The importance of segmentation in targeting new food products enriched with winemaking by-products

One of the food industry’s priorities is to reduce waste and exploit by-products from the food production chain. Nowadays, several by-products from the food chain are considered as a promising source of valuable and functional compounds. Among these, phenols represent important functional compounds due to their antioxidant activity. Unripe grapes discarded during thinning operations in the wine production chain represent an interesting source of phenols. However, the development of highly antioxidant food added with phenols from unripe grapes is challenging due to the specific sensory attributes, such as sourness and astringency, of these compounds. The aim of the present study was to evaluate consumer responses (acceptance and sensory attributes perception) to beetroot purees added with increasing concentrations of phenols rich extract from unripe grapes. Personality traits and behavioral attitudes were also evaluated to identify specific target of consumers more predisposed to accept these new foods. Three hundred two subjects (55% females, age range: 18-60 years) evaluated liking and attributes intensity (sweet, sour, astringency and overall flavour) of four beetroot puree samples added with increasing concentrations of phenol extract (0; 0.41; 1.11; 1.93 g/kg). Subjects were also characterized for food neophobia (FN), Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ), Health and Taste Attitude Scale (HTAS), as well as for liking for and familiarity with beetroot. Results showed that the liking decreased with increasing concentration of phenol extract, most likely due to the more intense sourness and astringency intensity in the samples with higher extract concentrations (1.11 and 1.93 g/kg). Interestingly, a segment of consumers, described by a low food neophobia level and high emotional eating, preferred samples characterized by sourness and astringency. These results suggest that the development of functional phenol-enriched products using winemaking by-products is challenging due to their sensory properties that negatively influence consumers’ acceptance. However, with appropriate segmentation strategies it could be possible to identify specific target consumers who could be satisfied by these new highly antioxidant foods. This work is part of PRIN 2015 project (Prot. 20158YJW3W).