Lone Bredahl

Consumer perception of meat quality and implications for product development in the meat sector—a review

In the first part of the paper, the Total Food Quality Model is used as a frame of reference for analysing the way in which consumers perceive meat quality, drawing mainly on European studies involving beef and pork. The way in which consumers form expectations about quality at the point of purchase, based on their own experience and informational cues available in the shopping environment, is described, as well as the way in which quality is experienced in the home during and after meal preparation. The relationship between quality expectations and quality experience and its implications for consumer satisfaction and repeat purchase intent is addressed. In the second part of the paper, and building on the insights obtained on subjective quality perception, possibilities for consumer-oriented product development in the meat sector are addressed. Issues dealt with here are branding, differentiation by taste, healthiness and convenience, and by process characteristics like organic production and animal welfare.

Determinants of Consumer Attitudes and Purchase Intentions With Regard to Genetically Modified Food – Results of a Cross-National Survey

Previous research has shown consumers to be highly sceptical towards genetic modification in food production. So far, however, little research has tried to explain how consumers form attitudes and make decisions with regard to genetically modified foods. The paper presents the results of a survey which was carried out in Denmark, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom to investigate the formation of consumer attitudes towards genetic modification in food production and of purchase decisions with regard to genetically modified yoghurt and beer. Altogether, 2031 consumers were interviewed in the four countries.Results show that attitude formation and decision-making are more comparable among Danish, German, and British consumers than with Italian consumers. Italian consumers turned out to be significantly less negative towards genetic modification in foods than particularly Danish and German consumers. Across countries, the attitude towards genetic modification in food production was deeply embedded in more general attitudes held by the consumers, in particular attitude towards nature and attitude towards technology. These general attitudes were found to influence perceived risks and benefits of the technology. Purchase decisions with regard to the two product examples were almost exclusively determined by attitudes towards purchasing the products. These were, in turn, significantly influenced by the overall attitude towards genetic modification in food production through their effects on beliefs held by consumers regarding the quality and trustworthiness of the products.The results suggest that attitudes towards genetically modified foods are quite strong, despite their lack of basis in actual product experience. Likewise, the strong relation of product-specific attitudes to the attitude towards using genetic modification in food production suggests that at present consumers reject the technology overall rather than evaluate products on a case-by-case basis. This situation may, however, be changed by a possible increased availability of genetically modified food products on the consumer market.

Three issues in consumer quality perception and acceptance of dairy products

It is argued that consumer quality perception of dairy products is characterised by four major dimensions: hedonic, health-related, convenience-related and process-related quality. Two of these, viz., health and process-related quality, are credence dimensions, i.e. a matter of consumer trust in communication provided. Drawing on five different empirical studies on consumer quality perception of dairy products, three issues related to the communication on credence quality dimensions are discussed: providing credible information, the role of consumer attitudes, and inference processes in quality perception. Organic products, functional products, and products involving genetic modification are used as examples.

Cue utilisation and quality perception with regard to branded beef

Abstract Consumers’ quality perceptions are based on individual evaluative judgments. Meat is a food category where consumers’ quality perception is particularly difficult, among other things because meat is mostly sold unbranded. Through interviews with buyers of branded beef steaks, the study investigates how consumers employ brand information in combination with other quality cues to form quality expectations in the shop and how quality is experienced later when the product is ingested. Results show the brand to serve as a basis both for expected eating quality and for expected health quality. Despite the presence of a brand, the correspondence between expected and experienced quality remained moderate. Product familiarity seems to influence the quality perception process overall, with low familiarity consumers relying significantly more on the brand as a quality cue.

Consumers' cognitions with regard to genetically modified foods: Results of a qualitative study in four countries

The objective of this research was to gain insight into consumers>> attitudes towards genetic modification in food production. With means-end chain theory as the theoretical basis, laddering interviews were conducted with 400 consumers in Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy. Perceived risks and benefits of genetic modification in foods were investigated using beer and yoghurt as examples. German and Danish responses revealed more complex cognitive structures than did the results from the United Kingdom and Italy. In all four countries, however, applying genetic modification was associated with unnaturalness and low trustworthiness of the resulting products, independently of whether the genetically modified material was traceable in the product. Moral considerations were voiced as well, as were a number of other consequences that were perceived to conflict with both individual and social values.

Four questions on European consumers’ attitudes toward the use of genetic modification in food production

Four questions on European consumers’ attitudes to the use of genetic modification (GM) in food production are posed and answered: (1) how negative are consumer attitudes to GM applications in food production? (2) How do these attitudes affect perception of and preference for products involving GM applications? (3) How deeply rooted are these attitudes? (4) Will the attitudes change due to more information andyor product experience? Drawing on two major studies researching these questions, it is concluded that consumer attitudes towards GM in food production are negative, that these negative attitudes guide the perception of food products involving the use of GM and lead to a range of sweeping negative associations which overshadow potential benefits perceived, that these negative attitudes are embedded in a system of more general attitudes, especially attitude to nature, to technology, and alienation from the marketplace, implying that they are deeply rooted, and that they will not easily be changed by information. They may change, however, due to own experience with products produced using GM and involving clear consumer benefits. 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cross-cultural validity of the food-related lifestyles instrument (FRL) within Western Europe

The food-related lifestyle instrument (FRL) was tested for its validity across food cultures in Western Europe. First, responses from samples of 1000 or more consumers from each of Denmark, France, Germany, Spain and the UK were compared using multi-sample confirmatory factor analysis with structured means. The loadings, covariances and variances of the factors were invariant across countries, although item intercepts and error variances were not. In the second part of the analysis, replication samples (also Ns of 1000 or more) from France, Germany and the UK were examined for intra-cultural stability using the same statistical models. The factorial structure was completely invariant over time in three of five FRL domains, and subject to only minor variations in the other two domains. In the third part of the analysis, a revised version of the FRL was tested for cross-cultural validity, using consumer samples of 1000 each from France and the UK. This version of the FRL was also cross-culturally valid in factor loadings, covariances and variances, but still subject to variation between countries in item intercepts and error variances.

Consumer perceptions: pork and pig production. Insights from France, England, Sweden and Denmark.

Consumer focus groups in France, England, Sweden and Denmark were used to obtain insights into the decision-making involved in the choice of fresh pork and attitudes towards todays pig production systems. Many positive perceptions of pork meat were evoked. Negative images of the production systems in use today were expressed, but rationalised in terms of consumer demands, market competition and by comparisons to previous systems of production. Knowledge of production systems appeared of little consequence in terms of any meat market potential as several groups freely remarked that there was no link between the negative images of production methods and their purchase behaviour. The groups were clearly confused and mistrusted the limited information available at the point of purchase. Careful consideration should be given to meat labelling, in particular taking account of the evident consumer ethnocentrism, to assure that such information is targeted to enhance consumer confidence.

Food-Related Lifestyle: A Segmentation Approach to European Food Consumers

Ever since Levitt’s (1983) controversial article on the globalization of markets, there has been a standing discussion on which degree of standardisation versus adaptation of marketing parameters is appropriate under which circumstances (e.g., Jain 1989; Samiee and Roth 1992; Wind 1986). Levitt’s forceful argument was that, driven by developments in technology and mass communication, consumers tend to develop homogeneous preferences around the world, and that marketers’ attempts to adapt locally is a waste of resources which were better spent bringing down costs and make products obtainable to more people. The more refined argument is that certain marketing parameters may be standardised to varying degrees, depending on characteristics of the market, the product, the company and the environment as such.

Consequences of two or four months of finishing feeding of culled dry dairy cows on carcass characteristics and technological and sensory meat quality

Finishing feeding was evaluated as a way to improve carcass-, meat- and eating quality of culled dairy cows. In total, 125 Danish Friesian cows were purchased from commercial dairy herds. Cows were culled for various typical reasons at different stages of lactation, were non-pregnant and had milk yield at culling ranging from 1 to 25kg/d and had LW varying from 330 to 778kg. Cows were housed in tie-stalls and had free access to barley straw and water during a 7-d drying-off period. Cows were allocated to three equal treatment groups based on parity, LW, BCS, and culling reason. A control group (C) was slaughtered immediately after drying-off (n=43), a group (F2) was finishing-fed for 63 days (n=41), and a group (F4) was finishing-fed for 126 days (n=41). In the finishing period, cows had free access to a TMR (10.6 MJ ME and 130g CP per kg of DM). Cows on treatment, F2 and F4 gained 1.16±0.05kg/d in the finishing period. Compared with C-cows, F2- and F4-cows had 56 and 97kg higher carcass weight, 10% and 21% larger Longissimus muscle area, and 14 and 70% more backfat, respectively, at time of slaughter. EUROP conformation scores were 2.2 (C), 3.4 (F2) and 4.4 (F4) and EUROP fat scores were 1.9, 3.0 and 3.7. Finishing feeding increased IMF, improved meat flavour and colour, and tended to reduce shear force value and improve tenderness and juiciness. The F4 cows also had higher fat trim than C- and F2-cows. Cows were divided into two parity groups (1st parity and older cows). Compared with 1st parity cows, older cows ate 12% more feed, had similar daily gain, were heavier, and had higher BCS and fatness including IMF. The results show that it is possible to dry-off and finish-feed culled dairy cows resulting in larger muscles, increased fatness, improved overall carcass quality and better technological as well as sensory quality characteristics.