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A visual sweetness scale with an arrow pointing to a specific sweetness level is now required on all labels of AOC Alsace. The sweetness scale makes it easier for consumers to understand what is in the bottle. What is less clear, however, is whether such labeling is always effective. To fill this gap, the current research paper aims to examine the positive and negative effects (double-edged effects) of a visual sweetness scale and identify the boundary condition.

Two studies were conducted using a 2 (cue type: scale vs text) by 2 (consumer type: novices vs experienced wine consumers) between-subjects, quasi-experimental design.

The double-edged effects are only significant among wine novices. Specifically, though wine novices are more likely to purchase wine with a sweetness scale (vs text) due to perceived diagnosticity (Study 1), they are unwilling to pay more due to low perceived quality (Study 2).

The study findings provide practical implications for wine producers, marketers and restaurants regarding when and how to use the sweetness scale on wine labels and wine service.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to reveal the impact of visualizing wine style on wine labels. More importantly, while most previous research demonstrates the positive effects of using visual cues, this research sheds light on its drawbacks and examines the underlying mechanisms.

Prevention of chronic diseases by means of dietary modification can be achieved by consuming healthier foods with lower sugar content. However, reducing sugar content causes significant impact on the sensory quality and consumers’ acceptance towards local healthy products. This study aims to evaluate the effects of cross-modal interactions of Aroma-Taste-Texture (ATT) in yoghurt drink.

Fifteen sugar reduced yoghurt drinks [S, sugar percentage (0%, 2%, 4%); T, stevia dosage (0%, 0.01%, 0.02%); P, pectin dosage (0%, 0.3%, 0.6%)] based on ATT were evaluated by 300 consumer panellists on aroma, taste, texture and overall acceptability on a nine-point hedonic scale while sweetness intensity was measured using a seven-point just-about-right (JAR) scale. Interactions between ATT were determined.

Significant interaction was found between sugar and stevia, with F14 (4S0.02T0P) rated as sweeter than F4 (0S0.02T0P) (p = 0.003) and higher overall liking score than F11 (4S0T0P) (p = 0.001). Similarly, significant interaction was found between sugar and pectin, with F2 (0S0T0.6P) rated as significantly lower overall liking score and less sweet than F1 (0S0T0P) (p = 0.0001). Likewise, significant interaction was found between stevia and pectin, with F2 (0S0T0.6P) rated as significantly lower overall liking score and less sweet than F1 (0S0T0P) (p = 0.0001). Overall, F5 (0S0.02T0.6P) scored highest in overall liking and closest to the ideal sweetness (JAR = 4) indicating the possibility to apply 100% sugar replacement.

Application from the present study could be great potential solution in developing healthier range products while meeting consumer preference. The present study concluded that interactions of ATT of yoghurt drink will induce desirable changes in sensory and sweetness perception.

Carob has been proposed as a healthy, stimulant-free alternative to chocolate in frozen desserts. In order to make carob a viable and attractive alternative, food producers need to know how it interacts with sweeteners and frozen dessert dispersion matrices. The purpose of this paper is to find the optimal sweetener concentration in three plant-based frozen desserts and carob-flavoured milk dispersion matrix ice cream.

The ideal sucrose concentrations (per cent) were determined through an affective test using the “just-about-right” scale for carob-flavoured frozen desserts made with cashew nut, coconut and soy beverage, as well as milk dispersion matrix. The sweetness equivalence of artificial sweeteners relative to sucrose was determined by the magnitude estimation test.

The authors identified the concentrations of sucrose, stevia and sucralose that produced ideal sweetness in carob-flavoured frozen desserts. Concentrations for soy-based frozen desserts differed from the other dispersion mediums tested. Plant-based frozen desserts exhibited a higher ratio of sweetening power of stevia and sucralose to sucrose compared to milk-based ice cream by a factor of 1.18 and 1.14, respectively.

This study undertook a comprehensive survey of a dairy-free and chocolate-free alternative to chocolate ice cream and found new sweetener interactions with dispersion matrices in carob-flavoured frozen desserts. The findings in this study can be applied in the development of carob-flavoured soybean-, coconut-, cashew nut- and milk-based frozen desserts.

The purpose of this paper is to systematically review the functionalities, safety regulations and product applications of herb Stevia rebaudiana extract. This plant material is embedded with multiple functionalities such as antioxidant, antidiabetics, anti-inflammation and antimicrobial. The regulations released from global authorities are covered to ensure the safety premise of stevia. Besides, the product applications of the extract of aerial parts of the herb S. rebaudiana helps us to recognize its value from commercial side.

Relevant literatures are selected and obtained from main scientific databases such as Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed and trade magazines published between 2000 and 2023. The keywords and their possible combinations such as sweetening, antioxidant, antidiabetics, anti-inflammation, safety and product development were used to ensure the preciseness and completeness of literature searching. Major data such as sweetness, total phenolic content and dose together with latter critical conclusions from searched publications were appropriately used and discussed. In this review, approximately 150 scientific literatures were meticulously ordered and analyzed. In applications, it is the first time that sentiment analysis was used to obtain a market assessment of the stevia-containing products.

This review paper helps rearrange the scientific affairs of those stevia extract’s functions like sweetening, antioxidant, antidiabetics and inflammation. Sweetness indexes of steviol glycosides were summarized together for comparison while various in vitro and in vivo approaches were reviewed to quantify those functions’ capacities and to depict the related mechanism. The regulation of steviol glycoside compounds such as rebaudioside A was established by global authorities such as US Food and Drug Administration and Joint FAO/World Health Organization Expert Committee to ensure the safety endorsement before commercialization. Then, this study discussed about the market performance of stevia ingredients or products with the self-developed data analytics. This study also investigated the product development progress of stevia-containing food products in the categories of beverage, bakery, dairy and confectionery. Those stevia-containing food consumer goods can be acceptable by certain consumers.

This review paper precisely presents the evidential information about the stevia’s multiple functionalities with mechanisms and global regulation milestones. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is then the first time to probe the stevia-containing products’ market performance through data analytics.

The purpose of this paper is to test for gender-specific effects on odor-induced taste enhancement and subsequent food consumption in olfactory food marketing.

Lab experiments conducted among female and male participants using vanillin as a stimulus and ratings of sweetness, taste pleasantness and eating of sugar-free food as measures.

Odor-induced taste enhancement is gender-specific. Female consumers outperform male consumers in olfactory reaction and sweetness perception. While men outperform women in food consumption.

Odor intensity was set to the concentration level of 0.00005per cent according to the findings from (Fujimaru and Lim, 2013). The authors believe that this intensity level is appropriate for both men and women. Still, there may be some gender effects on intensity levels, which are not explored here. The author’s test for the effects of one personal factor, gender and odor-induced taste enhancement of sugar-free food. The authors think that investigating the combined effects of more personal factors such as age, culture and so on adds to the accuracy of the results.

It seems that the stronger sensory capacities of women in terms of odor detection and recognition already confirmed in the literature extends to the cross-modal effects of this sensory detection and recognition on taste enhancement. It seems appropriate to tailor olfactory food advertising according to the gender of the target audience.

Odor-induced taste enhancement is still a novel subject in marketing. While most of the research has investigated the effects of smelling congruent odors on taste perception and food consumption among mixed groups of men and women, the value of this paper lies in the investigation of the potential moderating effects of gender on this relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influences of the interactions of taste, colour and labelling on sensory perception, liking and identification of saffroned products.

The consumer and discrimination tests (N=120, 18, 25, 78, for Experiments 1–4, respectively) were conducted. The analyses of discrimination tests were performed using the Thurstonian model and R-index. The results from consumer studies were analysed using the Kruskal–Wallis test, penalty analysis and correlation matrix.

The study revealed that saffron can interact with the perception of sour and bitter taste and has no significant effects on the sweetness. The colour and labelling generated expectations for quality and sweetness of the samples. When the disparity between the expectation and actual experience was occurred resulted in contrast/assimilation effects on the hedonic ratings and negatively impacted consumer acceptability of the product.

This study showed that the visual cues can modulate the expectation for particular sensory perceptions and also affect the hedonic experiences. Saffron adulteration can be identified by the consumers and can result in a significant decrease in the acceptability of the products. Hence, the practice of substituting saffron with ingredients with a similar colour in these products can be detrimental for business. Additionally, it was revealed that saffron colour is associated with the expected and actual sweet taste perception. Therefore, it is possible to manipulate yellow colour cues to reduce sweeteners in different food products that contain saffron.

The sensory characteristics and consumer perception of saffron have been rarely studied. This study revealed that flavour perception and quality determination of saffroned foods involves the combinations of different sensory modalities and cognitive (expectancy) inputs.

Research on cross-modal sensory interactions has shown that visual aspects of food can influence consumer's expectation and perception of taste, mouthfeel and liking. This paper aims to investigate the effects of a rounded (“bouba”) and a squared (“kiki”) shape on expected and perceived sweetness, bitterness, creaminess and liking of chocolates.

Brazilian consumers (N = 230) divided into two groups of 115 individuals each evaluated five chocolates containing 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70% of cocoa. One of the groups evaluated all formulations in the rounded shape and the other in the squared shape. Results were analysed with mixed multivariate analysis of variance (mixed-MANOVA) between shapes, repeated-measures MANOVA between pre- and post-tasting and Pearson's correlation analysis was performed between liking ratings and sweetness, bitterness and creaminess confirmation/disconfirmation.

The study found significant effects (p < 0.05) of shape on expected and perceived creaminess but not on other attributes; of cocoa percentage (30, 40, 50, 60 and 70%) on all four attributes; and time (pre- and post-tasting) on sweetness, bitterness and liking but not creaminess. Finally, it found significant negative correlations between the creaminess difference indices and the liking ratings for the 30, 50 and 60% chocolates.

This study reports that consumers may expect and perceive chocolates as creamier in a rounded shape than in an angular shape and that if the expectation of creaminess is not confirmed by sensory perception, acceptability may be negatively affected.

Visual stimulation affects the taste of food and beverages. This study aimed to understand how latte art affects coffee consumption by collecting participants' brainwave data and their taste responses.

Seventy subjects participated in a two-stage experiment. Electroencephalography (EEG) was employed to measure brainwave activity. With an interval of one week, each stage involved coffee consumption with and without latte art. The responses to the taste of the coffee were also collected for analysis.

Significant differences were found in the participants' alpha and beta brainwave bands. When drinking coffee with latte art, the participants' alpha bands were significantly lower, whereas the beta bands were higher. These findings were supported by Bayesian statistics. A significant increase was found in the participants' taste of sweetness and acidity with latte art, and Bayesian statistics confirmed the results for sweetness although the evidence on the increase in acidity was anecdotal. No difference was found in the taste of bitterness.

This study highlights the effect of latte art on coffee consumption. The authors analysed the empirical evidence from this two-stage experimental study in the form of the participants' brainwave data and their responses to taste. This study's original contribution is that it explored the crossmodal effects of latte art on consumers' taste of coffee from a neuroscientific perspective. The results of this study can provide empirical evidence on how to effectively use latte art in practical business environments.

This chapter conceptualizes a framework that can be applied to examine the service experiences of business tourists at luxury hotels. A synthesized literature review results in the identification of three service constructs − surprise, recovery, and sweetness − that constitute the service experiences. In the development of five propositions and in views of emotional appreciation and reciprocity, the chapter posits that emotional value from these three constructs of service experiences can enhance business tourists’ attitude of gratitude and consequently their willingness to pay a price premium. The proposed conceptual framework extends the three service constructs to, and integrates them with, a value–attitude–behavior model.

This study aims to determine whether consumers are willing to pay a premium for locally produced hard apple cider and examine the factors influencing this premium. This study examines the influence of hard apple cider attributes and consumer characteristics on consumer preferences for local hard apple cider.

Data from a 2019 survey of 875 Tennessee consumers regarding their preferences for a local hard apple cider were obtained. Probit estimates were used to calculate the premium consumers were willing to pay for a locally made hard apple cider and factors influencing this premium. A multivariate probit was used to ascertain factors influencing the importance of attributes (e.g. heirloom apples, sweetness/dryness, sparking/still and no preservatives added) on local hard apple cider preference.

Consumers would pay a $3.22 premium for local hard apple cider compared with a $6.99 reference product. Local foods preferences, urbanization, weekly purchases of other alcoholic beverages and shopping venues influenced premium amounts. Other important attributes were sweetness/dryness and no preservatives. Influence of consumer demographics suggests targeted marketing of local ciders could be successful.

Few studies examine consumer preferences for hard apple ciders. This study represents a cross-sectional analysis of the premium consumers would pay for local hard apple ciders and the importance of other hard apple cider attributes.