Emotional responses to unlabelled and labelled food products

Abstract

Emotional responses to foods at various product consumption stages, e.g. purchase, usage and consumption, are gaining increasing attention because of their potential to add to liking ratings in predicting consumers’ food choice. The aim of this study was to investigate whether packaging information alters emotional profiles elicited by intrinsic food properties (unlabelled products) and how this relates to food choice. Participants (N = 103) tasted seven test products, scored liking, and evaluated each product on evoked emotions using the EsSense Profile Method™ in two conditions (unlabelled and labelled product presentation). The seven test products were a selection of five commercially available breakfast drinks and two dairy products that matched the breakfast drinks in taste, texture etc. but are marketed as dessert products. In two (unlabelled and labelled condition) separate breakfast sessions, we assessed actual food choice, where participants chose their preferred food product out of seven. Analysis of Variance for each product separately showed that EsSense™ could differentiate between emotions evoked by the two conditions. Specifically, emotions associated with the unlabelled product were generally more intense (5-point scale) than emotions measured in the labelled condition. Notably, the few emotions which scored higher in the labelled compared to the unlabelled condition represent the ‘activation’ dimension, e.g. energetic and adventurous. Comparing the two actual food choice sessions we observed a shift in choice towards consumption-context ‘appropriate’ products in the labelled condition. Hence, breakfast drinks were chosen more often when presented labelled whereas ‘inappropriate’ dessert-products were chosen less.