Characterizing consumer emotional response to sweeteners using an emotion terminology questionnaire and facial expression analysis

Abstract Concerns associated with sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) have led to an increased consumer demand for sweetener alternatives that are functionally (and taste) equivalent to sucrose without the associated health risks. Measuring consumer emotions has the potential to aid the industry in subsequent ingredient decision-making. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship of consumer acceptability and emotional response of sweeteners in tea using a 9-point hedonic scale, an emotion term questionnaire (explicit), and a facial expression response (implicit). Participants (n = 30) evaluated a water sample (baseline), two (5%) sucrose-tea samples (control), and four equi-sweet alternative sweetener-tea samples (ace-k, sucralose, high fructose corn syrup and honey), divided by category (artificial; natural). Sessions (4 total, spread over 2 days) were divided by category and emotional response tool in a cross-over design. Facial expression responses were recorded in the first session of both days using FaceReader 5.0 and individual participant videos were analyzed per sample for 5-s post-consumption (α = 0.05) in the continuous analysis setting using automated facial expression analysis software. Emotional term responses were collected in the second session of each day and count frequencies of each term per sample were tabulated and analyzed. Hedonic acceptability was rated in all sessions on a 9-point scale. Alternative sweeteners were all rated ‘acceptable’ (score of 5 or higher), except for honey in one session. Only one alternative in each category was statistically different (p

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