The Influence of Colorants, Flavorants and Product Identity on Perceptions of Naturalness

Abstract

Natural foods are important to consumers, yet frustrating to producers due to the lack of a formal definition of “natural”. Previous work has studied how consumers define naturalness and how they rate the naturalness of various products, but there is a gap in knowledge relating to how color and flavor additives impact perceptions. The objective of this study was to understand how colorants and flavorants on ingredient statements affect perceptions of naturalness. An online survey was launched in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia to determine how consumers perceive products with ingredient statements containing different combinations of artificial and natural colors and flavors when shown with and without the product identity. Results showed that consumers look at the whole product primarily to make decisions about naturalness, but also consider other factors. Products derived from plants and products with natural colors and flavors were perceived to be the most natural. Artificial flavors may be more acceptable than artificial colors due to negative health perceptions and labeling rules associated with colors. Additionally, factors like ingredient familiarity and processing likely influence consumers when making decisions about product naturalness. Males, Millennials, and educated participants have higher naturalness scores than other participants in their respective demographics.

The Importance Given to Food Naturalness Attributes by Millennial University Students

“…Millennials constitute a prime group of consumers, and will do so even more over the next few decades [1,7,21]. They represent the largest generational cohort [2,23], so their purchasing power makes them an appealing target group for many consumer industries and attracts many companies towards understanding the needs and behavior of this customer base.…”

“…They represent the largest generational cohort [2,23], so their purchasing power makes them an appealing target group for many consumer industries and attracts many companies towards understanding the needs and behavior of this customer base. Consequently, millennials have become a remarkable group for study given their distinctive behavior as compared to other generations [7], their sharing of common values [24,25], enjoyment of life experiences [26], pursuance of specific motivations [3,5,14,27], and purchasing behavior [24,28]. Millennials are characterized as having a higher education level than other generations [1,29] or by the intensive use and adaptation of technology in their daily lives [17,28,30,31].…”

“…Millennials are characterized as having a higher education level than other generations [1,29] or by the intensive use and adaptation of technology in their daily lives [17,28,30,31]. This consumer group exhibits different food purchasing behavior from other groups, are highly aware of their eating habits [7,31], and are more likely to come across an innovative food product on the market in a near future [24]. Furthermore, it is believed that millennials are perceived to be "more natural than any other generational group" [7].…”

“…It cannot be disregarded that present and future tendencies of food consumption are specified by what millennials value the most [1][2][3][4][5]. The importance of food naturalness for consumers and its impact on their behavior has been widely studied in the literature (e.g., [6][7][8][9]). Among others, previous studies have suggested attributes such as the absence of additives and the presence of natural ingredients [10,11], being unprocessed [12], or containing organically grown products [13].…”

“…It should be noted, however, that an accurate definition of the millennial generation varies from one source to another (e.g., [14][15][16][17][18][19]). They are characterized for adding more value to authenticity [2], having more concern about what they eat [7], having an elevated preference for local food [20], and exhibiting knowledge about the value and quality of products [19]. The millennial generation is of current interest to researchers and represents an attractive segment for food businesses across the globe [1,21].…”