Importance of additional information,as a complement to information coming from packaging,to promote meat substitutes: A case study on a sausage based on vegetable proteins

Scientific literature has shown that a partial replacement of meat-based foods with plant-based foods would be beneficial for public health and the environment. However, both lack of sensory attractiveness and lack of consumer awareness regarding benefits of rebalancing diets in favor of plant protein partially explain the low market shares for meat alternatives. In the context of a possible substitution of a meat product (pork-based sausage) by a visually very close counterpart based on vegetable proteins, the objective of this work was to study the possibility of changing consumer preferences towards the plant-based product by gradually providing information concerning the health or environmental consequences of producing and consuming both types of products. We studied consumers’ preferences after a blind tasting, after a tasting in the presence of the packaging, and after the dissemination of two stages of information. The assessment of consumer preferences was carried out using purchase preferences (PP) and willingness to pay (WTP). After the blind tasting, PP were clearly oriented towards the meat product. After the tasting with packaging information, the gap between the two products narrowed, but PP were still turned towards the meat product. The dissemination of a first informative message about either health or the environment was not enough to modify consumers' WTP. Adding a second message concerning health led to an equivalence of the two products studied in terms of WTP and PP. The combination of the two environmentally informative messages also made it possible to obtain an equivalence of the WTP for both products, but the PP were still turned towards the pork product. This suggests that the impact of additional information depends on the information disseminated. Overall, these results militate in favor of the dissemination of information presenting the consequences of the consumption of meat-based or vegetable protein-based products.     

The impact of fat content,production methods and carbon footprint information on consumer preferences for minced meat

Growing concern over the environmental impacts and other credence characteristics of food has resulted in increasing interest in the quality attributes of meat products in Finland. The aim of this study was to provide information on the relative preferences of consumers for minced meat attributes. Using a choice experiment, we examined whether the meat type, method of production, fat content, price and presence of carbon footprint information have an impact on consumer choice. A low fat content was found to have a particularly positive effect on the choice of a minced meat product. The carbon footprint information had a significant impact on the meat type-specific consumer preferences: the popularity of beef products decreased and of pork products increased when the footprint information was presented to the consumers. Six heterogeneous consumer classes were identified with latent class analysis: price-conscious (23% of the respondents), fat content-conscious (23%), ideological but passive (17%), content with conventional (14%), beef-preferring (12%) and method of production -conscious consumers (11%). Consumers were generally willing to pay more for a low fat content, but the relative willingness to pay estimates were largely dependent on the consumer groups: premiums for organic and animal welfare-oriented production methods also existed. These attributes could thus represent good means for differentiating minced meat products. The impact of carbon footprint information on the willingness to pay estimates was relatively low.     

Consumers' expected quality and intention to purchase high quality pork meat

Expected quality is believed to be one of the most important factors that influence consumers' intention to purchase food. The present study seeks to explore the concept of pork meat expected quality and compare it with self-stated consumer intention to purchase pork meat. The aim is attempted by means of a field research conducted in Greece, following a conjoint analytic procedure. Results show that quality expectations comply with intention to buy pork, in many aspects. However, several differences have been identified. More specifically, country of origin and marbling appear to be more important for respondents' purchase decisions than they are for their quality evaluations, while the opposite appears to be true for price. Finally, socio-demographic factors such as gender, level of education, place of purchase and consumption habits seem to influence perceptions.     

Effect of different production typologies on chemical,physical and sensory characteristics of Italian commercial pork

BACKGROUND: Slaughter weight could influence some chemical, physical and sensory characteristics of pork production. The aim was to compare loin quality from pigs slaughtered at 120 kg or at 160 kg live weight, representing two different Italian lines of commercial production. RESULTS: Physical and chemical traits were affected by slaughter weight, but lower values of moisture (P < 0.01) and higher fat content (P < 0.05) were found in heavy pork loin; furthermore, increased slaughter weight resulted in redder, yellower and more intense colour (P < 0.05). Slaughter weight did not influence the purchase intent or consumer preference, except for fresh meat colour (P < 0.05) preferred in light pigs. A selected and trained panel carried out a difference‐from‐control test, showing that heavy pig loin was redder, more marbled, moister, sweeter, saltier, and had a more metallic flavour and lower tenderness than the light one (P < 0.05). The colour difference of raw meat is the only parameter detected by the consumers. CONCLUSION: Different production typologies affected chemical and physical characteristics of loin. Moreover sensory evaluation showed substantial differences between the loin samples. However, the purchase intent and consumer preference were not influenced by these two production typologies. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Profile and effects of consumer involvement in fresh meat

This study investigates the profile and effects of consumer involvement in fresh meat as a product category based on cross-sectional data collected in Belgium. Analyses confirm that involvement in meat is a multidimensional construct including four facets: pleasure value, symbolic value, risk importance and risk probability. Four involvement-based meat consumer segments are identified: straightforward, cautious, indifferent, and concerned. Socio-demographic differences between the segments relate to gender, age and presence of children. The segments differ in terms of extensiveness of the decision-making process, impact and trust in information sources, levels of concern, price consciousness, claimed meat consumption, consumption intention, and preferred place of purchase. The two segments with a strong perception of meat risks constitute two-thirds of the market. They can be typified as cautious meat lovers versus concerned meat consumers. Efforts aiming at consumer reassurance through quality improvement, traceability, labelling or communication may gain effectiveness when targeted specifically to these two segments. Whereas straightforward meat lovers focus mainly on taste as the decisive criterion, indifferent consumers are strongly price oriented.     

Beliefs, attitude and behaviour towards fresh meat revisited after the Belgian dioxin crisis

This study revisits consumer beliefs, attitude and behaviour towards fresh meat consumption in Belgium after the occurrence of the dioxin crisis of 1999. The meat dioxin scare evoked a large amount of negative press, mainly pertained to poultry meat and pork. The focus of this follow-up study is on assessing shifts and persistence in consumer perception and attitude, based on cross-sectional data obtained from a sample of 205 meat consumers. Comparison with previous research reveals reasonable shifts in meat attribute perception and image dimensions. Beef perception significantly improved on containing hormones and safety-attributes, contrary to the evolution seen for poultry and pork. Persistence of perception is revealed for meat attributes that were not directly involved in the information flow of the last years.     

European citizen and consumer attitudes and preferences regarding beef and pork

This paper presents the combined mid-term findings of the consumer research components of two EU Sixth Framework Programme integrated projects concerning meat, ProSafeBeef and Q-PorkChains. The consumer pillar of ProSafeBeef carried out eight focus group discussions in May 2008, in France, Germany, Spain and the UK. Q-PorkChains conducted a large-scale, web-based, consumer survey in January 2008 in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece and Poland. The first project provides a set of qualitative data from a small cohort of focus groups and the second a set of quantitative data from a larger consumer sample. This paper draws together the main findings of both projects and provides a comprehensive overview of European citizens’ and consumers’ attitudes towards and preferences regarding beef and pork. In general, consumers consider meat to be a healthy and important component of the diet. Consumers support the development of technologies that can improve the health attributes of meat products and guarantee eating quality, but they have a negative view of what they see to be excessive manipulation and lack of naturalness in the production and processing of beef products. In the Q-PorkChains study consumer and citizen segments are identified and profiled. Consumer segments were built upon the frequency and variety of pork consumption. The citizen segments were built upon their attitudes towards pig production systems. Overall, the relationship between individuals’ views as citizens and their behaviour as consumers was found to be quite weak and did not appear to greatly or systematically influence meat-buying habits. Future studies in both projects will concentrate on consumers’ acceptance of innovative meat product concepts and products, with the aim of boosting consumer trust and invigorating the European beef and pork industries.     

Consumer perception, facts and possibilities to improve acceptability of health and sensory characteristics of pork

Changes at consumer level, as well as an image decline of the meat sector, resulted in considerable decreases of fresh meat consumption. Consumer orientation is considered as a prerequisite to slow down or reverse the adverse fresh pork consumption evolution. Consumer perception of pork is taken as the starting point of this article. Focus is first on assessing differences between facts related to nutritional value and healthiness aspects of pork and their perception by Belgian meat consumers. Second, possibilities of improving pork characteristics are identified. Pork is perceived worst as compared to beef and poultry on the attributes leanness, healthiness, taste and tenderness. Consumer-oriented response strategies should focus at improving these intrinsic quality characteristics, before other elements like traceability, labelling or marketing can be implemented successfully. The possibilities to improve nutritional value, healthiness and sensory characteristics pertain to selection, pig diet composition, transport, slaughter and post-slaughter circumstances. A successful adoption of consumer orientation urges for co-operation throughout the entire pork production chain. The identified topics are key attention points for adequate production and marketing by the pork sector, as well as for consequent communication by government and public services.     

Influence of intramuscular fat content on the quality of pig meat - 2. Consumer acceptability of m. longissimus lumborum

The present study is part of a project which aimed to examine the influence of intramuscular fat (IMF) content on sensory attributes and consumer acceptability of pork. Two experiments were conducted to evaluate consumer acceptability of pork chops with varying IMF level in muscle Longissimus lumborum (LL). Each experiment used 32 castrated male pigs selected after slaughter either from 125 Duroc × Landrace (Experiment 1) or 102 Tia Meslan × Landrace (Experiment 2) crossbred animals, and showing large variability in LL IMF content: from <1.5 to >3.5% in Experiment 1 and from 1.25 to 3.25% in Experiment 2. A group of 56 consumers evaluated various items on rib-eye (LL muscle trimmed of backfat) (Experiment 1) and on entire chops trimmed of backfat (Experiment 2). Data from Experiment 1 indicate that an increase in IMF level is associated with an increase in visual perception of fat and a corresponding decrease in the willingness to eat and purchase the meat, when expressed before tasting. The latter effect disappeared after the consumers had tasted the meat, probably due to a positive effect of increase IMF, up to 3.5%, on the perception of texture and taste. In Experiment 2, where entire chops were evaluated, the perception of visible fat was not affected by IMF level, probably due to the lack of variation in the level of intermuscular fat between the four IMF groups. The willingness to eat and purchase the meat were unaffected by IMF level, whereas the perception of texture and taste was enhanced with increased IMF levels up to 3.25%. The present data suggest that the acceptability of pork may be improved by increasing IMF level but: (1) this effect disappeared for IMF levels higher than 3.5%, which are associated with a high risk of meat rejection due to visible fat and (2) the positive effect of increased IMF probably holds true as long as it is not associated with an increase in the level of intermuscular fat.     

Pathways to increase consumer trust in meat as a safe and wholesome food

This paper focuses on the effect of information about meat safety and wholesomeness on consumer trust based on several studies with data collected in Belgium. The research is grounded in the observation that despite the abundant rise of information through labelling, traceability systems and quality assurance schemes, the effect on consumer trust in meat as a safe and wholesome product is only limited. The overload and complexity of information on food products results in misunderstanding and misinterpretation. Functional traceability attributes such as organisational efficiency and chain monitoring are considered to be highly important but not as a basis for market segmentation. However, process traceability attributes such as origin and production method are of interest for particular market segments as a response to meat quality concerns. Quality assurance schemes and associated labels have a poor impact on consumers' perception. It is argued that the high interest of retailers in such schemes is driven by procurement management efficiency rather than safety or overall quality. Future research could concentrate on the distribution of costs and benefits associated with meat quality initiatives among the chain participants.     

云南省影响消费者购买猪肉、大米和西红柿的因素分析

选取影响消费者购买猪肉、大米和西红柿的四个因素(包装、销售地点、产品认证和品牌),每个因素设2或3的水平,采用联合分析法进行评价。结果显示:产品的包装、销售地点、产品认证、品牌四个因素中对消费者购买大米、猪肉和西红柿起主要作用的是销售地点,尤其是超市的作用十分明显,流动商贩在云南省仍然有一定的市场需求。      

"Chilled" pork - Part II. Consumer perception of sensory quality

The objective of this study was to compare consumer perception of the sensory quality of grilled Canadian pork destined for Japanese and domestic markets, with particular reference to export selection criteria imposed by Japanese importers and transportation conditions. Consumers from Quebec, Canada tasted local and export quality pork subjected to "chilled" (aged 43days at -1.7°C) or conventional ageing (5days at 3.1°C). Consumers' scores (out of 10) were higher (P<0.05) in the "chilled" than conventionally aged pork for tenderness (6.8 vs 5.7), juiciness (6.6 vs 6.0), taste liking (6.4 vs 5.9) and overall acceptability (6.7 vs 6.1). When informed that the conventionally aged, domestic quality pork was destined for the domestic market, consumer scores increased significantly (P<0.05). No effect of information was observed on the perception of the 'chilled' export quality meat, perhaps a consequence of the high sensory quality observed prior to labelling.     

CONSUMER EVALUATION OF PORK APPEARANCE WITH DIFFERING PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PACKAGING CONDITIONS

Consumers (n = 116) evaluated color (pink intensity), appearance (wet/dry), overall acceptability and purchase intent of normal, PSE and DFD pork loin slices in PVC and in vacuum packages. Packaging x muscle condition affected (p < 0.05) appearance, overall acceptability and consumer purchase intent of pork slices. Color differences were perceptible to consumers between packaging treatments. PVC-packaged pork was pinker than vacuum-packaged pork. Vacuum-packaged, PSE pork appeared drier than PVC-packaged PSE pork. Normal pork was more acceptable than PSE pork regardless of packaging. DFD pork acceptability was not different from that of normal pork when vacuum packaged. In general purchase intent paralleled consumer evaluation of overall acceptability. Instrumental color data and pH for samples evaluated are also presented.     

Consumer perception of meat quality and implications for product development in the meat sector-a review

In the first part of the paper, the Total Food Quality Model is used as a frame of reference for analysing the way in which consumers perceive meat quality, drawing mainly on European studies involving beef and pork. The way in which consumers form expectations about quality at the point of purchase, based on their own experience and informational cues available in the shopping environment, is described, as well as the way in which quality is experienced in the home during and after meal preparation. The relationship between quality expectations and quality experience and its implications for consumer satisfaction and repeat purchase intent is addressed. In the second part of the paper, and building on the insights obtained on subjective quality perception, possibilities for consumer-oriented product development in the meat sector are addressed. Issues dealt with here are branding, differentiation by taste, healthiness and convenience, and by process characteristics like organic production and animal welfare.     

Labelling information demanded by European consumers and relationships with purchasing motives, quality and safety of meat

Meat labelling can be an important way of informing the consumer on the quality attributes of meat. However, the type of information consumers demand is not well known and there is a lack of consumer-oriented information. Thus, meat labelling requires special attention. The objectives of this paper were: to identify the type of information that is most demanded by European consumers on beef and lamb labelling; to analyse the relationships between the importance of informational cues and other aspects concerning consumer attitudes towards meat consumption and meat quality, and socio-demographic characteristics; and to identify groups of consumers according to their labelling preferences. The information cues considered most important related to the deadline for meat consumption and the origin of meat. Other important cues were nutritional information, maturation time, name of cut and, especially for beef consumers, information on the system of production and on the traceability and the quality control of the meat. Some groups or segments of consumers were identified that had significant differences in relation to the type of information demanded, purchasing motives, quality preferences, sources of information on quality they trusted most and socio-economic features. They could be briefly profiled as: 'quality/safety orientated'; 'traditional'; 'quality unconcerned/ convenience-driven' and 'origin motivated' consumers.     

The role of product familiarity and consumer involvement on liking and perceptions of fresh meat

The objective of this work was to compare consumer’s liking and perception of meat quality attributes as a function of their familiarity and involvement with fresh meat.Ninety-three meat consumers were classified on the basis of their familiarity with fresh meats. Socio-demographic differences between the clusters were found to relate to gender and age, and high familiarity (HF) consumers showed higher involvement with meat. HF consumers enjoyed consuming meat, and they associated a symbolic value to it. In addition, their liking ratings were higher than those of low familiarity (LF) consumers for both appearance and taste of three specific types of fresh meat over the course of product shelf-life. The perceived risks associated with meat consumption and product choice were similar between groups. Both consumer segments reported that the most important driver of fresh meat purchase is its appearance, while the role of extrinsic cues differed among the groups. The HF group needed more information when choosing meat. Regardless of familiarity level, liking was consistent with beef appearance as affected by storage, but the prediction of experienced sensory quality lacked consistency when the perceived intrinsic cue variation was not associated with meat freshness.     

Multiplex real-time PCR for the detection and quantification of DNA from beef,pork, horse and sheep

Meat products are often composed of more than one meat species. A quantitative multiplex PCR was developed to determine the proportion of meat fractions of beef, pork, horse and sheep. The precision and accuracy were investigated by dilutions of DNA from all four species and examining different meat products from the market. Application of this tetraplex quantitative real-time PCR system will enable official food control and production control laboratories to efficiently investigate the composition of meat products.     

2019年黑龙江省猪肉市场运行情况分析

2018年非洲猪瘟疫情出现以来,全国及黑龙江省生猪生产、猪肉市场受到了较大的影响,生猪、能繁母猪存栏减少,生猪出场价格也经历了明显波动。2019年春节以后,随着省外调出量增加和猪源减少,黑龙江省生猪出场价格进入上升通道,超过了全国平均水平,白条猪肉批发价格和猪肉市场零售价格随之上行。通过对2019年黑龙江省生猪生产环节、屠宰加工环节、猪肉市场零售环节进行调研,对生猪出场价格、白条猪肉批发价格、猪肉零售价格、生猪和能繁母猪产能等指标进行分析,阐述了以生猪和猪肉市场为重点的肉类产销形势,为促进肉类产业高质量发展、提高市场保供能力提供参考。     

鲜肉中小肠结肠炎耶尔森菌的半定量风险评估

目的:分析南京市售鲜肉中小肠结肠炎耶尔森菌的风险程度。方法:将国内外文献报道及市场调查数据的统计分析相结合,运用经典的半定量风险评估软件"Risk Ranger"进行风险分级。结果:南京市售猪肉和牛肉中小肠结肠炎耶尔森菌的风险评分分别为31和24,每人每天因食用污染该菌的鲜肉造成食物中毒的概率分别为3.62×10-9,3.12×10-10,前者为后者风险的11.6倍。通过进一步研究发现,加工后采取有效的控制体系,均使两者的风险均降低到10%。结论:南京市售牛肉中小肠结肠炎耶尔森菌的风险程度较低,而市售猪肉中已接近中等程度,需做好预防措施,加强监管。