Health claims on the consumers acceptability, emotional responses and purchase intent of protein bars : A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Food Innovation at Lincoln University

Abstract

Consumers are becoming more aware about their health and are concerned of what they are consuming, ultimately leading them towards healthy food choices. In context to healthy food choices, health claim labels on the food items are becoming more important in helping consumers in terms of providing information which helps in their purchase intentions. The main objective of this research was to study the effect of health claims on snack (protein) bars on consumer’s acceptability, emotional responses and purchase decisions. For this study, four protein bars were selected by a focus group (N=4) based on acceptability. A total of N=80 participants evaluated the four pre-selected protein bars in two different tasting sessions [(1) Blind, where no information was provided and (2) Informed, where information related to health claims associated with the same protein bars were provided]. Participants were asked to rate their liking for different sensory attributes (Taste, Texture, Appearance, Aroma, Sweetness, Bitterness, Aftertaste and Overall Liking) in context with four types of protein bars in two sessions using 9-point hedonic scale. Also, CATA was used to study the emotions and sensory attributes experienced by the consumers in the blind and informed conditions. Purchase intent of consumers for both sessions was also analysed. In general, taste overpowered the health claims and there was no significant difference between the acceptability of samples in the two sessions. Purchase intention was found to be high for the samples that were associated with positive emotions. For instance, highest purchase intent was for the Cranberry and Raspberry protein bar which was associated with emotions such as “comforting”, “happy”, “good”, “pleasant” and others. There was some marginal difference between the purchase intent of protein bars when the health claim information was provided. There was non-significant increase in the purchase intent by 6%, 3% and 4% for the samples CDC , CR and SC respectively when the information was given. However, there was no significant change in the emotions and purchase intent of consumers when they were provided with health-related claims. Overall, this study showed that health claims did not have significant impact on consumers’ acceptability, change in emotions and purchase intention in case of protein bars.