Gerry Jager

Evoked Emotions Predict Food Choice

In the current study we show that non-verbal food-evoked emotion scores significantly improve food choice prediction over merely liking scores. Previous research has shown that liking measures correlate with choice. However, liking is no strong predictor for food choice in real life environments. Therefore, the focus within recent studies shifted towards using emotion-profiling methods that successfully can discriminate between products that are equally liked. However, it is unclear how well scores from emotion-profiling methods predict actual food choice and/or consumption. To test this, we proposed to decompose emotion scores into valence and arousal scores using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and apply Multinomial Logit Models (MLM) to estimate food choice using liking, valence, and arousal as possible predictors. For this analysis, we used an existing data set comprised of liking and food-evoked emotions scores from 123 participants, who rated 7 unlabeled breakfast drinks. Liking scores were measured using a 100-mm visual analogue scale, while food-evoked emotions were measured using 2 existing emotion-profiling methods: a verbal and a non-verbal method (EsSense Profile and PrEmo, respectively). After 7 days, participants were asked to choose 1 breakfast drink from the experiment to consume during breakfast in a simulated restaurant environment. Cross validation showed that we were able to correctly predict individualized food choice (1 out of 7 products) for over 50% of the participants. This number increased to nearly 80% when looking at the top 2 candidates. Model comparisons showed that evoked emotions better predict food choice than perceived liking alone. However, the strongest predictive strength was achieved by the combination of evoked emotions and liking. Furthermore we showed that non-verbal food-evoked emotion scores more accurately predict food choice than verbal food-evoked emotions scores.

Effectiveness of flavour nutrient learning and mere exposure as mechanisms to increase toddler’s intake and preference for green vegetables

Childrens consumption of vegetables is still below recommendations. Since preference is the most important predictor of childrens intake and most children dislike vegetables, new strategies are needed to increase their preferences for vegetables. Flavour nutrient learning (FNL) could be an effective mechanism to change preferences. Forty healthy toddlers were included in a randomized intervention study. During an intervention period of 7weeks, they consumed vegetable soups (endive and spinach) twice per week. Half of the group received a high-energy variant of one soup (e.g. HE spinach) and a low energy variant of the other (LE endive), whereas for the other half the order was reversed (HE endive, LE spinach). Primary outcome measures were preference and ad libitum consumption (with a maximum of 200g) of both vegetable products (LE), measured before, shortly after the intervention period, and 2 and 6months following conditioning to assess longer-term effects. After completion of the intervention period, 28 children (14 girls and 14 boys, age 35months; SD±8.3) met criteria for FNL to occur, and were included in further data analysis. Results showed a significant increase (~58g) in ad libitum intake for both vegetable soups (stable over time), but irrespective of the energy content. This indicates a robust effect of mere exposure on intake, but no FNL. For preference, however, results showed a significant shift in liking for the vegetable soup consistently paired with high energy, supporting FNL.

It is not just a meal, it is an emotional experience - a segmentation of older persons based on the emotions that they associate with mealtimes.

Worldwide, the group of older persons is growing fast. To aid this important group in their food and meal requirements, a deeper insight into the expectations and experiences of these persons regarding their mealtimes and snack times is needed. In the current study, we aim to identify consumer segments within the group of vital community-dwelling older persons on the basis of the emotions they associate with their mealtimes and snack times (from now on referred to as mealtimes). Participants (n = 392, mean age 65.8 (years) ± 5.9 (SD)) completed an online survey. The survey consisted of three questionnaires: emotions associated with mealtimes, functionality of mealtimes, and psychographic characteristics (health and taste attitudes, food fussiness, and food neophobia). Consumer segments were identified and characterised based on the emotions that the respondents reported to experience at mealtimes, using a hierarchical cluster analysis. Clusters were described using variables previously not included in the cluster analysis, such as functionality of mealtimes and psychographic characteristics. Four consumer segments were identified: Pleasurable averages, Adventurous arousals, Convivial indulgers, and Indifferent restrictives. These segments differed significantly in their emotional associations with mealtimes both in valence and level of arousal. The present study provides actionable insights for the development of products and communication strategies tailored to the needs of vital community-dwelling older persons.

Efficacy of repeated exposure and flavour–flavour learning as mechanisms to increase preschooler's vegetable intake and acceptance

Dutch childrens diets, like the diets of many children in Europe and the US are not balanced, do not contain enough vegetables and have been associated with a high prevalence of childhood obesity. Promoting childrens vegetable intake is challenging.

Influence of choice on vegetable intake in children: an in-home study

Childrens vegetable consumption is still far below that recommended, and stimulating their intake is a challenge for caregivers. The objective of this study was to investigate whether choice-offering is an effective strategy to increase childrens vegetable intake in an in-home situation. Seventy children (mean age 3.7; SD 1) randomly assigned to a choice or a no-choice condition, were exposed 12 times to six familiar target vegetables at home during dinner. In the choice group, two selected vegetables were offered each time, whereas the no-choice group only received one vegetable. Vegetable intake was measured by weighing childrens plates before and after dinner. A mixed linear model with age, gender, and baseline vegetable liking as covariates was used to compare intake between the choice and the no-choice group. Mixed linear model analysis yielded estimated means for vegetable intake of 48.5 g +/- 30 in the no-choice group and 57.7 g +/- 31 for the choice group (P = 0.09). In addition, baseline vegetable liking (P <0.001) and age (P = 0.06) predicted vegetable intake to be higher when the child liked vegetables better and with older age. These findings suggest that choice-offering has some, but hardly robust, effect on increasing vegetable intake in children. Other factors such as age and liking of vegetables also mediate the effect of offering a choice.

Use of Different Vegetable Products to Increase Preschool-Aged Children’s Preference for and Intake of a Target Vegetable: A Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND Childrens low vegetable consumption requires effective strategies to enhance preference for and intake of vegetables. OBJECTIVE The study compared three preparation practices for a target vegetable (spinach) on their effectiveness in increasing preschool-aged childrens preference for and intake of the target vegetable in comparison to a control vegetable (green beans). DESIGN We conducted a randomized controlled trial with four parallel groups: plain spinach, creamed spinach, spinach ravioli, and green beans. During the intervention, children were served the vegetable at their main meal six times over 6 weeks at home. PARTICIPANTS/SETTING Children aged 2 to 4 years were recruited from six child-care centers located in Wageningen, the Netherlands, and randomly assigned to one of the four groups, with vegetable products provided by the researchers. The study was performed between September 2014 and January 2015. In total, 103 children participated, with 26, 25, 26, and 26 in the plain spinach, creamed spinach, spinach ravioli, and green beans groups, respectively. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Preference for and ad libitum intake of cooked spinach were assessed during a test meal at the day-care center pre- and postintervention. Food neophobia was assessed via the Child Food Neophobia Scale. STATISTICAL ANALYSES PERFORMED General linear model repeated measures analysis, including food neophobia, spinach liking, exposure, and consumption scores as covariates, was performed to test for effects of group on intake. Logistic regression was used to assess changes in preference between pre- and postintervention. RESULTS All four groups significantly increased their spinach intake from pre- (53 g) to postintervention (91 g) by an average of 70%. For preference, no significant shift toward the target vegetable was found from pre- to postintervention. The effect on intake depended on the childs neophobia status and preintervention spinach consumption, with children with neophobia being less responsive to the intervention and with children who ate more spinach before the intervention being more responsive to the intervention. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that repeated exposure to differently prepared spinach products, or even another green vegetable, improved childrens spinach intake. However, children with neophobia may need a different approach.

Cheers, Proost, Saúde: Cultural, Contextual and Psychological Factors of Wine and Beer Consumption in Portugal and in the Netherlands.

ABSTRACT Wine and beer consumption are an integral part of European culture: Southern Europe is associated with wine and Northern Europe is associated with beer. When consumed in moderation, these alcoholic beverages can be part of a balanced and healthy diet. In the 1990s, non-alcoholic beer (NAB), which has no cultural roots, became available in the market. This review identifies determinants for consumption of wine, beer, and NAB, using data on consumption patterns from Portugal and the Netherlands. Since the 1960s the image of Portugal as a wine country declined, whereas the image of the Netherlands as a beer country remained stable. In each country beer is now the most consumed alcoholic beverage and is mainly a mens beverage, whereas wine is the second most consumed and is consumed by both genders. Cultural differences define Portuguese as “outdoors, everyday drinkers”, within a meal context, and Dutch as “at home, weekend drinkers.” Wine is perceived as the healthiest beverage, followed by NAB, and regular beer. Motivation for consumption is related to context: wine for special occasions, beer for informal occasions, and NAB for occasions when alcohol is not convenient. Moderate wine and beer consumption seems to be surrounded by positive emotions. This review is relevant for public health, for industry market strategies, and identifies opportunities of future research on drinking behaviour.

Short-term Time Structure of Food-related Emotions : Measuring Dynamics of Responses

Contemporary emotion theories have come to conceptualize emotions as multicomponent and dynamic phenomena. Central to this dynamical perspective is that emotions are viewed as a series of dynamic and recursive events that unfold over time, rather than single discrete responses. This chapter describes the architecture of emotions, decomposed into more elementary constituents including antecedent parts such as appraisal, and response parts like physiological responses, facial expressions, and the subjective experience or conscious feeling. The chapter mainly focuses on food-related emotions. Several methods are explained that allow measurement of the temporal dynamics of emotion components, including mapping of the relevant time-course variables. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the main implications of measuring temporal dynamics of emotion responses.

Emotional and functional conceptualisations for beer, wine and non-alcoholic beer consumption in the Netherlands and in Portugal

Consumers have emotional associations with particular foods and their functionality in terms of for example health. These associations are defined as conceptualisations and play an important role in food choice. In this study the context of consumption is characterised and functional and emotional conceptualisations of beer, wine and non-alcoholic beer (NAB) investigated in moderate drinkers representing Northern and Southern European consumers. A qualitative study was performed employing eight Focus Groups: 27 Dutch and 29 Portuguese consumers. The data was evaluated using content analysis. More than a hundred, mostly positive, emotional attributes were evoked. Dutch consumers employed more emotional attributes than Portuguese. Wine and beer elicited the highest number of attributes. For the Portuguese, drinking wine brings a feeling of relaxation and pleasure and it is related to its sensory properties and accompanying foods. Drinking regular beer brings joy and pleasure and is mostly to socialise. Drinking NAB is being responsible. For Dutch, feelings like calm and relaxed are related to wine consumption, which has a role in communication. Drinking beer is about conviviality and connected to relaxation and exuberance. Drinking NAB is being conscious and elicited mainly functional and contextual associations, like staying in control when going out. This study showed that wine, beer and NAB have different conceptualisations: wine is the most emotional product, beer is emotional but also functional and NAB is mainly functional.

Temporal dominance of sensory and emotional sensations for chocolate

Mapping food-evoked emotions in addition to sensory profiling is topical. For sensory profiling, Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS) method focus on temporal evolution of sensory attributes over time. It seems plausible that food-evoked emotions show similar temporal dynamics that could be related to sensory dynamics. This study assessed temporal dynamics of sensory and emotional attributes during chocolate tasting. We used the TDS method for dynamic information on a list of 10 sensory attributes. Comparably, Temporal Dominance of Emotions (TDE) was assessed, by replacing the sensory list with emotional attributes. Sixty-two participants assessed TDS and TDE for five samples of different flavoured dark chocolate (i.e. Blueberry, Orange, Mint, and plain dark with 70% vs. 90% cacao). Multivariate comparisons (Hotelling- T 2 -test) using dominance durations showed significant differences between products based on sensory ( p 0.05 ) and emotional attributes ( p 0.05 ). TDS band plots revealed products to differ based on their dominant sensory attributes, with different attributes peaking at different time moments for various flavours. In line with our expectation, TDE band plots showed that products also differed in the temporal distribution of dominant emotional attributes. Comparison of TDS and TDE band plots suggested that, compared to the plain chocolates, the flavoured chocolates were characterized by more complex sensory profiles with stronger dynamics over time. Interestingly, this was associated with more positive/active emotional attributes gaining dominance over time, e.g. ‘interested’, ‘energetic’, and ‘happy’. These findings suggest TDE to be a promising new venue in characterising food-evoked emotions in relation to sensory profiling.