E. Ginon*1, G. Enderli1, P. Combris2, S. Issanchou1

1 INRA, UMR1129 FLAVIC, F-21000 Dijon, France

2 INRA, UR1303 ALISS, F-94205 Ivry-sur-Seine, France

Consumer acceptance of a new product is determined by perception of extrinsic and intrinsic information and may vary with repeated exposure.
The first aim of the present study is to determine consumer acceptance of a nutritional innovation in two French traditional cheeses (Comté and Cantal) using hedonic measurement and reservation price elicitation. The second aim is to observe how acceptance varies after exposure to the cheeses.

Three hundred consumers from Burgundy will be randomly selected to participate in two experimental sessions. For each cheese a traditional variant will be compared to an innovative variant containing a higher proportion of omega-3 fatty acids. Laboratory sessions will take place before and after home exposure (2 weeks). During these sessions consumers will give hedonic scores and reservation prices (Becker, DeGroot, & Marshak procedure, 1964) for each cheese in different information conditions (sensory, extrinsic and full). For home exposure participants will be split into two groups. A first group will be exposed to the traditional variant of each cheese while a second group will be exposed to the innovative variant of each cheese.

Previous studies revealed that only a minority of French consumers are ready to accept nutritional innovation in traditional foods. Thus our hypothesis is that initial acceptance with extrinsic information will be lower for the innovative variant than for the traditional one. We also expect that the difference in acceptance will be higher for Comté, to which consumers from Burgundy are particularly attached, than for Cantal. Finally, we expect that, if the taste of the innovative cheeses is at first appreciated, acceptance in the full information condition will increase with exposure at least for consumers who are not reluctant to innovation.

Such results would illustrate the importance for producers to give consumers the opportunity to taste innovative variants of traditional products.

Keywords:
Cheese, Innovation, Exposure, Willingness to pay, Hedonic scores

This study is part of TRUEFOOD - "Traditional United Europe Food" is an Integrated Project financed by the European Commission under the 6th Framework Programme for RTD. Contract n. FOOD-CT-2006-016264 and part of Ginon’s PhD funded by INRA and the Regional Council of Burgundy.