Consumer opinions and expectations of cornflakes with the additive steviol glycosides
2013
Freytag-Leyer, B., Fulda Univ. of Applied Sciences (Germany). Dept. of Nutritional, Food and Consumer Sciences | Peschke, R., Fulda Univ. of Applied Sciences (Germany). Dept. of Nutritional, Food and Consumer Sciences | Hampshire, J., Fulda Univ. of Applied Sciences (Germany). Dept. of Nutritional, Food and Consumer Sciences
In the autumn of 2012, a survey was conducted to examine how steviol glycosides, a sweetener extracted from the plant Stevia rebaudiana, are perceived by consumers and what expectations consumers have towards food made with this sweetener. Steviol glycosides, characterised by a high level of sweetness and no caloric content, were approved as a food additive in the European Union in December 2011. The survey data were gathered from 180 consumers between the age of 20 and 80 years. The data were collected in Fulda using a standardised questionnaire. The questionnaire included a concept test using a fictious cornflake product sweetened with steviol glycosides. The results show, that there are significant correlations between the possession of general knowledge about stevia and the gender, age and health awareness of the respondents, since only 16.5% of the respondents know that this sweetener is a food additive (significant result). The majority of consumers (80.0%) expects a product labelled with the claim ''With steviol glycosides from Stevia'' to solely contain steviol glycosides (significant result). Consumers perceive steviol glycosides as a natural sweetener (significant result); yet, not as a healthy sweetener. Approximately half of the consumers prefer food sweetened with steviol glycosides compared with food sweetened with sugar or other sweeteners. Consumers further expect such a product to generally taste good and not different from the products sweetened with sugar.
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