Does the 'Mountain Pasture Product' Claim Affect Local Cheese Acceptability?

Isabella Endrizzi,Eugenio Aprea,Danny Cliceri,Leonardo Menghi,Flavia Gasperi

doi:10.3390/foods10030682

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the impact of “mountain pasture product” information on the acceptability of local protected designation of origin (PDO) cheese produced from the raw milk of cows grazing in mountain pastures (P) or reared in valley floor stalls (S). A total of 156 consumers (55% males, mean age 41 years) were asked to evaluate their overall liking on a 9-point hedonic scale of four samples: Cheeses P and S were presented twice with different information about the origin of the milk (cows grazing on mountain pasture or reared in a valley floor stall). Demographics, consumer habits, and opinions on mountain pasture practice (MPP), attitudes towards sustainability, and food-related behaviours (i.e., diet, food waste production, organic food, and zero food miles products purchase) were recorded and used to segment consumers. The cheeses were all considered more than acceptable, even though they were found to be significantly different in colour and texture by instrumental analyses. In the whole consumer panel, the cheese P was preferred, while in consumer segments less attentive to product characteristics, this effect was not significant. External information had a strong effect: Overall liking was significantly higher in cheeses presented as “mountain pasture product”, both in the whole panel and in consumer segments with different attitudes (except for those with a low opinion of MPP).

Highlights

Mountain dairies—which, in the alpine territories, are placed in contexts with a high naturalistic value, in most cases—play key roles in the promotion of local tourism, the preservation of biodiversity and the environment, and the maintenance of cultural and historical traditions [1]
This paper aims to explore the impact of “mountain pasture product” information on the acceptability of local protected designation of origin (PDO) cheese produced from the raw milk of cows grazing in mountain pastures (P) or reared in valley floor stalls (S)
For the NPI scale, the statements suggested by the authors were considered negative while, for the Attitude Towards Sustainability (ATS) scale, we considered four statements (8–11) of the original scale negative, as they were found to be opposite to the others in an explorative principal component analysis (PCA) map

Summary

Introduction

Mountain dairies—which, in the alpine territories, are placed in contexts with a high naturalistic value, in most cases—play key roles in the promotion of local tourism, the preservation of biodiversity and the environment, and the maintenance of cultural and historical traditions [1]. They find themselves in a position of increasingly seeking a compromise between production and conservation needs, as well as trying to respond convincingly to consumer requests regarding food safety and compliance with ethical farming principles. The EU has recently introduced a new labelling system for mountain products [6], which is an important step toward taking into account that there is a strong correlation between the perception of EU quality signs and the attitude towards food origin [7]

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Discussion

Conclusion