Do Consumers Change Their Perception of Liking, Expected Satiety, and Healthiness of a Product If They Know It Is a Ready-to Eat Meal?

A ready-to-eat meal is a prepared meal within a container or package that requires little preparation or heating before consumption. Despite ready-to-eat meals being widely consumed, to date, little information is available on the consumers' perceptions of such products in comparison to a homemade meal. Thus, three groups of eighty participants took part in the present study; each group evaluated five ready-to-eat meals (Pasta, Meatballs, Salad, Beans, and a Sandwich) using one of the following conditions: (i) observation of the packaging, (ii) observation of the meal on a plate (photographs), and (iii) tasting the ready-to-eat product with the packaging being presented alongside the meal. Consumers were asked about their liking, satiety, and healthiness perception. The results showed that both the ready-to-eat pack and sensory quality of the product highly impact liking and healthiness perceptions. Being a ready-to-eat meal in a pack has a negative impact on liking expectations of the meal; however, the sensory quality can either counteract these effects or increase them. Expected satiety of meals depends on the type of meal and varies slightly according to the evaluation condition.

Does food complexity have a role in eliciting expectations of satiating capacity?

New strategies for formulating healthy, balanced food with enhanced expected satiating capacity are a hot topic. The present work tests the hypothesis that adding complexity to food will result in higher expectations of satiating capacity. Different kinds of "visible" particles (wheat bran, ground coconut, flaxseeds and oat meal) were added to cheese pies with the aim of increasing the complexity of both their appearance and their texture. Two more basic recipes were also prepared with no particles added. Instrumental texture measurements, complexity and expected satiating capacity consumer scoring and sensory profiling of the six pie formulations were performed. In addition, the consumers were asked to write down the characteristics they took into account in their pie complexity scores. For pies with very similar instrumental TPA hardness and resistance to penetration values, a clear trend that emerged was that the more complex the texture, the higher the satiating capacity expectations. The qualitative analysis of the terms mentioned by consumers was of great value for understanding the concepts underlying the appraisal of the samples' complexity.

Relating dynamic perception of reformulated cheese pies to consumers' expectations of satiating ability.

Designing satiating food is not an easy task. Food reformulation is normally done by altering the proportion of basic ingredients or by adding new minor ingredients. In general, the texture varies concomitantly with these changes, altering the way the food is processed orally and the complete eating experience. This highlights the interest of discovering how variations in minor ingredients influence texture and how this affects the dynamics of the oral trajectory. Six cheese pie formulations were prepared: basic recipe (Base), no egg (-Egg), no corn starch (-Corn starch) no sugar (-Sugar), added diary cream (+Cream) and extra skimmed milk powder (+Milk powder). Temporal dominance of sensations was used to show that the appearance and disappearance of each texture sensation dominance experienced in the mouth during the eating process differed among the six pies, as did their relation to the consumers' expectation of satiating capacity scores and to the changes in composition. Two extreme behaviors were found: suppression of egg/addition of extra milk powder made the pies initially drier and harder, while suppression of corn starch/addition of cream gave the samples a soft, moist early sensation. The former elicited higher expectations of satiating capacity. In addition, overall liking, liking evolving with time (dynamic liking) and the level of several key texture attributes' divergence from those of an "ideal" cheese pie were evaluated on bipolar just-about-right scales and through penalty analysis to gain insights into potential directions for reformulating acceptable pies.

Capacidad saciante y tamaño de porción para comida y snack en universitarios mexicanos / Satiating capacity and portion size for food and snacks in Mexican university

Un snack es una porción pequeña de alimentos consumida entre comidas principales con el fin de obtener energía. Su presencia en la dieta de adultos ha incrementado en la última década. El objetivo del estudio fue determinar el tamaño de porción ingerida y la percepción de la capacidad saciante esperada (CSE) de diferentes alimentos si son ofrecidos como "comida" o "snack". Se diseñó y validó la encuesta para evaluar las elecciones de tamaño de porción ingerida y la CSE de 12 alimentos seleccionados a través del Análisis Descriptivo Cuantitativo (QDA). Participaron 453 estudiantes de 22±4,0 años, los resultados se evaluaron mediante análisis de varianza (ANOVA) con un nivel de confianza del 95%. En la mayoría de los alimentos (83,3%) la CSE fue mayor cuando eran "snack" que en "comida". El tamaño de porción elegido en 5 alimentos fue menor cuando eran "snack" (p<0,05); para el resto de los alimentos no se mostraron diferencias significativas. Respecto al contenido energético ingerido en los dos tiempos de comida, únicamente dos productos, ampliamente reconocidos como snacks, no presentaron diferencias. La densidad energética ingerida de los alimentos estudiados sería mayor si lo consumieran como comida vs snack (p<0,05). Los resultados concuerdan con la evidencia previa sobre los determinantes para consumo de alimentos: los ingredientes del alimento y su complejidad, la saciedad percibida y sus características orosensoriales. Se puede concluir que el contenido energético y nutrimental no fue tomado en cuenta al elegir la cantidad de alimento independientemente de si se ingiriera en "comida" o "snack"(AU)

'Snack' is a small portion of food consumed between main meals to obtain energy. Its presence in the diet of adults has increased in the last decade. The objective of the study was to determine the size of the ingested portion and the perception of the expected satiating capacity (ESC) of different kinds of food if they are offered as 'meals' or 'snacks'. A survey was conducted to evaluate the ingested portion size choices and the ESC of 12 selected foods through QDA methodology. 453 students aged 22±4.0 years participated in the study, results were analyzed with ANOVA (95% as confidence level). In most of the given choices of food (83.3%) the ESC was greater when they were offered as 'snacks' compared to 'meals'. The portion size chosen for five food options was smaller when they were considered 'snack' (p<0.05); for the rest of the food options, no significant differences were shown. Regarding the energy content ingested at the two mealtimes, only two products, widely recognized as snacks, did not present statistical differences. The consumed energy density of the food choices studied was higher when they were chosen to be consumed as meals vs snacks (p<0.05). The results correspond with previous evidence about the determinants for food consumption: ingredients and complexity of the foods, perceived satiety, and its sensorineural characteristics. It can be concluded that energy and nutritional content was not considered when choosing the amount of food regardless of whether it was ingested as a 'meal' or as 'snack'(AU)