Food and the Consumer
Effects of environment and emotional factors on perception and liking of products
Campden BRI project 112566 (January 2009 - December 2011)
Member Subscription Funded
Perception and liking of food and drink products can be greatly influenced by the context in which they are experienced. Influencing factors include time of consumption, seasonal effects, consumer mood and non-sensory factors such as brand or packaging. However, industry does not have tools to easily assess the impact of 'context' during product development and marketing. This project will address this by exploring the impact of context on consumer liking of products, enabling use of this improved insight to support product development and marketing. Existing methods for 'testing in context' and techniques for assessing or measuring consumer emotions will be reviewed, with possible use of pilot tests using new tools for evaluating emotions. Experiments will evaluate products in context and simulate the effect of context, including measuring emotions using identified appropriate methods; products are likely to include both food and drink.
Contact: Chantal Gilbert
+44(0)1386 842256
e-mail: c.gilbert@campden.co.uk
Manipulation of portion sizes to positively influence satiety
Campden BRI project 119170 (January 2010 - December 2012)
Member Subscription Funded
The recent increase in the prevalence of diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes in both adults and children is strongly associated with energy intake and food choices. Although limited, research is documented on how portion size and calorie intake are influenced by expected satiety and liking of foods. This project will elicit consumers' knowledge and understanding of portion sizes in relation to calorie content and expected satiety of commercially available products, and focus on the ability to manipulate portion sizes in a consumer testing context, measuring the effect on consumer liking and satiation.
Qualitative consumer research will be conducted to elicit consumers' knowledge of portion sizes and calorie content of a selection of commercially available products, and the impact of different controlled sample portion sizes will be assessed on consumers' satiation, perception and liking of products. A discrimination test will measure consumers' sensory performance before and after the hedonic test.
Contact: Dr. Sarah Thomas
+44(0)1386 842254
e-mail: s.d.thomas@campden.co.uk
The wellness lifestyle concept and the opportunities it presents for new product development
Campden BRI project 119171 (January 2010 - December 2011)
Member Subscription Funded
The health and wellness market has recently experienced a high level of new product development. The border between the food and beverage and the pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare industries has become increasingly blurred. Consumers appear to be looking to food and drink products to provide them with physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health, even though they may not be suffering from a particular illness or condition. This project will explore the opportunities for product innovation within the health and wellness market by employing a lifestyle segmentation approach.
It will report on consumers' understanding of the wellness trend and their perceptions of the food and drink products that currently exist within it, the method and outcomes of the health and wellness lifestyle segmentation analysis, and on product development activities within the health and wellness food and drink markets.
Contact: Dr. Michelle Chen
+44(0)1386 842238
e-mail: m.chen@campden.co.uk