Valérie Lengard Almli

European Consumers’ Definition and Perception of Traditional Foods

This chapter presents how European consumers define and perceive traditional foods based on consumer research performed within the EU-funded project Truefood. The insights were obtained through focus group studies, free word association tests, and cross-European quantitative consumer surveys. Consumers’ definition of traditional foods refers primarily to eating habits, naturalness, heritage, taste, and locality. Traditional foods have an overall positive image among European consumers, which provides an ideal basis to capitalize on future product development, market positioning, and marketing communication.

European consumer preference for African dried fruits

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess European consumer preference and willingness to pay (WTP) for tropical dried fruits from Africa. The paper specifically investigates sensory and credence characteristics driving consumer preferences. Design/methodology/approach – Data on sensory descriptive analysis and hedonic evaluation for seven samples representing three fruit types: mango, pineapple and banana, were collected together with data on Country of Origin (COO) preferences and WTP for conventional, organic and fair-trade labelled dried fruits, among Norwegian consumers (n=96). Findings – The results show that consumer preferences for a dried fruit are affected significantly by its typical aroma intensity and consumers are willing to pay a premium for both organic and fair-trade products. Two consumer groups expressing distinct COO preferences for tropical dried fruits and a third group with no country preferences are revealed. Originality/value – This study provides useful insights for dried ...

Fine-Tuning the Fight Against Food Waste:

The complex causes of consumer food waste make it difficult for commercial actors and public policy makers to develop successful foodwaste reduction campaigns. One of the essential problems is that consumer food waste seems to be the unplanned result of divergent food-related behaviors. The current research investigates the relationship between distinctive consumer food-related lifestyle patterns and food waste. A survey with 848 consumers in a Northern European country (Denmark) suggests that segments of consumers identified by food-related behaviors have corresponding differences in food waste produced. For example, consumers’ food waste varies across different patterns of food-related lifestyle-dimensions, such as 1) cooking enjoyment, 2) food planning, 3) price orientation, 4) social relationships related to meals, and 5) food-safety concerns. The study presents possible macromarketing actions and policies targeting consumer segments to reduce food waste.

The development of basic taste sensitivity and preferences in children

This study aims at understanding how preference and sensitivity to the basic tastes develop in the preschool years, and how the two relate to each other. To expand on the existing literature regarding taste preferences conducted in cross-sectional studies, a longitudinal design was applied with children from age four to six years old. During the springs of 2015, 2016, and 2017, 131 children born in 2011 were tested in their kindergartens. To investigate preferences for sweet, sour and bitter tastes, the children performed ranking-by-elimination procedures on fruit-flavored beverages and chocolates with three taste intensity levels. The beverages varied in either sucrose, citric acid, or the bitter component isolone. The chocolates varied in the bitter component theobromine from cocoa and sucrose content. Each year, the children also performed paired-comparison tasks opposing plain water to tastant dilutions at four concentrations. The stimuli consisted of the five basic tastes: sweet (sucrose) sour (citric acid monohydrate) umami (monosodium glutamate), salty (sodium chloride), and bitter (quinine hydrochloride dihydrate). Preference for sweetness levels increased with age, while preference for bitterness and sourness levels were stable. Concerning taste sensitivity, the children showed an increase in sensitivity for sourness and saltiness, a decrease for sweetness, and stability for umami and bitterness. A negative association was found between sweetness sensitivity and preference for sweetness. The study highlights different trajectories of sensitivity and preferences across tastes. On average, a reduction in sweetness sensitivity combined with an increase in preference for higher sweetness was observed from the age of four to six. The weak relationship between taste sensitivity and taste preference in our data suggests that taste preference development is shaped by a multitude of factors in addition to taste sensitivity.

Dish composition: children’s mental representation and expected liking

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how vegetable side components (carrot and broccoli) influence children’s associations and expected liking of two common Norwegian dishes (meatballs and salmon). Design/methodology/approach – Children aged 11-12 years old were recruited to complete an adapted free association test (n=89). Each participant was exposed to four pictures of dishes that included combinations of the experimental food items served with potatoes and sauce. Participants stated their immediate associations and how much they liked each meal on a five-point smiley face scale for children. Evoked associations were coded and categorized before the relationship between the expected liking of the dishes and the associations were visualized based on correspondence analysis. Findings – The authors found that the expected liking of the dishes was significantly affected by the composition of the dish, that the associations related to the meal changed when the vegetable component changed, a...