Fruit and Vegetable Quality

CHAPTER 9

Consumer Preference

ZAINUL ANDANI

HAL J. H. MACFIE

INTRODUCTION

THE interaction between consumers and food is a matter of interest to
governments because of the importance of agriculture to rural econo-
mies, and food habits in determining health and life expectancy of a na-
tion. It is of interest to industry because of the size of the food chain in
relation to the national economy.
If we wish to understand the relationships consumers have with food,
we need to enter into the world of consumer science. Consumer science
in relation to food draws from a number of disciplines, primarily: sen-
sory science, psychology, nutrition with support from statistics, physics,
chemistry and biochemistry. The primary area is sensory science, which
is a scientific discipline used to evoke, measure, analyze and interpret
the reactions perceived by the senses of sight, smell, taste, touch and
hearing to those characteristics of materials such as food (Stone and
Sidel, 1993). Identifying the product qualities that are important to the
consumer can be achieved by using sensory analysis (Stone et al., 1991).
In this chapter we will review some of the major influences that im-
pact on food choice. We will examine attitudes and beliefs held by the
individual and the effect of mood and post-digestion. We will then turn
our attention to specific issues concerning fruit and vegetable quality
using a number of sensory techniques: chewing behavior, preference
mapping, the repertory grid method and expectations analysis. Finally,

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