Consumers' hedonic expectations and perception of the healthiness of biscuits made with olive oil or sunflower oil

Vegetable oils can be used as an alternative to solid fats to produce biscuits with a healthier fatty acid profile. The aim of this work was to study how consumers perceived the information about fat on biscuit labels when olive oil or sunflower oil was used instead of a saturated fat and how much the replacement affected acceptability. Six samples of biscuits were prepared, varying in fat source (dairy shortening, olive oil and sunflower oil) and in fat content (10.6 and 15.6%). Biscuit labels were designed to include the claims “with olive oil”, “with sunflower oil” or “low in saturated fat” and nutritional facts tables with the respective values that corresponded in each case. Consumers (n=100) evaluated their liking for the samples and perception of their healthiness under three conditions: blind (the biscuit was provided), expected (the label was provided) and informed (both biscuit and label were provided). In general, consumers expected that they would like the olive and sunflower oil biscuits with low fat contents the most, although when they tasted the biscuits these samples obtained the lowest liking scores. Thus, they did not associate a low-fat vegetable-oil biscuit with a decrease in sensory properties compared to its high fat counterpart. Furthermore, when information on the fat source was provided the consumers seemed to attach less importance than they should have to the total fat level. Although the fat source claim (“with olive oil” or “with sunflower oil”) and the nutritional claim (“low saturated fat content”) included on the labels increased the consumers' liking scores, eventually both the sensory quality of the samples and the information provided affected the actual liking for the samples. However, the perception of the biscuits' healthiness was based on the label information alone and the hedonic characteristics of the samples did not affect it.