Exploring the role of the general interest in health on the perceptions of Healthy, Industrialized, and Ultra-processed foods among Brazilians.

Food processing includes operations that transform raw materials into new products, ensuring the preservation and supply of safe food; however, this view is not always understood by consumers who tend to associate any type of processing with something negative and harmful to health. Given this, the objective of this study was to explore the associations of Brazilian consumers in relation to healthy foods, industrialized foods, and ultra-processed foods, as well as to evaluate the role of socio-demographic characteristics and interest in health in these associations. To this end, 512 Brazilians completed a word association task on these three concepts and then answered a questionnaire about interest in health and socio-demographic issues. In general, participants associated "Healthy food" mainly with "Unprocessed products." Conversely, "Industrialized foods" and "Ultra-processed foods" were associated with "Processed products," "Negative perceptions," "Health harm," and "Industry". Despite this, it was found that "Industrialized foods" were also perceived positively, mainly due to convenience. Consumer associations were influenced (p ≤ 0.05) both by interest in health and by socio-demographic profile. Individuals with a high interest in health mainly associated "Industrialized foods" and "Ultra-processed foods" with the presence of preservatives, additives, and pesticides, and with diseases. As for those with low interest in health, there was a greater lack of knowledge of the concepts. Doubts and lack of knowledge were observed for "Industrialized foods" and "Ultra-processed foods," mainly among consumers with low educational level. The results indicate the need to develop communication strategies that reach consumers to facilitate understanding and, in this way, help them to make more conscious food choices.

How Do Nutritional Warnings Work on Commercial Products? Results From a Hypothetical Choice Experiment.

A large body of evidence assessing the effectiveness of front-of-package (FOP) nutrition labeling exists. Most experimental studies have been conducted with fictitious products. However, consumers' perception depends on several products extrinsic factors such as brand. Understanding how strong brand associations influence the effectiveness of FOP nutrition labeling schemes may be crucial to informing policymaking. In this context, the aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of five different variants of nutritional warnings labels (black magnifier, red magnifier, black octagon, black triangle, and red circle) on consumers' choice of commercial products, compared with two FOP nutrition labeling schemes: the guidelines daily amounts (GDAs) system and the traffic light system (TLS). An online randomized controlled trial with 1,932 participants was used to evaluate the effect of FOP nutrition labeling on participants' choices in eight sets of three commercial products, available in the Brazilian marketplace. A multinomial logistic regression model was used to evaluate the influence of FOP nutrition labeling on participants' likelihood of selecting the different products in the choice task. Results showed that nutritional warnings and the TLS significantly increased the likelihood of selecting none of the products instead of the least healthful product, or a healthier product, in at least one of the product categories compared with the GDA. Warnings tended to have a larger effect, suggesting their potential to encourage healthier food choices.

Multivariate Nature of Fish Freshness Evaluation by Consumers.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the sensory acceptability limit of refrigerated fish through a multivariate approach, involving classic physicochemical and bacteriological indicators and considering different consumer profiles. The results of the survival analysis demonstrated that, in general, consumers still considered the fish to be suitable for purchase (4.128 days of storage), despite being microbiologically unsuitable for consumption. However, the subsequent division of consumers into clusters indicated that women and individuals with high income and education levels tend to reject fish with few days of storage (3.650 days), mainly due to discoloration, despite still being microbiologically suitable for consumption. Thus, these segments present a safer behavior regarding the purchase of fresh fish. The influence of different frequencies of fish consumption and age of consumers on the assessment of fish freshness was not clarified. The responsibility for ensuring safe and healthy products at the point of sale must lie with the producers and distributors. However, improving consumers' ability to make good choices when buying fresh fish would bring social and economic benefits related to public health and to the seafood industry, because it would enable them to make relevant claims and demand their rights.

How are the sensory properties perceived by consumers? A case study with pressurized tropical mixed juice.

Tropical fruits, such as cashew apple, acerola, and melon, can be used to obtain innovative juices with high contents of bioactive compounds. Technological processes are needed to ensure the safety of products during their shelf life. However, these processes can modify the sensory properties of the juice, which have an important role in consumer acceptance. From this perspective, this study aimed to evaluate consumer perception of the sensory characteristics of tropical mixed juice based on cashew apple, acerola, and melon obtained using different processing methods during cold storage at 4° C. Microbiological aspects were monitored during refrigerated storage at 4 °C. Samples were exposed to four technological processes: control (unprocessed), pasteurization (90 °C/1 min), and high-pressure processing: HHP1 (500 MPa/5 min) and HHP2 (520 MPa/2 min). Thirty fruit juice consumers participated in the characterization of mixed juices using rate-all-that-apply (RATA) questions. Samples were analyzed at zero, 14, and 28 days of storage at 4 °C. Data were analyzed by ANOVA, and Fisher's test was used for post-hoc comparison of means and PCA. Results showed that 12 of the 22 RATA terms differed (p ≤ 0.05) regarding the mean perceived intensity, suggesting that consumers perceived differences in the sensory characteristics of the juices. The first dimension of the PCA separated the pasteurized juices from the others. Pasteurized samples were characterized by yellow color, cooked aroma, cooked flavor, off aroma, off flavor, stale aroma, and stale flavor. On the other hand, the unprocessed (control) and pressurized (HPP1 and HPP2) juices were characterized by orange color, fruit aroma, fruit flavor, sweet aroma, fresh juice, and watery consistency. Results confirmed the suitability of the sensory characterization performed by consumers using RATA and the potential of HHP to obtain juices with sensory characteristics similar to the fresh product.

What Do Consumers Think About Foods Processed by Ultraviolet Radiation and Ultrasound?

This study aimed to investigate Brazilian consumers' perception concerning foods processed by ultraviolet (UV) radiation and ultrasound (US) and define consumer segments considering their socioeconomic characteristics and eating habits towards industrialized products through free word association tasks answered by 1004 participants via an online platform. UV- and US-treated foods were more frequently related to unfamiliar words/terms (21.51 and 36.95%) and negative associations (36.25 and 26.70%) than positive ones (29.89 and 24.20%), respectively. Unfamiliarity and health risk concerns were more reported for US-treated foods by women aged 18-25 and ≥46 with low income, and low and frequent industrialized products consumption, as well as for UV-treated foods by consumers ≤35 years old with low and medium income, and low and frequent industrialized products consumption. This indicates that more clear and trustworthy information is needed before introducing these products in the Brazilian market, mainly for potential target consumer groups identified in this study.

The habitual nature of food purchases at the supermarket: Implications for policy making.

Supermarkets have become the most important provider of food products worldwide. However, empirical evidence about how consumers make their food purchase decisions in this environment is still scarce. The present field study aimed to: i) explore how people make their in-store food purchases, and ii) identify the information they search for when making those purchases. Consumers (n = 144) were intercepted when entering the facilities of three supermarkets in two Uruguayan cities. They were asked to wear a mobile eye-tracker while they made their purchases as they normally do. The great majority of the consumers bought at least one food product or beverage (92%) and, on average, examined products from 2.8 sections. In total, they investigated 37 categories within 13 self-service sections, corresponding to 26 categories of ultra-processed products. For 67% of the products, consumers went straight to the product they seemed to be looking for, grabbed it and put it in their shopping basket or cart, without making any comparison among products. A limited information search was observed. On average, consumers spent 22 s examining products within self-service sections and only 6.9 s were elapsed from the moment they grabbed a product until they put it in the shopping cart. These results provide empirical evidence of the habitual nature of supermarket food purchases in a context characterized by wide availability of ultra-processed products. Taken together, the findings suggest that policies and interventions aimed at reducing purchases of ultra-processed products should disrupt habitual decisions at the point of purchase. In this sense, policies targeted at introducing salient changes on food packages hold potential to disrupt food purchases and encourage consumers to establish new and more healthful food purchase habits.

Can front-of-pack nutrition labeling influence children's emotional associations with unhealthy food products? An experiment using emoji.

Food products targeted at children are usually marketed using persuasive elements aimed at creating positive hedonic and emotional associations. For this reason, changes in children's emotional associations with unhealthy food products can discourage their consumption. In this context, the aim of the present study was to compare children's emotional associations with food products featuring different front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labelling schemes. A total of 492 children (6-12 years old) were randomly divided into three groups, each of which evaluated a series of packages featuring different FOP nutrition labelling schemes: guidelines daily amount (GDA), traffic light system (TLS) and nutritional warnings. For each of the six packages and three unpackaged products, children were asked to select all the emoji from a list that described how they would feel eating the product. Data were analyzed using generalized linear models. FOP nutrition labelling significantly influenced the frequency of use five of the 16 emoji. In general, children who evaluated packages with directive and semi-directive schemes used emoji associated with positive emotions less frequently than those who evaluated packages with the GDA system. The effect of FOP nutrition labelling scheme on emotional associations was moderated by age and type of school. The effect of directive and semi-directive FOP nutritional schemes, in special nutritional warnings, tended to be higher for younger children and children from public schools. These results suggest that FOP nutrition labelling may contribute to discouraging consumption of products with high content of nutrients associated with non-communicable diseases among children.