Influence of Education/Profession of Mexican Consumers on Acceptance and Purchase Intent of Corn Tortilla

Abstract

Influence of education/profession of Mexican consumers on acceptance and purchase intent of corn tortillas was evaluated. Two groups of 150 Mexican consumers each (faculty/graduate students [A] versus field laborers [B]) rated sensory acceptability of corn tortillas. Acceptance and purchase intent were rated using a binomial scale. Group B had higher expectations towards corn tortillas as indicated by lower acceptability ratings. Both groups used rollability, resistance‐to‐tearing, and chewiness to differentiate tortilla samples, but group B paid more attention to these attributes as indicated by higher canonical correlation values. Acceptance was influenced by overall liking for both groups; chewiness and taste were also significant for group B. Purchase intent was influenced by overall liking and taste for both groups, but color for group A, and appearance and chewiness for group B were also critical. This study demonstrated that education/profession of Mexican consumers affected their acceptance and purchase intent of corn tortillas. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS This study revealed that education/profession of Mexican consumers affected acceptance and purchase intent of corn tortillas. Two groups of consumers with different levels of education had different expectation toward tortillas when making purchase decision. Understanding how each consumer segment differently perceives about the tortilla product will give marketers and manufacturers a better direction for developing tortilla products with expected sensory qualities.

Perception of traditional foods in societies in transition: The maize tortilla in Mexico

“…Nowadays, the process to elaborate tortillas is classified into three types (see Figure 1): (a) in the traditional one, small amounts are prepared everyday by women who use local or regional nixtamalized maize, and are sold by the dozen in local markets; (b) the semiindustrialized process combines nixtamalized maize with industrialized maize meal, tortillas are made every day in small family businesses scattered over urban and peri-urban zones, being this the most widespread commercialization channel for its mass consumption (Bello-Perez, Osorio-Díaz, Agama-Acevedo, & Gonzalez-Soto, 2016;Herrera Corredor et al, 2010); and c) the industrial process exclusively uses nixtamalized maize meal in a process that incorporates preservatives, it is aimed at a residual but growing market (Rodríguez & Noyola, 2016), this mode of production is carried out by large national enterprises that import a sizeable amount of maize.…”

Sensorial, cultural and volatile properties of milk, dairy powders, yoghurt and butter: A review

“…Consumers may also rely on their memory associative structure created from past personal experiences to influence acceptance, which is heavily influenced by culture. The multidimensional experience (sensory perception, memory, culture and emotions) by consumers may increase acceptance for products (Corredor et al 2010). The appearance is the first attribute evaluated by consumers and the visual information of the samples strongly influences the hedonic scores (Zampini et al 2007).…”

Use of online questionnaires to identify emotions elicited by different types of corn tortilla in consumers of different gender and age groups

“…Currently, there are no reports about the emotions that different types of tortillas generate in consumers of different ages and genders. Tortilla research in the sensory field has focused on determining acceptance and purchase intention, as well as the influence of the education / profession of tortilla consumers (Herrera-Corredor et al, 2007;Herrera-Corredor et al, 2010). However, conducting an emotion study where the tortilla has to be directly evaluated may be difficult to perform due to the conditions for evaluating the tortilla samples (i.e., sample temperature, time for evaluation, among others).…”