Is the Term “Food Consistency” Used Consistently in Consumer Science? An Exploratory Study of Consumer Association and Conceptualization.

Publication date: Oct 01, 2024

The post-pandemic context has changed the modes for collecting data in sensory and consumer science. The objectives of this research were to analyze consumers’ associations of food consistency and to study two virtual modes of the Free Word Association test (FWA). This test was administered to 209 consumers (180 women, 29 men, 18-45 years old) asynchronously (i. e. self-administered) and synchronously (i. e. face to face interviews). The Cognitive Salience Index (CSI) was calculated, and the structure of the social representation was analyzed. Correspondence analysis showed that food consistency was a mixture of concepts related to structure, hardness and several aspects of auditory (e. g., Crunchy, Crispy), tactile (e. g. Smooth, Spreadable) and oral texture (e. g., Creamy, Gummy). Slightly consistent food was associated with something soft, liquid or semisolid, and very consistent food to something hard and resistant. Consistent food was more related to “very” than to “slightly consistent. ” The CSI depended on the stimulus presented (p 

Concepts Keywords
45years Adolescent
Food Adult
Interviews cognitive salience index
Pandemic Consumer Behavior
Science consumer language
COVID-19
Female
Food
Food Preferences
free word association
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
social representations
texture
virtual methods
Word Association Tests
Young Adult

Semantics

Type Source Name
disease MESH COVID-19

Original Article

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