PDO labels and food preferences: results from a sensory analysis

Italian Journal of Animal Science, 2019

The study analyses the importance of the protected designation of origin (PDO) as a selection criterion in purchases of traditional food products in a consumer's daily life, the awareness of products with a PDO label, and determinants of use of the PDO label for purchasing PDOlabelled products. A survey questionnaire was distributed by regular mail to a representative sample of Slovenian consumers. The survey results show that the presence of a PDO label on a food package is not too important for respondents. Slovenian consumers tend to pay greater attention to the taste of the product, its positive impact on their health, and the ingredients. There is low awareness of PDO-labelled products, which may be explained by the fact that Slovenia has a weak tradition in using geographical indications. Among consumers who were aware of products with a PDO label, their interests and quality perceptions played a significant role in shaping their use of the PDO label. The study demonstrated a direct relationship between the belief the PDO signals a better-quality product and use of the PDO label. HIGHLIGHTS A PDO label is not too important to Slovenian consumers. There is poor awareness of the PDO label. It is worth investing in PDO labels.

Journal of Sensory Studies, 2018

In recent years, like others in Europe, the Slovenian government has introduced national and European quality schemes and launched a campaign to inform consumers and boost demand for local products. Very few studies consider consumers' hedonic liking of different food products labeled with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO)/Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) indications. This study therefore aims to fill this research gap and identify whether information affects the hedonic liking of various typical Slovenian PDO/PGI-labeled products compared to their alternative conventional food products, whether Slovenian consumers like different typical Slovenian PDO/PGI-labeled food products relative to their conventional food products, and which food products they sensorically prefer. The study findings show consumer hedonic liking is identical for all PDO/PGI-labeled regional products, yet their sensory preferences reveal some significant differences between the analyzed products by age, gender, and education. Accordingly, studies should employ different sensory analyses for different food products and not generalized consumer hedonic liking/preference based on just one food product. Practical applications The finding that consumers do not hold hedonic preferences for either PDO/PGI-labeled or conventional products when both informed and blind has significant implications for the Slovenian government, the marketers of labeled products and consumer policy aiming to promote better labeled products. For transition countries like Slovenia that have recently introduced food products labeling meeting EU standard but have a relatively small food industry based on local ingredients, traditional recipes, and production methods, our findings reveal the need to extend and intensify promotion and communication activities that highlight the guaranteed quality and use of local ingredients to boost consumers' preferences for PDO/PGI-labeled products like cheese, ham, and honey.

Food quality and preference, 2006

The Region of origin of food products affects consumer valuation in two different ways. First, origin can act as a quality cue hinting to other characteristics of the good. Secondly, origin can affect directly the value of food due to its symbolic or affective role. This study was carried out in order to investigate the direct effect of geographical origin when the size of the area of origin shrinks and its definition becomes more precise. Avaluation experiment was designed to assess the impact of origin on consumer evaluation and to analyse how it relates to WTP and hedonic scores. A well-known specialty food—spelt—that originates from three concentric areas—Garfagnana (a small valley of the Apennines), Tuscany and Italy—was chosen as a case study. Both hedonic and monetary evaluations were elicited from 77 subjects after blind tasting condition, looking at labels only and finally tasting a labelled product. Results reveal that, in the case of spelt, the narrower and more precisely defined the area of origin the higher the quality expectation of consumers supporting the role of origin as a quality cue. Adirect impact of origin on willingness to pay was also found.

The general purpose of the paper is to investigate consumer's attitude towards high quality agri-food products. The research analyses PDO labelled products packaged by law in the production area. Within the same area, the Producers' Group imposes the use of the Consortium label as a quality sign. As consequence, collective labels as well are find on a product packaging, by virtue of the fact that not only they graphically and symbolically represent quality, but they also inform customers about the properties of a specific PDO good. Moreover, on the same package other labels (industrial and private ones) are displayed on the same package. At this purpose, the research analysis of the customers' perception of such particular labels combination focusing the case of the ready-sliced Parma ham. The analysis gives the opportunity of evaluating, from an economic perspective, aspects related to the use of multi-labelling strategy.

The study aims to extend the understanding of consumers' perception of private labelled food products in Slovenia. Consumer sensory test of sour gherkins was conducted in two experimental conditions where the effect of brand information on hedonic judgment was examined. The difference between private label and producer label products was especially scrutinized. Results show that consumers in Slovenia perceive private labels as a lower price alternative of comparable quality to producer brands. Disposable income and family size proved to have significant effect on propensity to buy private label food. Study confirms that the information about brand significantly affect consumer sensory judgment. The effect of assimilation has been confirmed also in the case of private label.

2014

This poster paper aims to investigate the consumers' preferences and willingness to pay for different quality strategies associated with the designations Prosciutto di Parma PDO. After a qualitative analysis, an on-line choice experiment was conducted on a sample of 250 Italian consumers. A multinomial logit model was tested to assess the relative importance of quality attributes. The results show that price, a "high quality" PDO label and the ageing period are the most important attributes for consumers. These findings provide Consortium members with an important food for thought for the development of future strategies for the Designation of Origin.

Acta Alimentaria, 2015

Within a survey made of Hungarian awareness of, attitudes towards, and preferences for food labels and pricing, this study focused on consumers' reactions to quality and country of origin labels. Data were collected with a standard questionnaire, face-to-face interviews (1000 participants) in the respondents' home. It became obvious that consumers were looking for information about quality (rating its importance at 4.04) on packages, but information about origin (3.94) and production (3.89) was also important to them. The capability of respondents to spontaneously recall country of origin and quality labels was very limited: 35.5% of all respondents could not name any such labels. The best known label was "Hungarian Product" (30.5%), which was recognized by up to 90% of the respondents after they were shown it. Many consumers were ready to pay premium for products bearing this label (31.7%). According to our results, information about quality is important to consumers, but they do not look for it deliberately, and only a few consumers ascribe a higher value to products with labels bearing this information. There is a pressing need to increase consumers' confi dence for trademarks through dissemination of reliable information.

Two experiments, one with 35 participants (13 male and 22 female, mean age = 21.5) and the other with 16(5 males and 11 females, mean age = 20.6), tested whether brand-name soymilk would be higher-rated than generic. Experiment 1: participants rated cups of soymilk, labeled with either brand-name or ambiguous symbols. No significant effects were found for soymilk type (F(1, 33) = .003, p = .959), label (F=1, 33) = .001, p = .978), or the interaction (F(1, 33) = .366, p = .549).

Journal of Sensory Studies, 2018

Branding can influence sensory evaluation, however, the impact of food retailers from different tiers (premium, everyday and discount) remains undocumented. The aim of this project was to test whether food retailers generated different quality expectations and establish whether these impacted on sensory evaluation. Expected liking of 4 chocolate samples (private brand, premium, everyday and discount food retailer brands) was measured using a survey (n=199) and hedonic ratings (n=152) were obtained in blind and informed conditions. Seventy one of the 152 panelists were required to rate their expected liking prior to the informed hedonic test to assess whether stating expectations could influence subsequent liking. The premium food retailer and private brand generated similarly high quality expectations which resulted in significant disconfirmation although a significant response shift was only observed for the private brand when expectations were measured. In contrast, the everyday and discount food retailers generated lower expectations which aligned well with the sensory experience. Practical applications: Although established private brands are still perceived as the gold standard; premium food retailers can also generate high expectations and there is a clear hierarchy of expectations between food retailers' tiers. In spite of this, branding had a modest impact on sensory evaluation compared to actual product quality with partial assimilation observed only for the private brand. Food retailers should continue to develop their product quality to carry on improving their brand image. Asking panelists to state their expectations just prior to the informed hedonic testing could result in self-induced suggestion error. It is recommended that expectations and informed liking are captured sufficiently far apart when using the same panelists.