Sensory evaluation of ‘free range’ and regular pork meat under different conditions of experience and awareness

Abstract

An experiment is presented where ‘free range’ pork meat was chosen as a vehicle to explore the effects of non-sensory factors on sensory evaluation. A sample of 172 consumers participated in experimental tasting sessions. Two between-person factors, prior experience and labelling, and one within-person factor, meat type, were experimentally manipulated. Prior experience was found to have significant effects on the evaluation of the sensory attributes savoury, dry and pleasant only. No significant main effects were found for the labelling factor. However, many interactions for both labelling and experience with meat type were found significant, as well as their second order interactions between all three factors. Labelling and prior experience with the product do influence sensory evaluation of ‘free range’ pork favourably for a number of attributes. At least for the group of consumers that had prior experience with ‘free range’ pork, a strong positive image may be hypothesized.