In a current research revealed within the journal LWT – Meals Science and Expertise, researchers in Brazil and Switzerland examined client perceptions and attitudes in direction of açaí and Spirulina.
Client pursuits have shifted in direction of meals that mitigate illness danger and enhance well being/well-being. Spirulina and açaí have been acknowledged as superfoods attributable to their dietary worth and useful well being properties. Spirulina has been used for many years as meals and is acknowledged for its composition of superior bioactive compounds. This microalga will be cultivated with out requiring arable land. The açaí berry, a Brazilian fruit, incorporates excessive bioactive compounds.
Research: Attitudes of shoppers towards Spirulina and açaí and their use as a meals ingredient. Picture Credit score: artem evdokimov / Shutterstock
The research and findings
Within the current research, researchers evaluated the perceptions and attitudes of shoppers towards açaí and Spirulina as meals in Switzerland. They surveyed contributors from March to April 2019 utilizing a questionnaire to look at their consumption and perceptions. The questionnaire additionally collected sociodemographic and persona/behavior-related knowledge.
Members rated their information of those meals on a six-point hedonic scale within the first a part of the questionnaire. Subsequent, they had been supplied info on these meals, particularly sustainability, well being advantages, and sensory traits. Additional, contributors had been requested to point how probably they had been to incorporate Spirulina/açaí-based meals as a part of their weight-reduction plan, rated on a six-point scale.
Total, knowledge from 442 questionnaires had been included within the evaluation. Most contributors had been females (56%), staff (63%), and concrete residents (51%), and had been chargeable for cooking (78%) and shopping for meals (85%). Almost half the pattern had no prior information of Spirulina. Solely 9% of contributors had been conscious of Spirulina. However, 62% of respondents had been unaware of the açaí fruit, and solely 4.3% knew about this fruit.
Extra Swiss shoppers had been acquainted with Spirulina than with açaí, most likely as a result of this and different microalgae are produced in Europe. Survey outcomes steered that health- and sustainability-related info however not sensory attributes vastly influenced the consumption of Spirulina, in line with outcomes from the Netherlands, France, and Germany. Customers had been almost certainly to incorporate Spirulina-enriched pasta and cereal bars and açaí-based yogurt and juice of their diets.
Over 30% of contributors revealed that they might add açaí-based yogurt to their weight-reduction plan. Açaí-based cereal bars had been extra prone to be included within the weight-reduction plan by youthful contributors, adopted by the inclusion of açaí-fortified breakfast cereal and Spirulina-based cereal bars and pasta. Açaí-based yogurt and açaí/Spirulina-based cereal bars had been extra prone to be adopted by older contributors aged 66-79.
Conclusions
In abstract, the findings demonstrated that açaí and Spirulina had been comparatively unknown amongst contributors. The sensory traits of those meals least influenced Spirulina consumption. Respondents had been likelier to eat pasta and cereal bars enriched with Spirulina and açaí-enriched yogurt and juice. The researchers recognized age as an element influencing meals alternative.
Customers could improve the chances of consuming these merchandise after they obtain extra info on the well being advantages of including them to their diets. Providing Spirulina/açaí-enriched meals extra broadly could assist improve client consciousness. Additional, selling gastronomic occasions utilizing açaí/Spirulina as components and together with inventive recipes on meals packaging may additionally encourage folks to eat these meals.
