Ginger or mint ? Older people like them
by Market Insider
Wednesday, 20 Jan. 2016
Researchers at the Wageningen UR (University & Research
centre) have published a report in the international journal Food Quality and
Preference on their studies into taste preferences between young and old
consumers.These can be very different - something to keep in mind when
developing new products.
The team of researchers from Wageningen UR
in the Netherlands, let a group of over 65s and a group aged around 30 taste
three types of gingerbread (normal, wholegrain, and ginger flavour) and
chocolate (milk, dark, and mint). For each product, the Dutch participants
indicated how much they liked it and to what extent it evoked positive or
negative emotions. Participants evaluated the products monadically in the
sensory labs at Wageningen UR. All tastings were ‘blind’.
Positive feeling
The elderly liked both
gingerbread ginger flavour and mint chocolate significantly better than young
people, and expressed positive emotions, such as pleasant, happy and excited.
Interestingly, in the younger group, these products evoked the negative emotion
‘disgusted’. In general, when participants - both young and old - liked a
product, they reported more-positive feelings; the less they liked it, the
more-negative the feelings. The researchers speculate that the elderly have such
positive associations with ginger and mint because these flavours may remind
them of the past.
Product development
The
study underlines the importance of target group segmentation in product
development. "Product developers may want to tailor the taste of their product
to their target age group - whether it is a protein drink, a protein-rich meal
or a vitamin D supplement," says den Uijl.
Two age
groups
This research focuses on younger people (80 in total
and, on average, 29 years old), and over 65s (154 in total and, on average, 69
years old). The elderly, one half with a good sense of smell and the other half
with an impaired sense of smell, were members of Wageningen UR’s SenTo panel of
older consumers. This gave the researchers unique insights into taste
preferences and product experiences of younger and older consumers.
About the publication
The publication ‘Emotion, olfaction and age:
A comparison of self-reported food-evoked emotion profiles of younger adults,
older normosmic adults, and older hyposmic adults’, was published in the
international scientific journal Food Quality and Preference in 2015. The study
is part of the doctoral research of Louise den Uijl, which focuses on the
tailoring of protein-rich foods to elderly subgroups.