A Technical Note on the Use of Choquet Integral to Analyze Consumer Preferences: Application to Meat Consumption

Abstract

AbstractThis paper deals with the use of the Choquet integral to analyze meat consumer preferences. First, we present the method in comparison with multiple linear regression. Second, we illustrate the application in a data set of panelist evaluation of fresh pork loin chops for three attributes (color, lean content and overall acceptability) and purchase intention. Kappalab and Rfmtool packages for the GNU R statistical system were used for data analysis. The Choquet integral allowed to analyze the contribution of each attribute and their combinations, overcome the problems of multicollinearity in linear regression, and showed a similar or better predictive ability than linear model. In conclusion, the Choquet integral can be considered a complementary tool of usual statistical analysis of food consumer preferences.Practical ApplicationsThis paper suggests the use of the Choquet integral as a complementary statistical tool that can facilitate the analyses of complex sensory evaluations and the behavior of consumers. The Choquet integral allows estimating the importance of different sensorial attributes on the final consumer decision taking into account the dependencies existing between them. It allows a better understanding of the relationships existing between sensorial attributes especially in the presence of multicollinearity. Furthermore, the comparison of the behavior of different groups of consumers can be performed easily.