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Assessing consumer expectations about pizza: A study on celiac and non-celiac individuals using the word association technique
Food Research International 94 (2017) 1–5
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Food Research International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodres
Assessing consumer expectations about pizza: A study on celiac and non-celiac individuals using the word association technique I. Pontual a, G.V. Amaral b, E.A. Esmerino c, T.C. Pimentel d, M.Q. Freitas c, R.K. Fukuda e, I.L. Sant'Ana e, L.G. Silva a,f, A.G. Cruz a,f,⁎ a
Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio de Janeiro (IFRJ), Mestrado Profissional em Ciência e Tecnologia de Alimentos (PGCTA), Maracanã, 20270-021 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), Departamento de Tecnologia de Alimentos (DTA), 23890-000 Seropédica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, 24230-340 Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil d Instituto Federal do Paraná (IFPR), Paranavaí 87703-536, Paraná, Brazil e Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio de Janeiro (IFRJ), Departamento de Matemática e Estatística, Maracanã, 20270-021 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil f Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio de Janeiro (IFRJ), Departamento de Alimentos, Maracanã, 20270-021 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil b c
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 10 October 2016 Received in revised form 21 January 2017 Accepted 24 January 2017 Available online 25 January 2017 Keywords: Word association Consumers Pizza
a b s t r a c t The word association (WA) technique was used to investigate the perception of two groups of consumers (72 celiac and 78 non-celiac individuals; 150 in total) to pizza dough (thick or thin) and the raw material used at the manufacture (cassava flour or rice flour). Different perceptions of the four stimuli were detected by Chi-square test (X2 = 314.393, p b 0.0001) for both groups. Seven categories were used for both groups: food/composition, health, doubt/uncertainty, novelty, negative feelings, positive feelings, and sensory aspects. The stimulus ‘pizza dough made with cassava flour’ was associated with the category “food/composition” and the stimuli ‘pizza made with rice flour’, ‘pizza made with cassava flour’ and ‘thin dough’ were associated with “positive feelings”. The stimulus ‘thick dough’ was related only to the category “negative feelings”. WA indicated that gluten-free pizza should have thin dough and us cassava flour or rice flour as the raw material. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Disorders related to gluten consumption have been widely reported in the literature, and among these disorders, celiac disease (CD) is the most frequently studied (Eli et al., 2015). Celiac disease is a genetic autoimmune disorder in which predisposed individuals are intolerant to gluten. To date, the only treatment consists of eliminating gluten products from the diet, including all food products containing wheat, barley, rye, malt, oats and products derived from them (Ludvigsson & Green, 2011; Fasano et al., 2008). The limited availability of gluten-free products coupled with high prices may jeopardize compliance with the treatment by celiac patients, thus compromising their economic, social, and psychological well-being and leading to clinical and nutritional complications (Lee, Ng, Diamond, Ciaccio, & Green, 2012). The increased supply and availability of gluten-free products in the marketplace is critical for providing nutritious food with and sensory appeal for both celiac individuals and consumers who want to avoid the consumption of gluten-containing products (Zandonadi, 2006). Therefore, studies with celiac and non-celiac individuals are important ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (A.G. Cruz).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2017.01.018 0963-9969/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
for evaluating the differences between groups and developing products that appeal to both categories. To understand the consumers' behaviour and motivation, qualitative research has been used in food science. Projective techniques are based on the principle of spontaneous and subjective tendencies, which are motivated by implicit needs and are used in various studies about food consumption and commercialization (Jervis & Drake, 2014). The results of previous research have not provided a ‘right or ‘wrong’ response as consumers project their unconscious feelings and opinions about the product they were evaluating (Donoghue, 2000). Among the qualitative methods used to investigate consumers' perceptions, the word association (WA) technique has been shown to be quite useful. In this technique, visual or verbal stimuli are presented to consumers, who should use the first words or phrases that are associated with these stimuli (Gámbaro, Parente, Roascio, & Boinbaser, 2014; Andrade, Sobral, Ares, & Deliza, 2016). The generated words/phrases are quite relevant for understanding why and how consumers make their choices, thereby contributing to an effective exploitation of their choices and perceptions (Eldesouky, Pulido, & Mesias, 2015). WA has been used to obtain consumers' perception of several food products, including yogurts (Ares, Gimenez, & Gámbaro, 2008), dairy desserts (Ares & Deliza, 2010), milk chocolate desserts (Ares, Barreiro, Deliza, Gimenez, & Gámbaro, 2010), vegetable oils (Gámbaro, Dauber,
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Ares, & Ellis, 2010), chocolate (Gámbaro & Ellis, 2012), ice creams (Silva et al., 2014), frozen hamburgers (Viana, Silva, & Trindade, 2014), and lamb meat (Andrade et al., 2016). Although WA has been widely used in the last several years, its use for comparing the perceptions of two distinct populations is uncommon. Varela et al. (2014) used WA to investigate the perception of an apple beverage made with a newly developed excelsior Fraxinus seed using two distinct populations (diabetic and healthy individuals). No difference was found between the groups, and both populations perceived the beverage as a functional product. Although several authors have studied gluten-free products with celiac and non-celiac consumers (Laureati, Giussani, & Pagliarini, 2012; Giménez et al., 2015), no studies about pizza using projective techniques, such as WA, have been found in the literature. The present study investigated the perception of pizza by two groups of consumers, celiac and non-celiac individuals, using the Word Association technique. Two aspects related to pizza manufacturing were considered: raw material and dough thickness. 2. Material and methods 2.1. The stimulus Pizza is one of the most frequently purchased frozen food products in Brazil due to its low price, sensory properties, and convenience. According to a survey performed by the Brazilian Association of Celiac Individuals (ACALBRA) in 2004, pizza was cited as one of the foods that celiac individuals would like to find more easily in the marketplace, which reinforces interest in its industrialization and commercialization. Such results are in agreement with a survey performed by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IIBGE, 2014), which showed that 36% of Brazilians eat pizza when dining out. The commercially available gluten-free pizzas in Brazil are made with several ingredients, with cassava flour and rice flour the most commonly used raw materials. Rice flour is increasingly popular and is considered the most suitable cereal grain flour for the production of glutenfree products due to its bland taste, white colour, digestibility, and hypoallergenic properties (Torbica, Hadnadev, & Hadnadev, 2012). Cassava flour is one of the major products from cassava roots traded on the world food market (Ogunjobi & Ogunwolu, 2010). Brazil is one of the largest producers of cassava, with an estimated annual production of 23 million tonnes (IBGE/LSPA, 2016), and cassava is a promising alternative for use in gluten-free products. Pizza is normally consumed with a thin or thick crust. Although the amount of dough used is the main factor affecting crust thickness, the rising of the dough also plays an important role (Goto & Bianco-Simeral, 2011). 2.2. Word association task The study was conducted in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between November 2014 and February 2015. An online questionnaire was developed on Google+ (2014) (https://docs.google.com/forms) and sent by e-mail to celiac individuals, members of the ‘Gluten-free Rio’ group (www.riosemgluten.com.br) and ACELBRA (2014)-the Brazilian Association of Celiac Individuals (www.acelbra.org.br). Non-celiac individuals were recruited randomly at the Federal Institute of Rio de Janeiro and included consumers who eat pizza at least once a week. The questionnaire was divided into two parts: the first part consisted of personal and socio-economic questions (age and salary/income), while the second part consisted of four cartoons containing the stimulus (pizza manufactured with cassava flour, pizza manufactured with rice flour, thin pizza dough, and thick pizza dough; see Fig. 1). Consumers evaluated one stimulus at a time and were asked to write the first associations, thoughts or feelings that came to their minds when observing the images. There was no limit to the number of words or terms a participant could use in response to each stimulus. The cards were presented monadically in a balanced random order.
Fig. 1. Stimuli offered to participants at the word association task.
2.3. Data analysis The data were analysed in accordance with previous studies (Gámbaro et al., 2014; Guerrero et al., 2010; Modell, 2005; & Wadsworth, 2000). The recurrent terms cited by the respondents were grouped into seven categories. Initially, the grouping of the terms was performed individually by each of the three members of the research team (triangulation technique), i.e., three different researchers independently grouped the terms into the categories. Then, the results generated individually by the three researchers were discussed in subsequent meetings to reach a consensus. The grouping of terms in each category was determined by counting similar words or phrases deemed synonymous to describe each stimulus. Only the terms mentioned by N 10% of the participants were considered. The existence of significant differences between the numbers of words elicited per category for both groups was analysed by Chi-square test (Silva et al., 2014). Correspondence analysis (CA) was used to obtain two-dimensional maps to observe the relationship between the generated stimuli and their categories listed by the respondents, separately for each group: celiac and non-celiac individuals (Greenacre & Fargas, 2010). This is a descriptive/exploratory technique designed to examine contingency tables with two entries containing correspondence measures between the rows and columns. The variables are projected in the factor-plane, providing a visual and simultaneous representation of all data (Santos et al., 2015). Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA, Cruz et al., 2013) was used to verify the agreement of the two consumer groups in response to different stimuli. In addition, the regression vector coefficient (Rv) was used to measure the correlation between the two groups in the consensus spaces derived from CA. Regression vector coefficient (Rv) values fall between 0 and 1, and the closer the Rv value is to 1, the greater the similarity between the two configurations (Santos et al., 2015). All statistical analyses were performed using XLSTAT for Windows, version 2015.5 (Adinsoft, Paris, France).
3. Results and discussion One hundred and fifty consumers participated in the survey: 72 celiac and 78 non-celiac individuals. The consumer study can be regarded as a convenience sample, which is usually used in exploratory studies when the main purpose is to obtain an approximation to a research study (Ares & Deliza, 2010; Varela et al., 2014). Of the male consumers, 61% were celiac and 39% were non-celiac individuals, while 50% of the female consumers were celiac individuals. The vast majority (74.7%) consumed pizza on a regular basis, while 22.7% stated they do not eat pizza because they have celiac disease and are afraid to consume products that contain gluten. Among the non-celiac consumers, 73% were 18–35 years of age, while 85% of the celiac individuals were 26– 55 years of age. More than half of each group had attained a higher education (80% celiac versus 55% non-celiac individuals). A total of 74% of the respondents (40% non-celiac and 30% celiac individuals) reported a gross income between 6 and 10 minimum salaries.
I. Pontual et al. / Food Research International 94 (2017) 1–5
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and 15%, respectively, and reduces total fat and saturated fat by approximately 6%. The negative feelings associated with thick dough can be explained by the preference for thin dough among Brazilian consumers. No study on pizza dough thickness has been carried out in Brazil. Thin crust pizza dough is also preferred by American consumers (Goto & Bianco-Simeral, 2011). Regardless of the population group, there is a high frequency of citations in the last three categories, namely positive feelings, negative feelings, and sensory stimuli, for the four stimuli, highlighting the stimuli ‘thick dough’ (relative frequency: 50%; category: negative feeling) and ‘thin dough’ (relative frequency: 44%; category: positive feelings), followed by ‘pizza dough made with cassava flour’ (relative frequency: 30%; category: positive feelings), and ‘pizza dough made with rice flour’ (relative frequency: 29%; category: positive feelings) for both groups. Similar results were obtained by Gámbaro and Ellis (2012), who studied consumer perceptions about different types of chocolate, and the associations were compared and merged into 11 categories according to their similar meanings. The authors highlighted the presence of 42 and 38 terms related to positive feelings about chocolate and milk chocolate, respectively. Fig. 2 shows the two-dimensional map generated by the correspondence analysis data for the non-celiac (a) and celiac consumers (b) in response to the different stimuli. For the non-celiac consumers, 94.95% of the total variance was explained by two dimensions (dimension 1: 71.76% and dimension 2: 23.18%), while for the celiac consumers, 93.12% of the total variance was explained by the two-dimensional map (dimension 1: 57.69% and dimension 2: 35.43%). The results suggest that the correspondence analysis was an effective tool for interpreting the results, helping to explain the experimental data using a two-dimensional projection. For both groups, the pizza dough made with cassava flour was associated with the category “food/composition”, as were the terms ‘pizza made with rice flour’, ‘pizza made with cassava flour’ and ‘thin dough’ associated with ‘positive feelings’, whereas the terms ‘thin dough’ and ‘pizza made with rice flour’ were associated with the ‘sensory stimuli'. The stimulus ‘thick dough’ was related only to the category ‘negative feeling’. In turn, the pizza dough made with rice flour and cassava flour (only for non-celiac patients) was associated with the ‘health’ category. The high percentage of total variance explained by the twodimensional map demonstrated that the combination of words was effective in capturing the different perceptions of individuals to the presented stimuli. The results suggest that the type of raw material used in the preparation of pizza dough (cassava flour or rice flour) is not a determining factor for the preparation of gluten-free pizza, as long as the final product is thin. Furthermore, the final product tends to be crispy and have a lower amount of dough, which represents a desired textural attribute (Green, 2008). The association of pizza made with rice flour and cassava flour with health characteristics only by the non-celiac individuals is probably because this group can consume gluten-containing products, and the selection of gluten-free products is based on nutrition and
Table 1 shows the number of citations of terms related to the pizza dough according to the expectations of both celiac and non-celiac participants. Overall, the minimum and maximum numbers of terms cited for each stimulus were 1 and 10, respectively, for both groups. The stimuli were perceived to be significantly different (X2 = 314.393, p b 0.0001), suggesting a difference in perception for both groups. Terms with similar meanings were grouped into a total of seven categories, namely: ‘Food/Composition’, ‘Health’, ‘Doubt/uncertainty’, ‘Novelty’, ‘Negative feeling’, ‘Positive feelings’, and ‘Sensory stimuli’. In the non-celiac group, a large number of words were associated with the category ‘positive feelings’ (most cited), being used in response to ‘thin dough’ (cited 57 times), ‘pizza dough made with cassava flour’ (cited 51 times), and ‘pizza dough made with rice flour’ (cited 43 times). In the category ‘sensory stimuli’, the most frequently mentioned stimuli were ‘pizza dough made with rice flour’ (50 times) and ‘thin dough’ (44 times). In the category ‘Food/Composition’, the stimulus ‘pizza dough made with cassava flour’ had the highest quotation (42 times). In the category ‘negative feeling’, ‘thick dough’ was the most frequently mentioned term (61 times). For the celiac group, the category ‘positive feelings’ had a large number of citations in relation to the stimuli “pizza made with cassava flour”, “thin dough” (66 times), and “pizza made with rice flour” (49 times). In the category ‘sensory stimuli’, ‘pizza dough made with cassava flour’ was mentioned 57 times, ‘thin dough’ was cited 56 times, and ‘pizza dough made with rice flour’ was mentioned 51 times. In the category ‘negative feeling’, thick dough was the most frequently mentioned term (77 times). It is worth noting that the most often mentioned term (50% of the total citations) in the celiac group was ‘thick dough’ (category ‘negative feeling’). In the category ‘positive feelings’, the term ‘thin dough’ was highly cited, followed by ‘pizza dough made with cassava flour’ and ‘pizza dough made with rice flour’, with 44 and 30% of citations, respectively. In the ‘sensory’ category, the terms ‘pizza dough made with rice flour’ and ‘thin dough’ were mentioned in 34% of citations. For the non-celiac group, the terms ‘thick dough’ (relative frequency: 50%; category: negative feeling), ‘thin dough’ (relative frequency: 44%; category: positive feelings), ‘pizza dough made with rice flour’ (relative frequency: 30%; category: positive feelings), and ‘pizza dough made with cassava flour’ (relative frequency: 29%; category: positive feelings) were the most commonly cited. Therefore, it is worth mentioning that thin dough is an important positive attribute of pizza, regardless of the consumer group (celiac or non-celiac). In addition, both flours (rice or cassava) can be used in pizza manufacturing, with positive effects on consumer expectations. The mention of “positive feelings” for the descriptor ‘thin dough’ can be associated with the crisp characteristics of these products. Lower amounts of dough can result in a crispy crust, which may be a desirable texture for consumers. From an industrial point of view, using lower amounts of dough leads to lower costs and, consequently, higher profits for companies. Furthermore, the reduction in dough thickness can result in healthier products. According to Goto and Bianco-Simeral (2011), having a thin crust reduces calories and sodium by approximately 20%
Table 1 Categories formed, examples and number of times the categories were mentioned for the four stimulus considered in the word association for consumers (nonceliac and celiac individuals). Categories
Examples
1. Food/composition 2. Health 3. Doubt/unknown 4. Novelty 5. Negative feelings 6. Positive feelings 7. Sensory
Flour, carbohydrate, gluten, white flour Nutrient, nutrition, diet, fit, calories Uncertainty, is it good?, strange Innovation, new, novelty Little taste, bad, bland, no taste Joy, pleasure, delicious, tasty White, crunchy, soft, light, texture
Pizza crust made with cassava flour
Pizza crust made with rice flour
Thin pizza dough
Thick pizza dough
Nonceliac
Celiac
Nonceliac
Celiac
Nonceliac
Celiac
Nonceliac
Celiac
42 0 10 3 41 51 23
25 44 21 12 18 66 57
21 7 7 1 16 43 50
21 31 3 9 29 49 51
6 4 0 0 18 57 44
3 12 0 0 15 66 56
11 1 1 0 61 26 21
6 0 0 0 77 31 37
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I. Pontual et al. / Food Research International 94 (2017) 1–5
Fig. 2. Correspondence analysis bidimensional map generated from the data of the word association task. (A) nonceliac and (B) celiac individuals.
health purposes. In the case of celiac individuals, the use of gluten-free flours in products is a need rather than a choice. Fig. 3 shows a Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA) of the results summarizing the information related to the different stimuli. The different stimulus positions show clear differences along the map, suggesting that the consumers were able to differentiate the pizza dough in with
respect to the raw material and the dough thickness. When RV was used to compare both panels, a value of 0.83 was found, indicating that celiac and non-celiac individuals had similar perceptions when characterizing the stimulus. This finding confirms the results of the correspondence analysis and suggests that both groups have similar perceptions in response to the stimuli pizza dough made with cassava flour, pizza dough made with rice flour, thin dough, and thick dough. The similar perceptions between celiac and non-celiac individuals are interesting from an industrial point of view and suggest that the food industry should design a product to be commercialized for both celiac patients and non-celiac individuals who prefer avoiding glutencontaining products; the numbers of individuals in these two groups have been increasing around the world. A previous study has reported similar scores from celiac and non-celiac individuals in the sensory evaluation of gluten-free bread, with no significant differences between groups. In addition, the preference of breads was positively correlated with some sensory descriptors, such as sweet, porosity and softness, and negatively correlated with salty taste (Laureati et al., 2012). It is also relevant to comment about the limitations of this study, which used small sampling, mainly for celiac individuals. However, this study is consistent with recent studies using different sensory methods to determine sensory perceptions and/or characteristics of the two particular groups. Laureati et al. (2012) performed a descriptive analysis and hedonic test with gluten-free bread with only 21 celiac and 95 non-celiac consumers. Milde, Ramalho, and Puppo (2012) performed a hedonic test of gluten-free bread based on tapioca starch with 80 consumers, with only 60 non-celiac and 20 celiac individuals. Giménez et al. (2015) performed a hedonic test with gluten-free Andean spaghetti using 85 consumers, with only 30 celiac and 55 non-celiac individuals. Morais, Cruz, Faria & Bolini (2014) also performed an acceptance test with prebiotic gluten-free bread using celiac individuals. Finally, Varela et al. (2014) performed word association with 94 consumers, including 53 healthy and 41 diabetic consumers. These reports demonstrate there is enormous difficulty in investigating particular consumer groups and providing findings with scientific relevance. In addition, these studies normally examine gluten-free bread as a stimulus, and they rarely examine other bakery products, such as pizza. Overall, the use of the word association technique indicated the greater importance of the thickness of pizza dough in relation to the raw materials used in the manufacturing processes. This information was obtained according to the first impression of consumers using the intrinsic task of word association. Therefore, this finding should be taken into account by commercial bakeries to obtain a greater volume of purchase of gluten-free products and to consolidate a position in the competitive market to meet consumers' expectations. 4. Conclusion The word association technique has proven to be effective to assess the perceptions of two different groups (celiac and non-celiac individuals) regarding pizza crust. There was a consensus on the frequency of citations for the categories “positive feelings” and “sensory stimuli” for both groups with respect to the raw material used (cassava flour and rice flour) and the pizza dough thickness (thin or thick). In contrast, for the pizza dough thickness, “negative feelings” was the most commonly mentioned descriptor by both groups of consumers. The results of this study can provide information and allow a better understanding of the positive and negative attributes of pizza dough. The generated data can be used to develop bakery products, in particular pizza, that meet the expectations of both consumer groups and contribute to gluten-free food processing industries. References
Fig. 3. Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA) bidimensional map representing the nonceliac and celiac individuals regards the considering the raw material used in pizza manufacture (cassava or rice flour) and the dough thickness (thin or thick).
Acelbra, Associação dos Celíacos do Brasil (2014). (Disponível em: bhttp://www.acelbra. org.br/2004/doencaceliaca.phpN (Acessado em 20 de Agosto)).
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Food Research International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodres
Assessing consumer expectations about pizza: A study on celiac and non-celiac individuals using the word association technique I. Pontual a, G.V. Amaral b, E.A. Esmerino c, T.C. Pimentel d, M.Q. Freitas c, R.K. Fukuda e, I.L. Sant'Ana e, L.G. Silva a,f, A.G. Cruz a,f,⁎ a
Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio de Janeiro (IFRJ), Mestrado Profissional em Ciência e Tecnologia de Alimentos (PGCTA), Maracanã, 20270-021 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), Departamento de Tecnologia de Alimentos (DTA), 23890-000 Seropédica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, 24230-340 Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil d Instituto Federal do Paraná (IFPR), Paranavaí 87703-536, Paraná, Brazil e Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio de Janeiro (IFRJ), Departamento de Matemática e Estatística, Maracanã, 20270-021 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil f Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio de Janeiro (IFRJ), Departamento de Alimentos, Maracanã, 20270-021 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil b c
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 10 October 2016 Received in revised form 21 January 2017 Accepted 24 January 2017 Available online 25 January 2017 Keywords: Word association Consumers Pizza
a b s t r a c t The word association (WA) technique was used to investigate the perception of two groups of consumers (72 celiac and 78 non-celiac individuals; 150 in total) to pizza dough (thick or thin) and the raw material used at the manufacture (cassava flour or rice flour). Different perceptions of the four stimuli were detected by Chi-square test (X2 = 314.393, p b 0.0001) for both groups. Seven categories were used for both groups: food/composition, health, doubt/uncertainty, novelty, negative feelings, positive feelings, and sensory aspects. The stimulus ‘pizza dough made with cassava flour’ was associated with the category “food/composition” and the stimuli ‘pizza made with rice flour’, ‘pizza made with cassava flour’ and ‘thin dough’ were associated with “positive feelings”. The stimulus ‘thick dough’ was related only to the category “negative feelings”. WA indicated that gluten-free pizza should have thin dough and us cassava flour or rice flour as the raw material. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Disorders related to gluten consumption have been widely reported in the literature, and among these disorders, celiac disease (CD) is the most frequently studied (Eli et al., 2015). Celiac disease is a genetic autoimmune disorder in which predisposed individuals are intolerant to gluten. To date, the only treatment consists of eliminating gluten products from the diet, including all food products containing wheat, barley, rye, malt, oats and products derived from them (Ludvigsson & Green, 2011; Fasano et al., 2008). The limited availability of gluten-free products coupled with high prices may jeopardize compliance with the treatment by celiac patients, thus compromising their economic, social, and psychological well-being and leading to clinical and nutritional complications (Lee, Ng, Diamond, Ciaccio, & Green, 2012). The increased supply and availability of gluten-free products in the marketplace is critical for providing nutritious food with and sensory appeal for both celiac individuals and consumers who want to avoid the consumption of gluten-containing products (Zandonadi, 2006). Therefore, studies with celiac and non-celiac individuals are important ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (A.G. Cruz).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2017.01.018 0963-9969/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
for evaluating the differences between groups and developing products that appeal to both categories. To understand the consumers' behaviour and motivation, qualitative research has been used in food science. Projective techniques are based on the principle of spontaneous and subjective tendencies, which are motivated by implicit needs and are used in various studies about food consumption and commercialization (Jervis & Drake, 2014). The results of previous research have not provided a ‘right or ‘wrong’ response as consumers project their unconscious feelings and opinions about the product they were evaluating (Donoghue, 2000). Among the qualitative methods used to investigate consumers' perceptions, the word association (WA) technique has been shown to be quite useful. In this technique, visual or verbal stimuli are presented to consumers, who should use the first words or phrases that are associated with these stimuli (Gámbaro, Parente, Roascio, & Boinbaser, 2014; Andrade, Sobral, Ares, & Deliza, 2016). The generated words/phrases are quite relevant for understanding why and how consumers make their choices, thereby contributing to an effective exploitation of their choices and perceptions (Eldesouky, Pulido, & Mesias, 2015). WA has been used to obtain consumers' perception of several food products, including yogurts (Ares, Gimenez, & Gámbaro, 2008), dairy desserts (Ares & Deliza, 2010), milk chocolate desserts (Ares, Barreiro, Deliza, Gimenez, & Gámbaro, 2010), vegetable oils (Gámbaro, Dauber,
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Ares, & Ellis, 2010), chocolate (Gámbaro & Ellis, 2012), ice creams (Silva et al., 2014), frozen hamburgers (Viana, Silva, & Trindade, 2014), and lamb meat (Andrade et al., 2016). Although WA has been widely used in the last several years, its use for comparing the perceptions of two distinct populations is uncommon. Varela et al. (2014) used WA to investigate the perception of an apple beverage made with a newly developed excelsior Fraxinus seed using two distinct populations (diabetic and healthy individuals). No difference was found between the groups, and both populations perceived the beverage as a functional product. Although several authors have studied gluten-free products with celiac and non-celiac consumers (Laureati, Giussani, & Pagliarini, 2012; Giménez et al., 2015), no studies about pizza using projective techniques, such as WA, have been found in the literature. The present study investigated the perception of pizza by two groups of consumers, celiac and non-celiac individuals, using the Word Association technique. Two aspects related to pizza manufacturing were considered: raw material and dough thickness. 2. Material and methods 2.1. The stimulus Pizza is one of the most frequently purchased frozen food products in Brazil due to its low price, sensory properties, and convenience. According to a survey performed by the Brazilian Association of Celiac Individuals (ACALBRA) in 2004, pizza was cited as one of the foods that celiac individuals would like to find more easily in the marketplace, which reinforces interest in its industrialization and commercialization. Such results are in agreement with a survey performed by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IIBGE, 2014), which showed that 36% of Brazilians eat pizza when dining out. The commercially available gluten-free pizzas in Brazil are made with several ingredients, with cassava flour and rice flour the most commonly used raw materials. Rice flour is increasingly popular and is considered the most suitable cereal grain flour for the production of glutenfree products due to its bland taste, white colour, digestibility, and hypoallergenic properties (Torbica, Hadnadev, & Hadnadev, 2012). Cassava flour is one of the major products from cassava roots traded on the world food market (Ogunjobi & Ogunwolu, 2010). Brazil is one of the largest producers of cassava, with an estimated annual production of 23 million tonnes (IBGE/LSPA, 2016), and cassava is a promising alternative for use in gluten-free products. Pizza is normally consumed with a thin or thick crust. Although the amount of dough used is the main factor affecting crust thickness, the rising of the dough also plays an important role (Goto & Bianco-Simeral, 2011). 2.2. Word association task The study was conducted in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between November 2014 and February 2015. An online questionnaire was developed on Google+ (2014) (https://docs.google.com/forms) and sent by e-mail to celiac individuals, members of the ‘Gluten-free Rio’ group (www.riosemgluten.com.br) and ACELBRA (2014)-the Brazilian Association of Celiac Individuals (www.acelbra.org.br). Non-celiac individuals were recruited randomly at the Federal Institute of Rio de Janeiro and included consumers who eat pizza at least once a week. The questionnaire was divided into two parts: the first part consisted of personal and socio-economic questions (age and salary/income), while the second part consisted of four cartoons containing the stimulus (pizza manufactured with cassava flour, pizza manufactured with rice flour, thin pizza dough, and thick pizza dough; see Fig. 1). Consumers evaluated one stimulus at a time and were asked to write the first associations, thoughts or feelings that came to their minds when observing the images. There was no limit to the number of words or terms a participant could use in response to each stimulus. The cards were presented monadically in a balanced random order.
Fig. 1. Stimuli offered to participants at the word association task.
2.3. Data analysis The data were analysed in accordance with previous studies (Gámbaro et al., 2014; Guerrero et al., 2010; Modell, 2005; & Wadsworth, 2000). The recurrent terms cited by the respondents were grouped into seven categories. Initially, the grouping of the terms was performed individually by each of the three members of the research team (triangulation technique), i.e., three different researchers independently grouped the terms into the categories. Then, the results generated individually by the three researchers were discussed in subsequent meetings to reach a consensus. The grouping of terms in each category was determined by counting similar words or phrases deemed synonymous to describe each stimulus. Only the terms mentioned by N 10% of the participants were considered. The existence of significant differences between the numbers of words elicited per category for both groups was analysed by Chi-square test (Silva et al., 2014). Correspondence analysis (CA) was used to obtain two-dimensional maps to observe the relationship between the generated stimuli and their categories listed by the respondents, separately for each group: celiac and non-celiac individuals (Greenacre & Fargas, 2010). This is a descriptive/exploratory technique designed to examine contingency tables with two entries containing correspondence measures between the rows and columns. The variables are projected in the factor-plane, providing a visual and simultaneous representation of all data (Santos et al., 2015). Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA, Cruz et al., 2013) was used to verify the agreement of the two consumer groups in response to different stimuli. In addition, the regression vector coefficient (Rv) was used to measure the correlation between the two groups in the consensus spaces derived from CA. Regression vector coefficient (Rv) values fall between 0 and 1, and the closer the Rv value is to 1, the greater the similarity between the two configurations (Santos et al., 2015). All statistical analyses were performed using XLSTAT for Windows, version 2015.5 (Adinsoft, Paris, France).
3. Results and discussion One hundred and fifty consumers participated in the survey: 72 celiac and 78 non-celiac individuals. The consumer study can be regarded as a convenience sample, which is usually used in exploratory studies when the main purpose is to obtain an approximation to a research study (Ares & Deliza, 2010; Varela et al., 2014). Of the male consumers, 61% were celiac and 39% were non-celiac individuals, while 50% of the female consumers were celiac individuals. The vast majority (74.7%) consumed pizza on a regular basis, while 22.7% stated they do not eat pizza because they have celiac disease and are afraid to consume products that contain gluten. Among the non-celiac consumers, 73% were 18–35 years of age, while 85% of the celiac individuals were 26– 55 years of age. More than half of each group had attained a higher education (80% celiac versus 55% non-celiac individuals). A total of 74% of the respondents (40% non-celiac and 30% celiac individuals) reported a gross income between 6 and 10 minimum salaries.
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and 15%, respectively, and reduces total fat and saturated fat by approximately 6%. The negative feelings associated with thick dough can be explained by the preference for thin dough among Brazilian consumers. No study on pizza dough thickness has been carried out in Brazil. Thin crust pizza dough is also preferred by American consumers (Goto & Bianco-Simeral, 2011). Regardless of the population group, there is a high frequency of citations in the last three categories, namely positive feelings, negative feelings, and sensory stimuli, for the four stimuli, highlighting the stimuli ‘thick dough’ (relative frequency: 50%; category: negative feeling) and ‘thin dough’ (relative frequency: 44%; category: positive feelings), followed by ‘pizza dough made with cassava flour’ (relative frequency: 30%; category: positive feelings), and ‘pizza dough made with rice flour’ (relative frequency: 29%; category: positive feelings) for both groups. Similar results were obtained by Gámbaro and Ellis (2012), who studied consumer perceptions about different types of chocolate, and the associations were compared and merged into 11 categories according to their similar meanings. The authors highlighted the presence of 42 and 38 terms related to positive feelings about chocolate and milk chocolate, respectively. Fig. 2 shows the two-dimensional map generated by the correspondence analysis data for the non-celiac (a) and celiac consumers (b) in response to the different stimuli. For the non-celiac consumers, 94.95% of the total variance was explained by two dimensions (dimension 1: 71.76% and dimension 2: 23.18%), while for the celiac consumers, 93.12% of the total variance was explained by the two-dimensional map (dimension 1: 57.69% and dimension 2: 35.43%). The results suggest that the correspondence analysis was an effective tool for interpreting the results, helping to explain the experimental data using a two-dimensional projection. For both groups, the pizza dough made with cassava flour was associated with the category “food/composition”, as were the terms ‘pizza made with rice flour’, ‘pizza made with cassava flour’ and ‘thin dough’ associated with ‘positive feelings’, whereas the terms ‘thin dough’ and ‘pizza made with rice flour’ were associated with the ‘sensory stimuli'. The stimulus ‘thick dough’ was related only to the category ‘negative feeling’. In turn, the pizza dough made with rice flour and cassava flour (only for non-celiac patients) was associated with the ‘health’ category. The high percentage of total variance explained by the twodimensional map demonstrated that the combination of words was effective in capturing the different perceptions of individuals to the presented stimuli. The results suggest that the type of raw material used in the preparation of pizza dough (cassava flour or rice flour) is not a determining factor for the preparation of gluten-free pizza, as long as the final product is thin. Furthermore, the final product tends to be crispy and have a lower amount of dough, which represents a desired textural attribute (Green, 2008). The association of pizza made with rice flour and cassava flour with health characteristics only by the non-celiac individuals is probably because this group can consume gluten-containing products, and the selection of gluten-free products is based on nutrition and
Table 1 shows the number of citations of terms related to the pizza dough according to the expectations of both celiac and non-celiac participants. Overall, the minimum and maximum numbers of terms cited for each stimulus were 1 and 10, respectively, for both groups. The stimuli were perceived to be significantly different (X2 = 314.393, p b 0.0001), suggesting a difference in perception for both groups. Terms with similar meanings were grouped into a total of seven categories, namely: ‘Food/Composition’, ‘Health’, ‘Doubt/uncertainty’, ‘Novelty’, ‘Negative feeling’, ‘Positive feelings’, and ‘Sensory stimuli’. In the non-celiac group, a large number of words were associated with the category ‘positive feelings’ (most cited), being used in response to ‘thin dough’ (cited 57 times), ‘pizza dough made with cassava flour’ (cited 51 times), and ‘pizza dough made with rice flour’ (cited 43 times). In the category ‘sensory stimuli’, the most frequently mentioned stimuli were ‘pizza dough made with rice flour’ (50 times) and ‘thin dough’ (44 times). In the category ‘Food/Composition’, the stimulus ‘pizza dough made with cassava flour’ had the highest quotation (42 times). In the category ‘negative feeling’, ‘thick dough’ was the most frequently mentioned term (61 times). For the celiac group, the category ‘positive feelings’ had a large number of citations in relation to the stimuli “pizza made with cassava flour”, “thin dough” (66 times), and “pizza made with rice flour” (49 times). In the category ‘sensory stimuli’, ‘pizza dough made with cassava flour’ was mentioned 57 times, ‘thin dough’ was cited 56 times, and ‘pizza dough made with rice flour’ was mentioned 51 times. In the category ‘negative feeling’, thick dough was the most frequently mentioned term (77 times). It is worth noting that the most often mentioned term (50% of the total citations) in the celiac group was ‘thick dough’ (category ‘negative feeling’). In the category ‘positive feelings’, the term ‘thin dough’ was highly cited, followed by ‘pizza dough made with cassava flour’ and ‘pizza dough made with rice flour’, with 44 and 30% of citations, respectively. In the ‘sensory’ category, the terms ‘pizza dough made with rice flour’ and ‘thin dough’ were mentioned in 34% of citations. For the non-celiac group, the terms ‘thick dough’ (relative frequency: 50%; category: negative feeling), ‘thin dough’ (relative frequency: 44%; category: positive feelings), ‘pizza dough made with rice flour’ (relative frequency: 30%; category: positive feelings), and ‘pizza dough made with cassava flour’ (relative frequency: 29%; category: positive feelings) were the most commonly cited. Therefore, it is worth mentioning that thin dough is an important positive attribute of pizza, regardless of the consumer group (celiac or non-celiac). In addition, both flours (rice or cassava) can be used in pizza manufacturing, with positive effects on consumer expectations. The mention of “positive feelings” for the descriptor ‘thin dough’ can be associated with the crisp characteristics of these products. Lower amounts of dough can result in a crispy crust, which may be a desirable texture for consumers. From an industrial point of view, using lower amounts of dough leads to lower costs and, consequently, higher profits for companies. Furthermore, the reduction in dough thickness can result in healthier products. According to Goto and Bianco-Simeral (2011), having a thin crust reduces calories and sodium by approximately 20%
Table 1 Categories formed, examples and number of times the categories were mentioned for the four stimulus considered in the word association for consumers (nonceliac and celiac individuals). Categories
Examples
1. Food/composition 2. Health 3. Doubt/unknown 4. Novelty 5. Negative feelings 6. Positive feelings 7. Sensory
Flour, carbohydrate, gluten, white flour Nutrient, nutrition, diet, fit, calories Uncertainty, is it good?, strange Innovation, new, novelty Little taste, bad, bland, no taste Joy, pleasure, delicious, tasty White, crunchy, soft, light, texture
Pizza crust made with cassava flour
Pizza crust made with rice flour
Thin pizza dough
Thick pizza dough
Nonceliac
Celiac
Nonceliac
Celiac
Nonceliac
Celiac
Nonceliac
Celiac
42 0 10 3 41 51 23
25 44 21 12 18 66 57
21 7 7 1 16 43 50
21 31 3 9 29 49 51
6 4 0 0 18 57 44
3 12 0 0 15 66 56
11 1 1 0 61 26 21
6 0 0 0 77 31 37
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Fig. 2. Correspondence analysis bidimensional map generated from the data of the word association task. (A) nonceliac and (B) celiac individuals.
health purposes. In the case of celiac individuals, the use of gluten-free flours in products is a need rather than a choice. Fig. 3 shows a Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA) of the results summarizing the information related to the different stimuli. The different stimulus positions show clear differences along the map, suggesting that the consumers were able to differentiate the pizza dough in with
respect to the raw material and the dough thickness. When RV was used to compare both panels, a value of 0.83 was found, indicating that celiac and non-celiac individuals had similar perceptions when characterizing the stimulus. This finding confirms the results of the correspondence analysis and suggests that both groups have similar perceptions in response to the stimuli pizza dough made with cassava flour, pizza dough made with rice flour, thin dough, and thick dough. The similar perceptions between celiac and non-celiac individuals are interesting from an industrial point of view and suggest that the food industry should design a product to be commercialized for both celiac patients and non-celiac individuals who prefer avoiding glutencontaining products; the numbers of individuals in these two groups have been increasing around the world. A previous study has reported similar scores from celiac and non-celiac individuals in the sensory evaluation of gluten-free bread, with no significant differences between groups. In addition, the preference of breads was positively correlated with some sensory descriptors, such as sweet, porosity and softness, and negatively correlated with salty taste (Laureati et al., 2012). It is also relevant to comment about the limitations of this study, which used small sampling, mainly for celiac individuals. However, this study is consistent with recent studies using different sensory methods to determine sensory perceptions and/or characteristics of the two particular groups. Laureati et al. (2012) performed a descriptive analysis and hedonic test with gluten-free bread with only 21 celiac and 95 non-celiac consumers. Milde, Ramalho, and Puppo (2012) performed a hedonic test of gluten-free bread based on tapioca starch with 80 consumers, with only 60 non-celiac and 20 celiac individuals. Giménez et al. (2015) performed a hedonic test with gluten-free Andean spaghetti using 85 consumers, with only 30 celiac and 55 non-celiac individuals. Morais, Cruz, Faria & Bolini (2014) also performed an acceptance test with prebiotic gluten-free bread using celiac individuals. Finally, Varela et al. (2014) performed word association with 94 consumers, including 53 healthy and 41 diabetic consumers. These reports demonstrate there is enormous difficulty in investigating particular consumer groups and providing findings with scientific relevance. In addition, these studies normally examine gluten-free bread as a stimulus, and they rarely examine other bakery products, such as pizza. Overall, the use of the word association technique indicated the greater importance of the thickness of pizza dough in relation to the raw materials used in the manufacturing processes. This information was obtained according to the first impression of consumers using the intrinsic task of word association. Therefore, this finding should be taken into account by commercial bakeries to obtain a greater volume of purchase of gluten-free products and to consolidate a position in the competitive market to meet consumers' expectations. 4. Conclusion The word association technique has proven to be effective to assess the perceptions of two different groups (celiac and non-celiac individuals) regarding pizza crust. There was a consensus on the frequency of citations for the categories “positive feelings” and “sensory stimuli” for both groups with respect to the raw material used (cassava flour and rice flour) and the pizza dough thickness (thin or thick). In contrast, for the pizza dough thickness, “negative feelings” was the most commonly mentioned descriptor by both groups of consumers. The results of this study can provide information and allow a better understanding of the positive and negative attributes of pizza dough. The generated data can be used to develop bakery products, in particular pizza, that meet the expectations of both consumer groups and contribute to gluten-free food processing industries. References
Fig. 3. Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA) bidimensional map representing the nonceliac and celiac individuals regards the considering the raw material used in pizza manufacture (cassava or rice flour) and the dough thickness (thin or thick).
Acelbra, Associação dos Celíacos do Brasil (2014). (Disponível em: bhttp://www.acelbra. org.br/2004/doencaceliaca.phpN (Acessado em 20 de Agosto)).
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