Influence of Information on Consumers' Evaluations Using Check-All-That-Apply Questions and Sorting: A Case Study with Milk Desserts

Consumer perception of food products is a very complex phenomenon that is influenced by a wide range of characteristics. In particular, consumer perception of the sensory characteristics of food products can be strongly affected by information and expectations. Thus, the comparison of product characterizations from blind and informed conditions can provide a valuable insight about the impact of information on consumer perception of food products. In this context, the aim of the present work was to present a case study in which the influence of information on results of product characterizations of milk desserts from two methodologies, check-all-that-apply (CATA) questions and sorting, was studied. Six commercial vanilla milk desserts were evaluated under blind and informed conditions by two groups of 50 consumers using CATA questions and sorting. Results showed that information had a small impact on overall liking scores and product characterizations, suggesting that consumers' perception of the desserts was mainly determined by their sensory characteristics. Practical Applications The influence of information was larger for the sorting task than for check-all-that-apply question, as expected, due to the fact that this last methodology was based exclusively on the perception of the sensory characteristics of the samples. Sorting tasks showed that consumers' categorizations under informed conditions were mainly related to the samples' sensory characteristics, and that information only had a limited influence. The comparison of blind and informed sorting tasks might enable one to determine the relative influence of package information on consumer perception of food products, which may be an interesting way of studying the impact of previous expectations and nonsensory variables on consumer perception.