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There is a growing interest in measuring emotions evoked by food products to gain additional insights in how consumers perceive and choose food products. The aim of this study was to investigate if consumers' emotions are influenced by flavour, gender, consumption habits, actual tasting or consumer attitude towards a product. Chocolate was chosen as the product under study as its consumption is associated with evoking several emotions.

During a between-subjects experiment at a local food fair, consumers (n = 910) evaluated either the name “chocolate”, plain dark chocolate or raspberry flavoured dark chocolate. Participants rated the intensity of 24 emotions and answered the 24 statements of the Attitude to Chocolate Questionnaire.

The results showed that sensory characteristics have a significant influence on the emotional profiles whereas no difference was found between tasting and not tasting. Gender and prior liking had little to no influence. Finally, the results suggested that consumption frequency and attitudes towards chocolate did have an influence on the emotional profiles.

The results show that producers should try to evoke positive emotions which could be emphasised through marketing. Gender differences for emotional profiling advocate that future research should not only analyse global results but also separately analyse by gender. Moreover, usage frequency and attitudes towards chocolate had an impact on the emotions meaning that future research should consider those when setting up research.

This study further contributes to the growing literature on emotions. It examines the added value of actual tasting chocolate while prior research focuses either just names or just sensory evaluation. Also, this paper further explores to which extent flavour, gender, consumption habits and attitude impact the emotional associations of chocolate.

Literature indicates that those solid chocolate particles cannot be detected by human beings that are smaller than a critical value between 25 and 35 µm. Chocolate containing particles larger than this range is thought to be perceived as grainy. However, there does not seem to be any publication which justifies this threshold. Hence, the main aim of this work is to determine if the threshold at which particles can be detected is indeed 30 µm.

Three dark chocolates containing solid particles of expected D_v,90 of 30 µm, 40 µm and 50 µm were produced. Particle Size Distribution (PSD) was determined using static light scattering while hardness and melting behaviour were characterised using a penetration test and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), respectively. Sensory analyses were performed with a trained panel (n = 9).

PSD analyses indicated that the solid particle D_v,90 of the three chocolates were around 30 µm, 40 µm and 60 µm, respectively. DSC measurements showed no significant difference in melting behaviour between the chocolates. Hardness measurements showed that the “30 µm chocolate” was significantly harder than both the “40 µm chocolate” and the “60 µm chocolate”, while trained panellists found that the graininess of the 60 µm chocolate was significantly higher than that of the 40 µm and 30 µm chocolates.

These results suggest that particle size detection threshold is higher than 40 µm. Chocolate manufacturers could thus increase the size of the biggest particles from 30 µm to 40 µm, leading to a decrease in production cost.

This is the first study to examine the particle detection limit of chocolate.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of anticipated emotions (AE) on behavioural intention and behaviour to consume filled chocolates and to give an indication on the possible differences in consumer behaviour between two countries.

The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was used to explain the consumption of chocolate. In this study, TPB is extended with a construct for AE.

A total of 859 consumers in Belgium and Hungary participated in the study and results showed that including AE increases the predicted variance of the TPB. Moreover, AE have a positive effect on the intention and the actual behaviour of consumers. Next, the study suggests that Belgian consumers are more influenced by their emotional and control beliefs and that Hungarian consumers are also driven by opinion of family and friends and some behavioural beliefs.

Overall, TPB can contribute to the understanding of behavioural intention and behaviour towards eating filled chocolate. Moreover, it can help to develop a marketing plan for specific consumer segments as it can identify influencing factors and consumer beliefs towards a product.

This is the first study that compares the fit of the TPB model with and without the construct of AE. The work contributes to the growing literature on emotions as it does not focus on emotions elicited during or after consumption, but explores if the AE also play a significant role in behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of sensory attributes of milk chocolate on consumers’ emotions and their hedonic ratings using three commercial brands of milk chocolate.

Quantitative descriptive analysis by a trained panel (n=8) was performed to obtain the sensory evaluation of the samples. A group of 127 consumers evaluated the samples to indicate their hedonic ratings (nine-point hedonic scale) and emotions (EsSense Profile®).

The sensory profiles for the three chocolate types showed clear differences. EsSense Profile® methodology revealed that each type of chocolate had a distinct emotional profile. The premium brand was associated with the highest number of positive emotions, whereas the traditional brand was associated with most of the negative emotions (“bored”, “disgusted” and “worried”). The drivers of liking were mainly positive and unclassified emotions. Also, gender differences in emotional profiling were found.

This study illustrates that sensory and emotional measurements can contribute to a better understanding of consumers’ hedonic liking. Moreover, gender differences found in emotional profiling should raise awareness that gender may lead to different emotional profiling. These gender differences are of interest to food companies, for instance, for food product development or marketing purposes.

This study further contributes to the growing literature on emotions. By combining sensory evaluation by a trained panel and emotional profiling by consumers, this paper explores how combining these measurements can contribute to a better understanding of the drivers of liking for milk chocolate.