Understanding consumer liking of beef patties with different firmness among younger and older adults using FaceReader™ and biometrics

Behannis Mena; Damir Dennis Torrico; Scott Hutchings; Minh Ha; Hollis Ashman; Robyn D Warner

doi:10.1016/j.meatsci.2023.109124

Understanding consumer liking of beef patties with different firmness among younger and older adults using FaceReader™ and biometrics

Meat Sci. 2023 May:199:109124. doi: 10.1016/j.meatsci.2023.109124. Epub 2023 Jan 20.

Authors

Behannis Mena¹, Damir Dennis Torrico², Scott Hutchings³, Minh Ha¹, Hollis Ashman¹, Robyn D Warner⁴

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, School of Agriculture and Food, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia.
² Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, School of Agriculture and Food, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia; Department of Wine, Food and Molecular Biosciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, New Zealand.
³ Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, School of Agriculture and Food, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia; AgResearch, Food & Bio-based Products Group, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand.
⁴ Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, School of Agriculture and Food, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia. Electronic address: rwarner@unimelb.edu.au.

PMID: 36736127
DOI: 10.1016/j.meatsci.2023.109124

Abstract

Sensorial perceptions change as people age and biometrics analysis can be used to explore the unconscious consumer responses. Investigation was conducted of effects of consumer age (younger, 22-52 years; older, 60-76 years) on facial expression response (FER) during consumption of beef patties with varying firmness (soft, medium, hard) and taste (±plum sauce). Video images were collected and FERs analysed using FaceReader™. Younger people exhibited higher intensity for happy/sad/scared and lower intensity for neutral/disgusted, relative to older people. Interactions between age and texture/sauce showed little FER variation in older people, whereas younger people showed considerable FER variation. Younger people, but not older people, had lowest intensity of happy FER and highest intensity of angry FER for the hard patty. Sauce addition resulted in higher intensity of happy/contempt in younger consumers, but not older consumers. FER collected using FaceReader™ was successfully used to differentiate between the unconscious responses of younger and older consumers.

Keywords: FaceReader™; Facial expressions; Heart rate; Meat products; Purchase intent; Texture.

MeSH terms

Adult
Aged
Animals
Biometry
Cattle
Consumer Behavior
Emotions*
Food Handling / methods
Humans
Middle Aged
Taste Perception
Taste*
Young Adult