Files
Abstract
The impact of hedonic evaluation on consumers’ preferences towards beef
attributes including its enrichment with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PFA) was
evaluated. 647 Spanish consumers were divided into two groups differentiated by the
information received. Consumers evaluated five beef attributes (origin, animal diet,
amount of visible fat, meat colour and price) by conducting a choice experiment (CE)
and using the recently developed Generelized Multinomial Logit (G-MNL).
Subsequently, consumers conducted a blind tasting of four different beef samples and
later informed about what they taste. Finally consumers repeated the CE. By
estimating the G-MNL, it allows respondents to have different utility function scales
that describe a different uncertainty levels with respect to the choices they make. In
this case, hedonic evaluation of beef samples and information had a significant
impact on consumer beef preferences, choices and scale parameters. Results show
that giving consumers additional information, the average error scales decreased
significantly.