Exploring and explaining creaminess perception: Consumers' underlying concepts

Considering the importance of creaminess in consumers' overall liking of many food products, it is crucial to understand how consumers perceive creaminess and what they expect when a product is described as creamy. In this context, the objective of the present study was to gather information on how consumers in Spain and Uruguay, two Spanish-speaking countries, understand creaminess and to identify what characteristics they associate with a creamy product. A word association task was performed with 107 and 120 participants in Valencia (Spain) and Montevideo (Uruguay), respectively. Participants were asked to write down the first four words, descriptions, associations, thoughts or feelings that came to their minds when thinking of creaminess. Consumers' elicited terms were grouped into seven dimensions. Creaminess associations were mainly related to creamy food products, texture, flavor and appearance attributes. Consumers mainly associated creaminess with smoothness, softness, sweetness and pleasantness. Differences were found between results from Spanish and Uruguayan consumers, which indicate that, even within the same language, cultural differences in consumers' understanding of the term creaminess exist. Practical Applications: Results of the present work contribute to knowledge of consumers' perceptions and expectations regarding creaminess, which could help to better understand and predict the likelihood of success or failure of different creamy products. A better understanding of creaminess can be useful for product development, ensuring that areas relevant for consumers are targeted and identifying the cues that they associate with a better liking of creamy products. Also, the vocabulary elicited could be used to improve the design of expert panel trainings, with the use of more consumer-relevant terms.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Antmann, Gabriela, Ares, Gastón, Salvador, Ana, Varela, Paula, Fiszman, Susana
Other Authors:	Universidad de la República (Uruguay)
Format:	artículo biblioteca
Published:	John Wiley & Sons 2011-02
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10261/333424
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