Investigating the relative merits of using a mixed reality context for measuring affective response and predicting tea break snack choice

An Exploratory Study on the Development of a Pure Dairy Product Emotion Scale (PDPES): A Study of Milk Consumers in China

Emotions evoked by food are an important factor that strongly influences the predictive power of consumer acceptance and consumption behavior when choosing food. The emotion questionnaire is an efficient measurement tool that describes the emotions evoked by different foods on the market. However, there is rarely a list of emotion terms for specific foods, such as the pure dairy products on the market. The aim of this study was to develop an emotion scale to measure emotion responses for pure dairy products and to investigate its application in consumer testing. A total of 1340 Chinese subjects (67% female, 18~45 years old, consumers of pure milk) participated in the study. The study began with the screening and identifying of emotion terms for pure dairy products and developed a proposed pure dairy product Emotion Scale (P-PDPES) with 50 emotion terms. Subsequently, the structure and emotion terms of the P-PDPES were determined using EFA and a final pure dairy product Emotion Scale (PDPES) with 33 emotion terms was obtained. The results showed that the PDPES has good validity and reliability. Moreover, the PDPES was used in a consumer test to describe the emotions towards the commercial pure dairy products. This PDPES discriminated well the emotions evoked by different pure dairy products and also indicated a good relationship between the model factors and the liking scores of milk products. To summarize, PDPES is a suitable measurement tool for assessing the emotions to pure dairy products.

From Food Industry 4.0 to Food Industry 5.0: Identifying technological enablers and potential future applications in the food sector

Although several food-related fields have yet to fully grasp the speed and breadth of the fourth industrial revolution (also known as Industry 4.0), growing literature from other sectors shows that Industry 5.0 (referring to the fifth industrial revolution) is already underway. Food Industry 4.0 has been characterized by the fusion of physical, digital, and biological advances in food science and technology, whereas future Food Industry 5.0 could be seen as a more holistic, multidisciplinary, and multidimensional approach. This review will focus on identifying potential enabling technologies of Industry 5.0 that could be harnessed to shape the future of food in the coming years. We will review the state-of-the-art studies on the use of innovative technologies in various food and agriculture applications over the last 5 years. In addition, opportunities and challenges will be highlighted, and future directions and conclusions will be drawn. Preliminary evidence suggests that Industry 5.0 is the outcome of an evolutionary process and not of a revolution, as is often claimed. Our results show that regenerative and/or conversational artificial intelligence, the Internet of Everything, miniaturized and nanosensors, 4D printing and beyond, cobots and advanced drones, edge computing, redactable blockchain, metaverse and immersive techniques, cyber-physical systems, digital twins, and sixth-generation wireless and beyond are likely to be among the main driving technologies of Food Industry 5.0. Although the framework, vision, and value of Industry 5.0 are becoming popular research topics in various academic and industrial fields, the agri-food sector has just started to embrace some aspects and dimensions of Industry 5.0.

Sensory Analysis Performed within Augmented Virtuality System: Impact on Hedonic Scores, Engagement, and Presence Level

Sensory analysis methodologies are performed in sensory booths designed to minimise external stimuli, lacking ecological validity. Immersive environments are used to introduce contextual cues, but there is a lack of studies using mixed reality systems. The main goal of this study was to evaluate an augmented virtuality (AV) system where participants are inserted into a virtual environment and evaluate a real product, being able to interact with both dimensions. A panel of 102 consumers evaluated five samples of commercial peach nectars in three sessions, each in a different environment: public food court, living room (AV environments), and laboratory (traditional sensory booth). Consumers rated overall liking, followed by open comments, and also answered an Engagement (EQ) and a Presence Questionnaire (PQ). The type of environment only affected hedonic discrimination among samples, with the laboratory setting being the only one with sample discrimination. Nonetheless, each sample was not evaluated differently across the different environments. Concerning engagement, the environment only significantly influenced the EQ's 'Affective Value' factor, being higher when using an AV system. The level of presence in the virtual environment was significantly higher in the public food court, being significantly correlated with the EQ factor scores.

Virtual, augmented, and mixed reality as a versatile tool in food consumer behavior evaluation: Recent advances in aroma, taste, and texture incorporation

The perceptual behavior of consumers on a product displayed in the market has a vital role in analyzing the importance given to that product. Therefore, various strategies have been developed to understand this consumer behavior in the selection of products. Immersive technologies like virtual, augmented, and mixed reality are among them. With the foremost feature of immersion in the virtual world and interaction of users with virtual objects, virtual reality, and augmented reality have unlocked their potential in research and a user-friendly tool for analyzing consumer behavior. In addition to these technologies, mixed reality also has a significant role in investigating consumer behavior. Studies on immersive technologies in food applications are vast, hence this review focuses on the applications of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality in the food selection behavior of consumers. The behavioral studies are elicited to develop new products based on consumer needs, to understand the shopping behavior in supermarkets for real-time usage, and to know the influence of emotions in a selection of products. The findings suggest that virtual, augmented, and mixed reality induce immersion of the users in food selection behavioral studies. Information on the technological advancements in the tools used for bringing immersion and interaction are discussed for its futuristic applications in food. Though immersive technology gives users a realistic virtual environment experience, its application in food systems is in the budding stage. More research on human response studies would contribute to its innovative and inevitable application in the future.

Effect of perceptive enrichment on the efficiency of simulated contexts: Comparing virtual reality and immersive room settings

This study was designed within the methodological framework of sensory and consumer sciences, where conventionally internal and external validity are approached separately (e.g. CLT vs HUT). Here is explored the added value of new immersive strategies, such as virtual reality, on their ability to achieve both: internal and external validity. This article presents a comparative study between different experimental setups, involving more than 270 consumers. Two different immersive setups were appraised, simulating the consumption episode 'eating a sandwich for lunch in a park': a context room (N = 57) and a VR environment (N = 55). We added two control conditions: a real park in summer (N = 56) and scenario-only in sensory booths (duplicated condition, N1 = 59, N2 = 52). A set of sandwiches were evaluated in a between-participants design, with one duplicated recipe for a reliability assessment. Participants evaluated samples on hedonic criteria and closed the experiment with a questionnaire measuring their level of immersion. After classification of the questionnaire variables, seven underlying dimensions were identified, with significant differences between conditions on the credibility of the environment and the scenario. As expected, with strong external validity, the simulated environments were more immersive than the conventional booth with scenario and less immersive than a real-life environment. Although the immersive conditions did not stand out from the other conditions on the product evaluation performance, all the conditions revealed a high level of internal validity. Mean scores and rankings of the products, participants' repeatability and discriminatory power remained comparable to the real park environment indices.

Service Value and Repurchase Intention in the Egyptian Fast-Food Restaurants: Toward a New Measurement Model

Service value is a crucial dominant indicator in customer decision-making. However, there is a lack of hospitality literature that investigates the multi-dimensional service value in emerging markets. Thus, this study aims to create a multi-dimensional scale for service value and to analyze how different service value dimensions affect customers repurchase intentions at fast-food restaurants. We make a conceptual framework with eight constructs, including service value and repurchase intention. A self-administrated questionnaire is used to gather empirical data from fast-food restaurant customers in Egypt. We employ confirmatory factor analysis to extract the model's reliability and validity. Moreover, we use a structural equation model to extract the model regressions and correlations using AMOS software. We find that each of the eight proposed service value variables impacts fast-food restaurant customers' repurchase intention. However, the factors that strongly influence customers' preferences to make more purchases are service equity, confidence benefits, service quality, and service reputation. We contribute to the literature on hospitality customer value and repurchasing intentions by presenting a comprehensive multi-dimensional service value framework that affects customers' repurchase intentions in fast-food restaurants. Practically, eight service value variables can help managers of fast-food restaurants meet customer needs and gain a competitive advantage. We suggest many crucial recommendations to restaurant managers regarding the priority of the service value constructs. For example, managers should consider service equity, service quality, and service reputations as a priority of the restaurant service value.

A narrative review of the impact of digital immersive technology on affective and sensory responses during product testing in digital eating contexts

The environments and/or contexts typically used to determine consumer affective and sensory responses have been questioned for their ecological validity. However, conducting consumer testing in real-life scenarios is costly, logistically complex, and hard to standardise between participants due to a lack of control over external cues and product preparation. Immersive environments, representative of product consumption contexts, may provide more ecologically valid data. Recently, digital immersion technologies have been proposed to contextualise consumer studies whilst maintaining experimental control. This narrative review summarised published consumer studies including digital immersion in addition to traditional sensory booths and/or a real-life immersive contexts in their study design, to measure the impact of these contexts on liking, emotional response and intensity of sensory attributes. The findings suggest that emotional response ratings are more comparable to real-life, and that consumer engagement and reliability increases, when testing is conducted using digital immersive techniques compared to traditional sensory booths. Therefore, digital immersive techniques look promising to improve ecological validity of consumer testing, but further development and research is required.