The role of consumer expectations in food choice:
a literature review

Identify and assess the role of consumer expectations in product choice and allow for this in food product development and marketing.

Consumers make choices about which food products to buy. These choices are influenced by various inter-related biological and psycho-social factors. These include expectations of the product and its likely 'performance'. Meeting expectations is an important part of product marketing, and needs to be taken into account from the earliest stages of product development.

This review examines the wider aspects of food choice. It looks at basic models of food choice, the role of product cues and attributes, the 'search and selection' process and the way consumers process and evaluate product information in making choices. It includes an overview of expectation, and the formation of expectation, as a psychological concept, and describes how product expectations are relevant to sensory science.

It is relevant not just to sensory scientists but to product developers and marketing personnel - all those involved in shaping food products, their presentation and their marketing.

Contents:

• Introduction
• Food choice
• Expectations - concepts and theory
• Expectations in sensory science
• Factors influencing expectations
• Expectations and consumer satisfaction
• Implications - directions for future research
• Conclusions
• References