of the soups. Previous studies also showed that the preference for test products is higher in in-home tests compared with central location tests (38,39) and that context variables such as the function of the product as a meal component, social interaction, the environment of consumption and freedom of food choice significantly affect product evaluation in a positive direction (40)(41)(42) . Another reason for the similar liking scores of the soups eaten at home could be that participants may have added salt back themselves.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Effects of salt labelling and repeated in-home consumption on long-term liking of reduced-salt soups

Willems

Hout

Zijlstra

et al. 2013

Public Health Nutr.

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Objective: The present study investigated the impact of salt labelling and repeated in-home consumption on liking of reduced-salt soups. Design: Participants received a chicken noodle soup to be consumed twice weekly at home for 5 weeks. Three soups were included: (i) regular-salt soup as available on the market; (ii) 22 %-reduced-salt soup; and (iii) 32 %-reduced-salt soup. The soups were tasted blind or with the label: 'same great taste, less salt and more herbs'. In total, there were six experimental groups. All groups received the same soup over the whole period. Desire and liking were measured at each time of consumption. Setting: In-home and central location test. Subjects: French consumers (n 646). Results: There was no significant difference in liking between the three soups when consumed at home, whereas the reduced-salt soups were less liked than the regular-salt soup in the central location test. Labelling did not boost liking scores, which is probably explained by the fact that all soups were similarly liked when eaten at home. Conclusions:The surprising results of the present study in France suggest that a salt reduction of up to 32 % in a chicken noodle soup did not affect long-term liking score as assessed by consumers at home. In addition, initial liking measured at the central location was not predictive of liking after repeated in-home consumption. How far we can go in reducing salt in other products without compromising product quality, and how this impacts consumers' choice behaviour and in turn table salt use at home, are still unanswered questions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Effects of salt labelling and repeated in-home consumption on long-term liking of reduced-salt soups

Willems

Hout

Zijlstra

et al. 2013

Public Health Nutr.

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“…Much of this research has focused on the atmosphere in restaurants and in the home (e.g., [5,6,50,51,52] for reviews; [3,4,53,54]). Coelho et al [55] have recently reported that exposure to chocolate-scented lotion increased the intake of chocolate-chip cookies (by approximately 75%) when the lotion was labelled as "chocolate-scented" in comparison to the same lotion when it was unlabelled.…”

Section: Atmospherementioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the impact of the tableware and other contextual variables on multisensory flavour perception

Spence

Harrar

Piqueras‐Fiszman

2012

Flavour

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Currently little is known about how the non-edible items associated with eating and drinking (tableware items such as the plates, bowls, cutlery, glasses, bottles, condiment containers, etc.), or even environmental factors (such as the lighting and/or background music), affect people's perception of foodstuffs. Here, we review the latest evidence demonstrating the importance of these contextual variables on the consumer's behavioural and hedonic response to, and sensory perception of, a variety of food and drink items. These effects are explained by a combination of psychological factors (high level attributes, such as perceived quality, that may be mediating the effects under consideration), perceptual factors (such as the Ebbinghaus-Titchener size-contrast illusion and colour contrast in the case of the colour of the plateware affecting taste/flavour perception), and physiological-chemical factors (such as differences in the release of volatile organic compounds from differently-shaped wine glasses). Together, these factors help to explain the growing body of evidence demonstrating that both the tableware and the environment can have a profound effect on our perception of food and drink.Keywords: Cutlery, Tableware, Contextual factors, Flavour, Liking, Multisensory, Weight, Colour, Size, Material ReviewResearch on the topic of flavour perception has grown rapidly over the last decade or so (see Figure 1). In particular, the relative contributions of the various sensory cues (i.e., olfactory, gustatory, somatosensory, auditory, visual, and trigeminal) to multisensory flavour perception have been examined for a wide variety of different food and beverage items (see [1,2] for reviews). While a number of recent studies have also highlighted the importance of atmospheric/environmental cues in determining what, how much, and how quickly, we eat and drink, and even how much we report liking the experience ([3,4]; for reviews, see [5,6]), far less research has studied the role of the tableware on eating, drinking, and flavour perception. Below, we review the latest evidence highlighting the significant effect that the non-edible components of eating and drinking (e.g., the cutlery, plateware, glassware, condiment containers, menus, and atmosphere) can have on people's perception of, and response to, foods and beverages. CutleryCutlery, by which we mean forks, knives, and spoons, has been in widespread use for nearly 200 years now (e.g., [7,8]). Traditionally, it was made from a wide variety of different materials, such as wood, bone, ceramic, iron, brass pewter, etc. Nowadays, though, the range of materials used for cutlery is much narrower, mainly limited to stainless steel, silver, plastic, or wood (for chopsticks and the cutlery often found in ecofriendly coffee shops). This streamlining of materials has probably resulted from a combination of factors including: the ease and cost of manufacture/production, the ease of cleaning, environmental impact, and any taste transferred from the cutlery to the food.Lau...

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“…Central location settings should simulate a natural context of consumption as much as possible, as recent research showed that liking scores can vary significantly between a laboratory (clinical) environment and a real restaurant (King et al 2007). With the increasing presence of computers at home and the use of the internet for domestic purposes, on-line surveys are becoming popular among consumer researchers.…”

Section: Consumer Testsmentioning

confidence: 99%