How do processing technology and formulation influence consumers’ choice of fruit juice?

The study aimed at investigating the influence of four variables related to processing technology and formulation on consumer’s choice of fruit juice, and to explore the moderating effect of food technology neophobia (FTN). A choice-conjoint task was implemented considering four variables: processing technology, added sugar, preservatives and cold pressing. Sixteen pairs of labels were presented to 369 Brazilian consumers to that indicate which of the products they would purchase. Then, they answered the FTN scales and a socio-demographic questionnaire. Data were analysed using a logit model with random parameters. Results showed that cold pressing, pressurisation and the claims ‘no added sugar’ and ‘no preservatives’ had a positive effect on consumers’ choices, whereas the claim ‘not pressurised’ had a negative effect. The FTN moderated the effect of the variables on participants' choices of fruit juices. The main difference between groups of consumers with different level of neophobia (low, medium and high) was related to the effect of information about juice processing.     

How do you perceive this wine? Comparing naturalness perceptions of Swiss and Australian consumers

Consumers around the globe are showing an increasing demand for food products that are perceived as being natural. The present study aimed to assess what properties of wine have an influence on the perceived naturalness of wine, with a focus on winemaking techniques. An online survey was conducted in the German-speaking part of Switzerland (n = 252) and in Australia (n = 234). Wine naturalness was significantly more important to Swiss respondents compared to Australian respondents as well as to respondents with a high level of involvement with wine compared to respondents with a low level of involvement. Wine from an “Old World” wine-producing country, wine that was aged in barriques, or wine sealed with an oak cork were perceived as the most natural. The addition of sugar, sulfites, or the use of gelatin were regarded as the most unnatural properties of wine. In terms of production, additives were perceived as significantly less natural than processing aids and technologies that are used in winemaking. Significant differences in the naturalness perception of different wine attributes were found between the two countries, Switzerland and Australia, as well as between respondents with a high level of involvement with wine and those with a low level. The findings of this study add to the research on naturalness perception and may help winemakers and marketers to optimize communication with their consumers.     

Exploring consumers’ perceptions of plant-based eggs using concept mapping and semantic network analysis

Plant-based eggs offer a healthy, animal-free, and more environmentally sustainable alternative to conventional eggs. Given the novelty of these products, it is vital to understand consumers’ perceptions before their market launch. Perception is based on product associations stored in consumers’ memory as semantic networks. In this study we used the graphic procedure concept mapping to elicit associations of 180 consumers from the UK and Italy to explore perceptions of three types of plant-based eggs, namely liquid, powder, and egg-shaped. Concept mapping also allowed to investigate the relevance that these associations have for the consumers. Results show more complex associations among participants in the UK than Italy for all three types of plant-based eggs. ‘Price’ is the most frequently mentioned association by consumers in both countries. In terms of relevance, participants evaluated ‘healthy’, ‘animal welfare’ and ‘sustainability’ as the most important and positive attributes of plant-based eggs. Furthermore, the semantic network analysis showed that the health benefits of plant-based eggs is quickly activated in consumers’ mind and should therefore be emphasized when marketing these products. ‘Use’ of plant-based eggs, e.g., baking, is also a key association, particularly in the UK for the egg-shaped version. However, ‘use’ was generally lower rated, suggesting that the limited applications of this product (only hard-boiled) may be perceived negatively. These findings provide insights into the psychology of consumers’ acceptance of plant-based eggs and have important implications for designing successful marketing strategies for promoting plant-based eggs.     

Johne's disease and milk: do consumers need to worry?

Mycobacterium paratuberculosis, an acid-fast bacillus that causes enteritis in ruminants, has been suggested as an etiological agent of Crohn's disease in humans. The mode of transmission is unclear; however, some evidence suggests that humans may become infected via contaminated milk. Currently, it is not known whether commercial pasteurization effectively kills M. paratuberculosis in contaminated raw milk. Using a laboratory-scale pasteurizer unit designed to simulate the high-temperature, short-time method (72 degrees C, 15 sec) currently used by commercial dairies, we previously demonstrated that treatment of raw milk inoculated with 10(4) to 10(6) cfu of M. paratuberculosis/ml reduced numbers to an undetectable level. However, M. paratuberculosis is an intracellular pathogen that resides within the macrophages of the host and evades destruction. We subsequently performed further experiments examining heat treatment of milk inoculated with mammary gland macrophages containing ingested M. paratuberculosis. Heat treatment of these samples under high-temperature, short-time conditions demonstrated that the macrophage does not protect the organism because we were unable to recover any viable M. paratuberculosis from the samples. Conversely, other researchers have demonstrated that a residual population of M. paratuberculosis may survive heat treatment of milk. In addition, a recent news report stated that viable M. paratuberculosis organisms have been cultured from retail-ready milk in Ireland. A summary of past and current studies concerning this issue along with a discussion of methodologies used to recover M. paratuberculosis from experimentally inoculated milk will be presented in this paper.     

How will climate change affect mycotoxins in food?

This invited review and opinion piece, assesses the impact of climate change on mycotoxins in food: only one paper and an abstract referred directly from a substantial literature search and then only in relation to Europe. Climate change is an accepted probability by most scientists. Favourable temperature and water activity are crucial for mycotoxigenic fungi and mycotoxin production. Fungal diseases of crops provide relevant information for pre-harvest mycotoxin contamination. However, the mycotoxin issue also involves post-harvest scenarios. There are no data on how mycotoxins affect competing organisms in crop ecosystems. In general, if the temperature increases in cool or temperate climates, the relevant countries may become more liable to aflatoxins. Tropical countries may become too inhospitable for conventional fungal growth and mycotoxin production. Could this lead to the extinction of thermotolerant Aspergillus flavus? Currently cold regions may become liable to temperate problems concerning ochratoxin A, patulin and Fusarium toxins (e.g. deoxynivalenol). Regions which can afford to control the environment of storage facilities may be able to avoid post-harvest problems but at high additional cost. There appears to be a lack of awareness of the issue in some non-European countries. The era will provide numerous challenges for mycotoxicologists.     

How do consumers perceive reformulated foods after the implementation of nutritional warnings? Case study with frankfurters in Chile

Nutritional warnings have emerged as a promising front-of-package nutrition labelling scheme to discourage consumption of products with high content of nutrients associated with non-communicable diseases. One of the objectives of this policy is to encourage the food industry to reformulate their products. However, information about consumers’ perception of reformulated products in the context of the implementation of this policy is still limited. The aim of this study was to assess the relative influence of different types of reformulation on consumers’ perceived healthfulness and purchase intention, using frankfurters as case study. A conjoint analysis was implemented considering a fractional factorial design involving 5 2-level variables: brand type (artisanal/industrial), sodium reduction (with/without), saturated fat reduction (with/without), fibre claim (with/without) and cholesterol claim (with/without). An online survey with 494 consumers was implemented one year after the implementation of nutritional warnings in Chile. Participants were randomly divided into two groups, one of which evaluated purchase intention (n = 249) and the other evaluated perceived healthfulness (n = 245). Data were analysed using analysis of variance and cluster analysis. Results showed that reformulated products without nutritional warnings for sodium and saturated fat were perceived as more healthful and had higher purchase intention scores than then regular counterparts. On the contrary, nutrient claims did not have a relevant effect on consumers’ perception. Heterogeneity in consumers’ reaction to the reformulated products was found and was mainly related to consumption frequency of the product category. Results provide insights for policy makers and food companies in countries considering the implementation of nutritional warnings.     

Genetic traceability of Asti Spumante and Moscato d’Asti musts and wines using nuclear and chloroplast microsatellite markers

The final characteristics of a wine are strongly influenced by must varietal composition. Further, wine quality and value can be heavily modified if grape varieties other than those expected/allowed are used, especially in the case of monovarietal wines. ??Moscato bianco??, which is one of the main grape varieties grown in Piedmont (north-western Italy), is used for the production of two renowned monovarietal sparkling wines: Asti Spumante and Moscato d??Asti. Here, the genetic traceability of these wines was assessed using a simple sequence repeat (SSR or microsatellite) DNA-based method. Must and wine samples from two local wineries were collected at different winemaking steps: after grape crushing and pressing, without the skins (must sample 1, M1); after static clarification or flotation (M2); halfway through fermentation (M3); and finished wines. A DNA extraction protocol was developed, and samples were analysed using a set of 9 nuclear (nSSR) and 7 chloroplast (cpSSR) markers. The application of nSSR markers was successful for M1 and M2, but was inadequate for M3 and wines. CpSSR gave better results as amplifications were achieved using DNA extracted from M1, M2 and wines, despite the lack of amplification in M3. Furthermore, the amplified cpSSR loci showed high polymorphism, allowing the identification of 5 distinct chlorotypes among 7 muscat-flavoured and 2 non-aromatic grapevines. Altogether, these results suggest that this technique could be extended to wine quality and authenticity control, as well as origin protection.     

How do culinary methods affect quality and oral processing characteristics of pork ham?

The influences of three different culinary methods: cooking, sous vide and grilling were studied with regards to quality and oral processing characteristics of pork ham. Besides instrumental analysis of color and textural properties of pork ham, sensory panel with 12 trained panelists participated in temporal dominance of sensations, oral processing analysis, boluses collection, particle size distribution analysis, and saliva incorporation. The results revealed that number of chews, mastication time and saliva incorporation are correlated with textural properties and cooking losses. In‐mouth sensation was intertwined with juiciness, fibrousness and firmness depending on the culinary methods. Cooked pork ham showed highest results for hardness and cooking loss. Firmness and fibrousness were dominant sensory attributes. Sous‐vide results show that firmness and juiciness dominated during the first third of consumption time. This corresponds with textural values for lowest values for hardness and cooking, number of chews and total exposure time. Sous‐vide also resulted in lower values for number of chews and total exposure time associated with oral processing.     

How do climate fluctuations affect persistent organic pollutant distribution in North America? Evidence from a decade of air monitoring

Interannual variations of persistent organic pollutant (POP) air concentrations from the Great Lakes region and the Arctic during the 1990s are strongly associated with atmospheric low-frequency fluctuations, notably the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and the Pacific North American (PNA) pattern. This suggests interactions between climate variation and the global distribution of POPs. Atmospheric concentrations of hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), and several lighter polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) measured around the Great Lakes basin increased during the positive phases of NAO and ENSO in the spring. This implies that anomalous high air temperatures associated with NAO and ENSO enhance volatilization of POPs from reservoirs on the Earth's surface accumulated in the past. These compounds are then available for transport from source regions to more pristine regions such as the Arctic under favorable flow patterns associated with global climate variations.     

How do similar community dynamics yield different population dynamics and spatial distributions of species?

The distribution of biotic and abiotic factors creates ecological niches. Despite the link between both the biotic and abiotic components of a species niche and its geographic distribution, most approaches to species-distribution modeling correlate the occurrence of a single species with broad-scale environmental variables, but do not include biotic interactions. We studied the relative effects of biotic and abiotic factors on community composition and dynamics in a man-made ecosystem (i.e., a grain-storage system). We studied the population dynamics of 10 insect species at two climatically distinct study sites: a site with a Mediterranean climate and a site with a semi-arid climate. All species were found to aggregate at both sites and similar community dynamics were observed at the two sites. However, there were differences in the relative importance of biotic and abiotic factors in the formation of communities in the two habitats. This difference yielded different population dynamics and spatial distributions. The Mediterranean site was characterized by species niche overlap and communities at that site were less dense. In contrast, in the semi-arid habitat, species tended to have distinct spatial distribution and there was a high level of community density. These results can be viewed as examples of within- and between-patch coexistence. We discuss the possibility that there may be gradual shifts in the relative importance of within- and between-patch coexistence. Small continuous changes, such as global climate change, could induce such shifts, leading to similar temporal and spatial patterns in the current Mediterranean climate.     

How do different warning signs compare with the guideline daily amount and traffic-light system?

Nutritional warnings are rapidly gaining relevance, particularly in the region of the Americas, as a front-of-package nutrition labelling scheme that facilitate the identification of products with high content of nutrients associated with non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Several graphic designs are being developed as countries discuss the implementation of nutritional warnings, which makes it necessary to develop research to evaluate their efficacy. In this context, the aim of the present work was to compare the efficacy of a series of nutritional warnings that are being considered by Brazilian national authorities for the country with two of the most studied schemes: the guidelines daily amounts (GDA) and the traffic light system. Two studies were conducted. In the first one, visual search was conducted with 62 participants to evaluate the time needed by them to identify the schemes on food labels and to identify whether a product had high nutrient content. In the second study, an online survey with 1932 participants was used to evaluate their ability to use FOP nutrition labelling schemes to correctly identify the most healthful product in a set, as well as high nutrient content in a product. In addition, the influence of FOP nutrition labelling schemes on perceived healthfulness was evaluated. Finally, consumers’ perception of the schemes was gathered using an open-ended question. Results confirmed the advantages of nutritional warnings compared to the GDA and the traffic-light system to facilitate the identification of products with high content of nutrients associated with NCDs. In addition, the use of familiar signs frequently used to convey a ‘warning message’ outperformed other unfamiliar signs in terms of their ability to facilitate the interpretation of nutrition information. Regarding colour, black signs tended to required significantly less time to be detected when included on colour food labels compared to red signs.     

What is gastronomy? An exploratory study of social representation of gastronomy and Mexican cuisine among experts and consumers using a qualitative approach

The aim of this work was to explore, based on language of experts and consumers, how they define the concept of gastronomy and Mexican cuisine applying the Theory of Social Representation. Gastronomy has become very relevant in the recent years and numerous researches on the matter have been published. Likewise, gastronomy has become one of the main drivers for tourists to travel to a certain destination, such as Mexico, whose traditional cuisine has been included within the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO. This research was carried out in two phases: the first one through 22 semi-structured interviews with chefs who work in public and private schools of gastronomy in Mexico, and the second one through a convenience sampling in Central Mexico with a sample of 329 Mexican consumers. Information was obtained through Open-Ended questions, Word Association technique (WA) and Free Listing (FL) task. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed through content analysis. The words or terms obtained from the WA were grouped into categories by means of lemmatization process. Through FL, there were obtained the main foods, ingredients or dishes of Mexican cuisine and Cognitive Salience Index (CSI) was calculated. Results of this research establish that gastronomy is a complex concept and that the social representation of chefs and consumers are related with traditional and human aspects, sensory characteristics of foods, apart from techniques, methods and forms of food preparation. In this sense, the categories, foods, and ingredients that characterize Mexican cuisine are discussed based on the language of experts and consumers applying the Theory of Social Representation.     

How do implicit/explicit attitudes and emotional reactions to sustainable logo relate? A neurophysiological study

Food package labels can be used to influence consumers’ evaluation and purchasing behaviour, fostering sustainable consumption. Therefore, it is important to understand consumers’ emotional reaction to food package labels that convey sustainable information. The aim of the present research is to get a better understanding of the relation between consumers’ attitudes and emotional reactions often used to measure the effectiveness of a communication. Particularly, we focused on recyclability, assessing participants’ prior explicit and implicit attitudes towards recyclability and their emotional reaction to food packages featuring logos of (non-)recyclability. The emotional reaction was measured both at an explicit and at an implicit level, using direct (self-reported) and indirect (eye movement, facial expressions and pupil dilation) techniques respectively. Results showed that explicit attitudes predicted self-reported emotions, while implicit attitudes predicted the spontaneous emotional reactions, highlighting the importance to assess both explicit and implicit attitudes. Moreover, results showed that the relation between the time that people looked at the logo and the spontaneous emotional reaction was contingent upon the participant’s implicit attitudes. Finally, a follow-up analysis revealed that people with positive implicit attitudes towards recyclability were faster in detecting the recyclable logo and spent more time on processing the logo which on its turn resulted in better emotional reactions. Thus, the results suggest that implicit attitudes influence both visual attention and emotional reactions. Overall, the research contributes to a better understanding of the relation between prior attitudes and emotional reactions to food packaging, and supports the use of an approach that comprises both direct and indirect measures of attitudes and emotions.     

Exploring food consumers’ motivations to fight both climate change and biodiversity loss: Combining insights from behavior theory and Eurobarometer data

Using data from Eurobarometer 83.4, this study combines the two branches of research that address climate-related and biodiversity-related opinions and actions of individuals in the EU. The literature shows that the differences between climate-related and biodiversity-related policies correspond, at an individual level, to a person's basic attitudes towards environmental protection and towards nature protection, respectively. The contribution of this study is to demonstrate how these attitudes can influence behavior that has environmental repercussions for both issues, such as food consumption practices. The analysis focused on two Eurobarometer questions about buying local and seasonal food (to fight climate change) and about buying organic and local food (to protect biodiversity and nature). The results of two multinomial regression analyses, separately in Northwestern European countries and Eastern and Southern European countries, demonstrated that climate-related and biodiversity-related attitudes were, independent of each other, related to the adoption of these purchase behaviors. The results may support Europe’s new Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy and indicate that improving food consumption practices can enable individuals to better play their part in fighting climate change and biodiversity loss simultaneously, which opens up interesting new perspectives for policymakers, businesses and consumers.