Consumer Awareness, Attitudes and Preferences Towards Heritage Cereals

Abstract

Interest in heritage cereals is increasing among consumers, bakeries and farmers, and the trends point towards the local production of crops and connect to sustainability. The most known variety is spelt, which has opened up for old landraces such as Oland wheat. Heritage cereals have shown a higher resilience than modern varieties and have the potential to supply the market with alternative products that have an attractive cultural background. Delicious and nutritious products based on heritages cereals have a growing market potential. Consumers’ attitudes and preferences to different products are affected by factors such as age, gender and education. The aim of this study was to investigate and analyse different consumer groups’ awareness, attitudes and preferences toward heritage cereals. The number of respondents who participated in this study and answered the web-based questionnaire was 434. It can be concluded that most consumers are aware of heritage cereals. Geographic background had an influence, while academic background did not. Bread and pasta are the most consumed products and are regarded as the most popular future products to be based on heritage cereals. The most essential factors in bread are taste and flavour, followed by freshness and texture. The origin of the cereal and its health aspects are important; women are more concerned about the origin than men, while older consumers are more concerned about health. Older consumers are also more willing to pay extra for heritage cereal than younger consumers.

Characterization of Volatile Organic Compounds in ‘Rossa di Tropea’ Onion by Means of Headspace Solid-Phase Microextraction Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (HS/SPME GC–MS) and Sensory Analysis

“…Multivariate statistical analysis based on this quantitation discriminated between samples according to their sanitary status at t 2 sampling time, indicating the significance of virus infection during postharvest storage in the development of VOCs profile evolving to the taste and aroma perceived by consumers. The VOCs mostly accounting for such clustering were also identified as 2-mercapto-3,4-dimethyl-2,3 dihydrothiophene (6), 2,4dimethylthiophene (5), and 3,5.diethyl-1,2,4-trithiolane (2). The sensory analysis also accounted for differences in some sensory attributes, and in one general attribute of acceptability (i.e., texture), between healthy and infected samples at the marketable stage.…”

“…In recent years, globalization and international trade have led to market saturation, particularly for agricultural food products, with a flattening of varieties and diversity due to the demanding global scale intensive productions [1]. Nevertheless, the recently growing consumers' awareness of typical and local products represents a promising opportunity for relaunching and developing niche agricultural sectors [2], particularly in countries such as Italy, characterized by wide biodiversity in terms of landscapes, production areas, and local varieties/landraces [3]. The differentiation of local products includes several variables, such as quality, taste extolling, freshness, "rural" practices, and area of production, leading to recovering and requalification of old cultivations that previously could not face the global market [4,5].…”

Can the Market Deliver 100% Organic Seed and Varieties in Europe?

“…Their attitude to organic seed has not been studied in great detail. A Swedish study concluded that consumers are aware of heritage cereals, with bread and pasta regarded as the most popular future heritage cereals products; taste, flavour, freshness, texture, health aspects and origin emerged as relevant attributes [24]. Consumers were also found to positively evaluate products of open source seed, regardless of whether they fully understand the concept or not [25].…”

“…The empirical evidence for differences between committed and occasional organic consumers [26] could imply that some organic consumers are willing to support breeding activities, whereas others are less likely to do so. Consumers might show higher willingness to pay for the use of varieties that have better nutritional qualities, or other attributes to which they directly relate, such as heritage cereals [24] or landrace vegetables [27]. However, a high price represents a well-known barrier to organic food consumption [26] and any supply-chain financed breeding scheme would need to balance the need for additional funding with a potentially negative impact on product demand because of a higher price premium.…”

Accumulation and Transformation of Biogenic Amines and Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) in Chickpea Sourdough

“…The process is less controlled than when breads are made with yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which are routinely used as leavening agents. However, consumers perceive sourdough bread as healthier and less "industrial" and are therefore willing to pay more for such breads [5,6]. The use of sourdough instead of yeast as a leavening agent has many advantages from a sensory, technological, and nutritional point of view [7].…”