Comparing liking and attitudes of Chinese immigrants in New Zealand towards drinkable yoghurt: an exploratory study

Abstract

Whilst food choices may change when exposed to a new culture, the time and extent of the acculturation process is not clear. Focus groups (FGs) were used to explore whether recent Chinese immigrants to New Zealand (NZ) could be representative of consumer product opinions in China and whether these could be associated with residence time. Four population groups - Chinese in Beijing (BJ), Chinese in NZ for less (CH < 3y) or more (CH > 3y) than 3 years, and NZ Europeans in NZ (NZE) - were recruited to consider drinking yoghurt. FGs were conducted in Chinese or English using the same discussion guide. Transcripts were uploaded into NVivo software to extract key themes using an interpretive coding approach. CH < 3y described a liking for sweet yoghurt with low sourness, aligning with BJ. However, CH > 3y closely matched NZE, particularly for sweetness intensity. The only attribute that was not affected across immigrants was “thickness”, where thick drinking yoghurt was liked more, in line with BJ, compared to NZE. Reasons, type and temperature of consumption described by CH < 3y closely matched BJ, but some habits had changed, particularly regarding consumption at breakfast time. In contrast, CH > 3y mainly consume chilled yoghurt closely aligning with NZE, indicating that habits were associated with residence time. This exploratory study revealed that, for English speaking Chinese immigrants, the acculturation processes could take at least 3 years to affect immigrant attribute liking, but liking for some attributes was maintained, even after a longer time of residence. This understanding suggests that, with caution, recent immigrants may be an option to mimic overseas consumers in initial consumer product evaluations, especially when travelling is not possible in pandemic situations.