Session Description:
Abstract Body: Currently, consumers are looking for healthy, fresher taste products with functional properties. To achieve these goals, industries apply new technologies, being important to investigate consumers´ product perception. This study aimed at investigating the effect of manufacturing innovation on the consumer intention to purchase of fresh cheeses. Twelve fresh cheese prototypes were created by combining the following label attributes and levels: salt content (25% reduction, 50% reduction and no reduction); type of milk (cow or goat); use of probiotic microorganisms (with information on health benefits, with no information, no probiotic); additional information about the technology (High Pressure Processing - HPP with information, without information, and no information about the technology); price [High: R$ 12.30 (cow milk)/R$ 37.80 (goat) and Low: R$ 9.20 (cow milk/R$ 28.20 (goat milk)] according to a fractionated factorial design. They were evaluated for intention to purchase by 162 "Minas Frescal" cheese consumers only looking at the labels, as if they were in a grocery store, using 9 cm non-structured scales, varying from "certainly would not buy" to "certainly would buy".  The data were analyzed by conjoint analysis using XLSTAT/CJT software. On average, the highest relative importance was the type of milk (23.4%), followed by the use of probiotics (22.3%), technology (21.9%), salt content (20.7%) and price (11.6%). Analyzing the mean part-worth, it was concluded that on average consumers declared higher intention to purchase to cow´s milk cheese, with 50% salt reduction, containing probiotics, using HPP with information, and low price. Three clusters of consumers were identified based on similar responses. The most important attributes for each cluster were: cluster 1 (n=83): use of probiotics and type of milk; cluster 2 (n=45): salt content, use of probiotics and HPP technology and cluster 3 (n=34): type of milk, indicating a clear differentiation in relation to product perception by participants.
Abstract Body: