Emotion and Its Relationship to Acceptance, Food Choice, and Consumption: The New Perspective

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Sensory and Consumer Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (29 February 2020) | Viewed by 41083

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Special Issue Editors

Department of Foods, Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio de Janeiro (IFRJ), Rio de Janeiro 20270-021, RJ, Brazil
Interests: chemometrics and machine learning in food processing; dairy science and technology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Eating is a necessity to survive. However, food is more than just a source of nutrients—it is a source of basic pleasure as well as aesthetic experiences. Eating and drinking and lifestyle can promote health or may cause a number of potential health risk and ethical concerns related to food chain and production. At present, consumers are more health-conscious and more educated about what goes into their foods. Many consumers want healthier versions of retailed food products, such as those with low-sodium content. These consumers are concerned about their health benefit or risk associated with food consumption. Today, globalization allows consumers to be exposed to various cuisines which can be readily available to them. Additionally, with the world population increasing rapidly, alternative food sources and food production will be needed to support sustainability. A potential alternative protein source (e.g., from edible insect protein), for instance, will likely be needed. The question is, “would consumers be willing to consume this? And do they like it?” Based on many studies, food choice, acceptance and consumption are affected by a large number of factors, including both intrinsic and extrinsic factors and cues.

It is known that food elicits emotion. Measuring food-evoked emotions is a topical topic in sensory and consumer sciences. Emotions are becoming a critical component in designing products that meet consumers’ needs and expectations. Emotional profiles may effectively differentiate products with similar sensory characteristics and hedonic ratings. Emotion profiles and ratings may provide additional information that goes beyond traditional hedonic ratings and may provide more insight toward food choice. Several studies have reported emotional responses to food and their relationships to product acceptability. Appropriate health benefit information has also been reported to impact emotion, purchase decisions, and food choices. Human senses and cues play an instrumental role in food choice and intake, emotion and product acceptance; hence, understanding their roles and importance is critical.

This Special Issue of Foods aims to publish both original and cutting-edge research and comprehensive reviews contributing to a deeper understanding of food-evoked emotion, food choice, acceptance, and consumption. Papers from multi- and interdisciplinary perspectives, such as food and sensory sciences, culinology and gastronomy, nutrition and health sciences, psychology, business and marketing, and consumer behavior are highly desirable and very welcome.

Prof. Dr. Witoon Prinyawiwatkul
Prof. Dr. Adriano Gomes da Cruz
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Food-evoked emotions
  • Sensory liking and consumer acceptance
  • Purchase intent
  • Health risk and benefit statement
  • Food choice
  • Food intake

Published Papers (8 papers)

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Editorial

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3 pages, 175 KiB  
Editorial
Relationships between Emotion, Acceptance, Food Choice, and Consumption: Some New Perspectives
by Witoon Prinyawiwatkul
Foods 2020, 9(11), 1573; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9111573 - 29 Oct 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2265
Abstract
Food is more than just a source of nutrients—it also provides basic pleasure as well as aesthetic experiences. A number of studies have reported that acceptance, food choice, and consumption are affected by a large number of factors, including both intrinsic and extrinsic [...] Read more.
Food is more than just a source of nutrients—it also provides basic pleasure as well as aesthetic experiences. A number of studies have reported that acceptance, food choice, and consumption are affected by a large number of factors, including both intrinsic and extrinsic factors and cues, as well as consumer characteristics. Food-elicited emotions are becoming a critical component in designing products that meet consumers’ needs and expectations. Several studies have reported emotional responses to food and their relationships to product acceptability, preference, and choice. This Special Issue brings together a small range of studies with a diversity of approaches that provide good examples of the complex and multidisciplinary nature of the subject matter. Full article

Research

Jump to: Editorial

13 pages, 733 KiB  
Article
An Analysis of Public Opinions Regarding Take-Away Food Safety: A 2015–2018 Case Study on Sina Weibo
by Cen Song, Chunyu Guo, Kyle Hunt and Jun Zhuang
Foods 2020, 9(4), 511; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9040511 - 18 Apr 2020
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 5385
Abstract
Take-away food (also referred to as “take-out” food in different regions of the world) is a very convenient and popular dining choice for millions of people. In this article, we collect online textual data regarding “take-away food safety” from Sina Weibo between 2015 [...] Read more.
Take-away food (also referred to as “take-out” food in different regions of the world) is a very convenient and popular dining choice for millions of people. In this article, we collect online textual data regarding “take-away food safety” from Sina Weibo between 2015 and 2018 using the Octopus Collector. After the posts from Sina Weibo were preprocessed, users’ emotions and opinions were analyzed using natural language processing. To our knowledge, little work has studied public opinions regarding take-away food safety. This paper fills this gap by using latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) and k-means to extract and cluster topics from the posts, allowing for the users’ emotions and related opinions to be mined and analyzed. The results of this research are as follows: (1) data analysis showed that the degree of topics have increased over the years, and there are a variety of topics about take-away food safety; (2) emotional analysis showed that 93.8% of the posts were positive; and (3) topic analysis showed that the topic of public discussion is diverse and rich. Our analysis of public opinion on take-away food safety generates insights for government and industry stakeholders to promote the healthy and vigorous development of the food industry. Full article
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11 pages, 584 KiB  
Article
Perception of the Attributes of Sherry Wine and Its Consumption in Young People in the South of Spain
by Serafín J. Cruces-Montes, Ana Merchán-Clavellino, Antonio Romero-Moreno and Alberto Paramio
Foods 2020, 9(4), 417; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9040417 - 02 Apr 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2938
Abstract
The wine with the designation of origin “Jerez-Xerez-Sherry” is one of the most produced in Spain and with a greater volume of exports abroad. This study analyzes the preferences of Sherry Wine and its different varieties, based on gender and knowledge and interest [...] Read more.
The wine with the designation of origin “Jerez-Xerez-Sherry” is one of the most produced in Spain and with a greater volume of exports abroad. This study analyzes the preferences of Sherry Wine and its different varieties, based on gender and knowledge and interest in the world of wine. Similarly, the influence of the attributes of Sherry Wine on its choice and consumption is investigated. For this purpose, 1502 participants (1407 wine consumers) were recruited; among the consumers, 58.5% are women, and 74.3% have little knowledge of wine (Mean age 22.6; SD = 3.07; range 18–30). Data collection was done through an online survey. The results reveal that among the types of wines from Sherry, the Fino and the Manzanilla are the most chosen. The young people who have the highest consumption of wine are those who have the most prior knowledge of wine. Also, these young people attribute their choice of wine to intrinsic factors, and even women and connoisseurs are more important in this type of dimension. But the importance of the attributes differs according to the types of wines (Fino/Cream—flavor, Palo Cortado/Pedro Ximénez—color, Amontillado/Manzanilla—price and Oloroso—prizes). These findings will allow establishing measures for their promotion, as well as for the design and specific sales strategies for each type of wine. Full article
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16 pages, 4934 KiB  
Article
Effects of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Visual Cues on Consumer Emotion and Purchase Intent: A Case of Ready-to-Eat Salad
by Pitchayapat Chonpracha, Ryan Ardoin, Yupeng Gao, Pamarin Waimaleongora-ek, Georgianna Tuuri and Witoon Prinyawiwatkul
Foods 2020, 9(4), 396; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9040396 - 31 Mar 2020
Cited by 35 | Viewed by 4572
Abstract
With increasing demand for ready-to-eat (RTE) fresh vegetables, it is important to understand how visual information cues, both intrinsic and extrinsic, affect consumer perception of these products. This study developed an emotional and wellness lexicon related to RTE salads. Subsequent questionnaires with images [...] Read more.
With increasing demand for ready-to-eat (RTE) fresh vegetables, it is important to understand how visual information cues, both intrinsic and extrinsic, affect consumer perception of these products. This study developed an emotional and wellness lexicon related to RTE salads. Subsequent questionnaires with images of salads were used to quantify consumer (N = 150) emotional and hedonic perceptions related to green color shade, shape/size of pieces, multicolor scheme, product name, and packaging. The different visual cues significantly impacted emotions and their intensities. Qualitatively, feelings of health and wellness predominated across salad samples. Negative emotions were more influenced by size of piece and green-color (intrinsic), while positive emotions were influenced by viewing salads of multiple colors (intrinsic) and packaging (extrinsic). Pale green salads were generally less liked than darker green ones. Values, in one case, ranged from 4.39 to 7.28 (on a 9-point hedonic scale), but naming the product (“iceberg lettuce”) did raise the lowest score to 5.75. The addition of vegetables with orange and purple colors to the salad mix had a positive impact on the perception of pale green salads. This study demonstrated that intrinsic and extrinsic visual cues significantly influenced consumer emotions, hedonic perception and purchase intent of RTE salads, but the effects of extrinsic cues were generally less prominent. Full article
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13 pages, 540 KiB  
Article
Ethnic Food Consumption in Italy: The Role of Food Neophobia and Openness to Different Cultures
by Giulia Mascarello, Anna Pinto, Valentina Rizzoli, Barbara Tiozzo, Stefania Crovato and Licia Ravarotto
Foods 2020, 9(2), 112; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9020112 - 21 Jan 2020
Cited by 33 | Viewed by 6716
Abstract
While the ethnic food market has become increasingly important in Italy, the effects of the hybridization of consumption patterns have been slowed by a consolidated culinary tradition. This study investigates the relationships among ethnic food consumption, food neophobia, and openness to different cultures [...] Read more.
While the ethnic food market has become increasingly important in Italy, the effects of the hybridization of consumption patterns have been slowed by a consolidated culinary tradition. This study investigates the relationships among ethnic food consumption, food neophobia, and openness to different cultures with sociodemographic characteristics. A sample of 1317 Italian consumers responded to an online survey. The sociodemographic profile of the neophobic consumer appears to substantially differ from that of the consumer with an attitude of openness. Neophobic respondents are males, are older than 55 years of age, are less educated, have children, are retired, have difficulty meeting their financial responsibilities, and do not eat ethnic food. Respondents who are more open to different cultures are young adults, are highly educated, have no children, are employed, and are consumers of ethnic food. The relationship between food neophobia and openness to different cultures is confirmed to be the relationship between these variables and ethnic food consumption. The measurement of these characteristics could serve as a crucial indicator for analyzing the willingness to accept elements of novelty in an increasingly multicultural society. Additionally, consumers with the neophobic trait and who are less open to different cultures might have a less varied diet that is essential to good health. Full article
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13 pages, 470 KiB  
Article
Impulsivity, Emotional Intelligence, and Alcohol Consumption in Young People: A Mediation Analysis
by Ana Merchán-Clavellino, María Pilar Salguero-Alcañiz, Rocío Guil and Jose Ramón Alameda-Bailén
Foods 2020, 9(1), 71; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9010071 - 08 Jan 2020
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 4517
Abstract
Alcohol consumption in young people is a public health problem. Due to the harmful consequences and the large population using alcoholic substances, it would be important to determine the biological, psychological, and social factors associated with alcohol use and abuse. The main object [...] Read more.
Alcohol consumption in young people is a public health problem. Due to the harmful consequences and the large population using alcoholic substances, it would be important to determine the biological, psychological, and social factors associated with alcohol use and abuse. The main object of this study is to explore which components of impulsivity, according to the main theoretical models, have predictive power regarding alcohol consumption in young people. A secondary objective is to determine if emotional intelligence has a mediating role between the components of impulsivity and alcohol consumption, and thus specifically contribute to the knowledge about the mediation processes between those variables that are involved in the initiation and maintenance of alcohol consumption. For this purpose, 384 participants were recruited (83.1% females, n = 319), with mean age of 20.46 years (SD = 1.90; range 18–25). All participants were alcohol consumers at the beginning of the study. Data collection was conducted via online survey; impulsivity was evaluated by several questionnaires (Sensation Seeking Scale Form V, Barratt Impulsivity Scales 11, and Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward), and emotional intelligence was evaluated by the Trait Meta-Mood Scale. The results reveal that the dimension of disinhibition (a dimension of the sensation search scale) significantly has the highest predictive value on alcohol consumption. Moreover, our data show that the total effect and direct effect of disinhibition on frequency of alcohol consumption were both significant. The mediating role of emotional intelligence in this process was also significant. These findings show which variables should be considered to prevent alcohol consumption in young people. Full article
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17 pages, 820 KiB  
Article
Consumer Preferences and Sensory Profile Related to the Physico-Chemical Properties and Texture of Different Maize Tortillas Types
by Mădălina Iuga, Víctor D. Ávila Akerberg, Tanya M. González Martínez and Silvia Mironeasa
Foods 2019, 8(11), 533; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods8110533 - 31 Oct 2019
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4454
Abstract
Maize tortilla is a basic food in Mexico, and, lately, the food industry has tried to make the manufacturing process easier by using instant flours and specialized machines. The purpose of this study was to investigate consumers’ behaviors related to tortillas and to [...] Read more.
Maize tortilla is a basic food in Mexico, and, lately, the food industry has tried to make the manufacturing process easier by using instant flours and specialized machines. The purpose of this study was to investigate consumers’ behaviors related to tortillas and to evaluate the sensory, textural, and physico-chemical parameters of tortillas from the Tlazala region, Mexico. The sensory profile revealed that the artisanal ones had better parameters in terms of smell, taste, and appearance compared to the others. These results are consistent with consumers’ preferences for tortillas made of maize grain instead of industrial corn flour. The sensory parameters and the physico-chemical and texture profile parameters varied with the maize type and manufacturing process. Our findings showed that the artisanal hand-made ones were more nutritious, followed by those mechanically made using maize grain, and finally by those mechanically made from industrialized corn flour. The results of this study may help processors to better understand the parameters of their products and people’s preferences. Full article
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17 pages, 672 KiB  
Article
Testing Model of Purchase Intention for Fast Food in Mexico: How do Consumers React to Food Values, Positive Anticipated Emotions, Attitude toward the Brand, and Attitude toward Eating Hamburgers?
by Héctor Hugo Pérez-Villarreal, María Pilar Martínez-Ruiz and Alicia Izquierdo-Yusta
Foods 2019, 8(9), 369; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods8090369 - 27 Aug 2019
Cited by 28 | Viewed by 8967
Abstract
This research investigated the effect of the food values, positive anticipated emotions, attitude toward the brand, and attitude toward eating a hamburger on purchase intention in fast-food restaurants in Mexico conjointly. The purpose of this study was to discover which variables influenced the [...] Read more.
This research investigated the effect of the food values, positive anticipated emotions, attitude toward the brand, and attitude toward eating a hamburger on purchase intention in fast-food restaurants in Mexico conjointly. The purpose of this study was to discover which variables influenced the consumer´s intention to buy. Data was collected from a survey of 512 Mexicans fast-food consumers. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized associations. The results showed that food values and positive anticipated emotions absolutely impact the attitude toward the brand, which impacts the purchase intention of the Mexican consumers. Nonetheless, the positive anticipated emotions impact stronger than food values, and the best way to get a purchase intention is toward the attitude of the brand rather than attitude toward eating a hamburger. The authors discussed inferences and suggestions for consumer approaches. Full article
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