Preferencias de los consumidores hacia el omega 3 como reclamo de salud en los productos alimentarios
- Autores: Yasmina Baba el Mokhtari
- Directores de la Tesis: Zein Kallas (dir. tes.), Carolina Realini Cujo (codir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) ( España ) en 2017
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: María Garrido (presid.), Montserrat Costa Font (secret.), Tiziana de Magistris (voc.)
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
- Resumen
In this thesis we analyzed the preferences of consumers towards foods enriched with healthy components, in particular omega-3 (n-3). Beef and egg have been chosen as case studies. In the first case study, the preferences in three Spanish cities (Barcelona, Zaragoza and Pamplona) were analyzed in order to estimate the relative importance of beef attributes, including their enrichment with omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids and the Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). Furthermore, we evaluated the impact of sensory experience on consumer preferences differentiated by the information received. Data were collected from a structured and self-completed questionnaire in a controlled environment, by tasting 4 different meat samples in the three cities (647 total consumers). The choice experiment was applied and the Generalized Multinomial Model model (G-MNL) was applied before and after the consumers evaluated the acceptability of meat samples.
In the second case study, the potential appropriateness of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique to analyze consumers¿ acceptance of three types of eggs (conventional, n-3 enriched and free-range) was assessed and compared with the traditional 9-point hedonic scale. The relative importance of the main attributes of eggs¿ purchase including its enrichment with polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-3) was also analyzed. Data were obtained from a face-to-face questionnaire completed by consumers (n=122) in a controlled environment.
Analyzing the preferences of enriched meat with n-3, results showed a significant impact of sensory evaluation on consumers¿ preferences. This impact is differentiated by the information received. The utility of meat enriched with n-3 in the three cities increased significantly after tasting the meat, especially for consumers without information, while the utility of meat enriched with CLA was not significant. The results showed an increase in the overall acceptability of meat enriched with n-3 and CLA compared to conventional meat and the information offered to consumers had no significant impact on their scores. Analyzing the preferences of enriched eggs with n-3, results showed agreement between the AHP technique and the 9-point scale showing that n-3 enriched eggs had lower flavor acceptance. The most important attributes that determine preferences for egg purchase were the type and the egg price followed by the origin and the egg size. The AHP approach seems to be a reliable tool to evaluate consumer hedonic preferences. However, further testing on other food products with larger sample sizes is needed.
The results confirm the marketing opportunities related to the benefit of the application of health component with health properties mainly the enrichment with polyunsaturated fatty acids adaptable to beef and eggs, in particular the n-3, are promising is they are well introduced in the animal feed. The food industry is encouraged to benefit from these factors as a strategy of product differentiation and market segmentation.
Keywords: consumers¿ preference, sensory analysis, choice experiment, analytical hierarchy process, generalized multinomial logit model, n-3, CLA .
