UC Davis

Food category labels help consumers predict properties of food products before purchasing them, and their use is governed by governmental organizations to ensure that consumers are not misled. However, the rise of new food analogues has led to the changing meanings of food category labels, and some argue that products should be able to be labelled as part of a category if they share sensory characteristics with that product category. The purpose of this research was to understand how consumers view food category labels from a sensory perspective, and we studied this in a familiar product category with extensive food analogues (milk and milk alternatives) and a novel product category (hop waters). We first tried to understand how demographic factors affect the food categorization process, and we found that some sensory attributes are universally used across different dietary groups. Then, we looked at the impact of category labels on liking and perception of foods in familiar and novel product categories. In a familiar product category where consumers had preconceived expectations of the product, category labels affected both liking of products and perceived category fit. However, in an unfamiliar novel product category, category labels had no impact on liking of products, but the labels were able to change consumer sensory perception of the products. Finally, we wanted to examine the relationship between sensory attributes and category fit, as well as compare different methods to determine category fit. We found that consumers use sensory attributes as part of their decision process in determining category fit, but sensory attributes did not have strong predictive power. Furthermore, when considering category fit, consumers had broader conditions for what they were willing to use as a substitute for a product than what they considered a representative example of a product. This research could provide important information for food manufacturers and governments as they consider the implications of changing food category labels.