Effects of Tasting and Ingredient Information Statement on Acceptability, Elicited Emotions, and Willingness to Purchase: A Case of Pita Chips Containing Edible Cricket Protein.

Cristhiam E Gurdian,Witoon Prinyawiwatkul,Bin Li,Damir D Torrico

doi:10.3390/foods11030337

Cristhiam E Gurdian, Witoon Prinyawiwatkul + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11030337

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Abstract

Sustainable and nutritious alternatives are needed to feed the ever-increasing world population. The successful incorporation of edible-cricket protein (ECP) into foods needs deeper consumer insights. Treatments (plain, Italian, and Cajun pita chips containing 6.9% w/w ECP) were evaluated by subjects for overall liking (OL), emotions, and purchase intent (PI) in three different moments: (1) before tasting, (2) after tasting/before ECP statement, and (3) after tasting/after ECP statement. Attributes’ liking scores were evaluated only after tasting/before ECP statement. Liking scores (mixed-effects ANOVA), emotions, and PI across moments within treatments/across treatments within moments were evaluated. Emotion-based penalty-lift analyses for OL within moments were assessed using two-sample t-tests (p < 0.05). Random forest model analyzed after-tasting informed PI and variables’ importance. Although formulations’ OL and PI were similar across moments, plain and Italian chips had higher after-tasting (before and after ECP statement) OL than the Cajun chips. Moments indirectly affected OL via emotions elicitation. Valence and activation/arousal emotions discriminated across moments for the plain treatment whereas valence and mostly activation/arousal terms discriminated across moments for the Italian and Cajun treatments, respectively. For either formulation or moment, “interested” and “adventurous” positively affected OL. Before and after-tasting attribute liking, “satisfied,” and “enthusiastic” emotions were critical in predicting after-tasting informed PI.

Highlights

The expected increase in the global population accompanied by increasing rates of the depletion of natural resources, such as water and land, urgently calls for innovative changes in the actual food supply [1]
These results agree with the findings from other studies involving edible cricket protein (ECP) for which females exhibited lower taste thresholds and blind acceptability upon tasting for products formulated with
Communicating the associated benefits of the consumption of edible cricket protein (ECP) has proven to be beneficial in previous studies, the ECP statement used in this study did not significantly affect the overall liking of the treatments

Summary

Introduction

The expected increase in the global population accompanied by increasing rates of the depletion of natural resources, such as water and land, urgently calls for innovative changes in the actual food supply [1]. Besides imparting the desired functionality as a protein ingredient, ECP imparts a higher quality nutritional profile [5] to foods without significantly changing the sensory acceptability [6,7]. Achieving this goal is highly dependable on how ECP products are perceived in terms of their sensory characteristics. Ardoin et al [14] found that 15% of ECP in crackers produced a 20% rejection rate in consumers and recommended 7.9% as the upper level for its addition into foods

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