Can ingredients and information interventions affect the hedonic level and (emo-sensory) perceptions of the milk chocolate and cocoa drink’s consumers?

Dimas Rahadian Aji Muhammad; Nanik Maya Marettama; Gusti Fauza; Dian Rachmawanti Affandi

doi:10.1515/opag-2022-0146

Article Open Access

Can ingredients and information interventions affect the hedonic level and (emo-sensory) perceptions of the milk chocolate and cocoa drink’s consumers?

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Published/Copyright: October 27, 2022

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From the journal Open Agriculture Volume 7 Issue 1

Abstract

To increase the competitiveness of chocolate and cocoa drink on the market, innovation of the products is substantially required. Incorporation of additional ingredients, i.e., ginger and cinnamon, as well giving information intervention on their health effect may increase the consumer acceptance as well as advance the consumer perception on the products. This study, therefore, aims to determine the effect of additional ingredient and intervention on health-related information on the hedonic level, emo-sensory response and collative perception of panelists on milk chocolate and cocoa drinks, which were enriched with additional ingredients, i.e., ginger, cinnamon and stabilizers. This study used descriptive quantitative method in which the data were obtained from 40 panelists. Correspondence analysis was used to see the emo-sensory profile and panelist perceptions that were emerged from each sample. The results show that the addition of spices to chocolate and cocoa drinks resulted in a statistically significant decrease in the hedonic level. However, the use of stabilizer significantly improved the hedonic level of cocoa drink. The hedonic responses, emotions and collative perceptions of the panelists were influenced by the product information, particularly on the products with the addition of spices.

Keywords: milk chocolate; cocoa drink; information intervention; collative perception

1 Introduction

Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) is a commodity with economic significant in many countries. Indonesia is currently ranked 6th in the world’s largest cocoa producers and thus one of the largest cocoas exporters. As such, in 2018, 2019 and 2020, cocoa production in Indonesia reached 767,280, 734,796 and 713,378 tons, respectively [1]. Nevertheless, there are several shortcomings in this sector, including in the aspects of cocoa cultivation, maintenance, harvest/post-harvest, processing and marketing [2]. Milk chocolate and cocoa drink are the most famous cocoa-derived products made from cocoa bean, which is rich naturally in bioactive compounds serving as natural antioxidants. Catechin, epicatechin, procyanidin B1 and procyanidin B2 are some examples of active compounds exhibiting antioxidant activity commonly found in cocoa [3,4]. Basically, chocolate is formulated using cocoa mass, cocoa butter, milk sugar and emulsifier, while cocoa drink is produced from a mixture of cocoa powder, sugar, stabilizer and water [5,6]. The market of cocoa-derived products is so competitive, and therefore, to increase the competitiveness of chocolate and cocoa drink in the market, innovation of the products is substantially required.

To overcome this issue, some food industries and scientist attempted to do product diversification, including developing chocolate and cocoa drink with the enrichment of probiotics, various herbs and spices as well as other types of functional ingredients [5,7,8,9,10]. The reason of the herb and spice fortification is to enhance the health-promoting properties of the product. Many studies have shown that herbs and spices are rich in bioactive compounds having various potential health benefits. As such, cinnamon has been reposted to contain catechin, epicatechin, quercitrin and protocatechuic acid [11,12]. Previous studies show that cinnamon and ginger are two kinds of popular spice often added in cocoa-derived products, particularly for improving the flavor characteristic as well as health-promoting properties of the products [8,13]. In the product of cocoa drink, the additional material normally added into the formula is stabilizer. The stabilizer is required to enhance the suspension stability. This is because cocoa powder in the cocoa drink system is prone to sedimentation, and thus, the appearance of the product is not good anymore, resulting in a decrease in consumer acceptance [4,6,8].

In the product development, sensory aspect is highly important particularly for obtaining a high consumer acceptance [14]. Sensory aspect is a complex matter. Sensory is not only related to the response of body to the external stimuli, but sensory is also associated with emotions – which are more subjective than other psychological reactions, fluctuating and linked to the recognition of sensory signals [15]. Thus, food is a prominent source of emotion in which by recognizing the emotional response of consuming food, an emotional experience is obtained. It entails a multisensory approach, namely the process of understanding the way the senses evoke particular emotional experiences [16]. It explains the consumer preference toward products that bring positive emotions such as joyful and peaceful. On the contrary, products that represent negative emotions such as anxiety and boredom tend to be shunned by consumers [17]. As such, Muhammad et al. [18] showed that a new type of chocolate namely single-origin chocolate affected the emotion of consumer meaning that different chocolate types elicited different panelist emotion.

To the best of our knowledge, a study related to the elicited emotions of chocolate and cocoa drink enriched with spices has never been done. Furthermore, there is also no study related to the elicited emotions and consumer perception of cocoa drink enriched with stabilizer. This is important because stabilizer on the one hand improves the suspension stability of cocoa drink but on the other hand may have a risk to health particularly for human gastrointestinal system [19]. With regard to health impact of food, either positive or negative, investigating the effect of information intervention is substantial. According to Chan et al. [20], for instance, providing simple information related to health effect of a product is vital at the point of sale of the product and even can be a potential strategy for improving population diet. Furthermore, as well stressed in the study of Oliveira et al. [21], providing food information could become part of strategy to promote health.

Thus, the responses acquired from the panelists after the evaluation of emo-sensory and collative perceptions are used as a reference for the chocolate industry in developing chocolate products with better and desired attributes. However, only few studies discuss these dimensions, despite the useful information that can be gained from these dimensions to assess and analyze the level of consumer acceptance of a product. This study, therefore, aims to investigate the level of preference, emo-sensory and perception of the panelists on milk chocolate and cocoa drink-enriched additional ingredients (i.e., spices and stabilizer) with and without information intervention related to health.

2 Materials and methods

2.1 Preparation of chocolate bars

The samples used in this study were milk chocolate bars, which were previously in-house developed at Universitas Sebelas Maret. Milk chocolate compound produced by PT Freyabadi Indotama, Karawang (Indonesia), was used to make the milk chocolate bar. Fine powder of ginger and cinnamon was obtained from local market with a brand name of Koepoe Koepoe (PT Gunacipta Multirasa, Tangerang, Indonesia). Shortly, 500 g of the chocolate was melted at a temperature of 40°C. The molten chocolate was then mixed with 25 g of ginger powder or cinnamon powder followed by a refining process using a Cocoatown ECGC12SL melanger for 15 min. The chocolate was molded and cooled at 8°C to have a solid chocolate. After demolding, the chocolate containing ginger or cinnamon powder was then packed using aluminum foil and stored properly until used for analysis.

2.2 Preparation of cocoa drink

The cocoa drink samples were also prepared according to an in-house developed method [14]. Materials used in the preparation of cocoa drink samples included cocoa powder containing fat of 10–12% (PT Frey Abadi Indotama, Indonesia), refined sugar (PT Adi Karya Gemilang, Lampung, Indonesia), nondairy creamer (PT Sari Incofood Corporation, Deli Serdang, Indonesia), corn starch (PT Egafood, Jakarta, Indonesia) and salt (PT Susanti Megah, Surabaya, Indonesia) were obtained from a local market in Surakarta and xanthan gum were obtained from UD Cipta Kimia (Surakarta, Indonesia). Briefly, cocoa powder and refined sugar are homogenized using an 80-mesh sieve. Afterwards, a basic cocoa mix was made by mixing 7.5 g of cocoa powder (25%), 15 g of refined sugar (50%), 6 g of nondairy creamer (20%), 1.47 g of corn starch (4.9%) and 0.03 g of salt (0.1%). The cocoa mix with additional ingredients was made by mixing 0.09 g of xanthan gum, 0.6 g of ginger powder or 0.6 g of cinnamon powder. Into the cocoa mix, 200 mL of water at 80°C was added, and then, the mixture was stirred until well mixed. Finally, the cocoa drink was kept in a plastic bottle and stored in the refrigerator at 5°C until further use.

2.3 Sensory analysis

Sensory evaluation through scoring method was performed on the samples, namely three samples of milk chocolate bars (control, ginger-milk chocolate, cinnamon-milk chocolate) and six samples of cocoa drink (cocoa drink control, cocoa drink with cinnamon, cocoa drink with ginger, cocoa drink control with stabilizer, cocoa drink with cinnamon and stabilizer and cocoa drink with ginger and stabilizer) to determine the level of preference based on the panel preference. The schematic diagram of the test is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

Schematic diagram of the research design.

In the preference test, 40 panelists were involved. The panelists used in this research were the university students of Universitas Sebelas Maret with the age ranged from 19 to 22 years old. About 65% of participants were woman and the rest were man. All participants were in a good health condition. The parameters used in the test were appearance, aroma, texture, taste and overall acceptance with a 7-point rating scale, from 1 (dislike extremely) to 7 (like extremely). Emo-sensory and sensory perception tests were also carried out. Emotional attributes include happy, interested, relaxed, comfortable, satisfied, strong, excited, disappointed, dissatisfied, sad, disgusted, angry and bored. Perceptual or collative properties include authentic/original, complex, familiar, simple, not original, unusual and usual followed previous studies [18,22,23].

Informed consent: Informed consent has been obtained from all individuals included in this study.
Ethical approval: The sensory analysis involved human as the panelist, and therefore, the ethical clearance was applied. The research related to human use has been complied with all the relevant national regulations, institutional policies and in accordance with the tenets of the Helsinki Declaration, and has been approved by the Health Research Ethics Committee of Dr. Moewardi General Hospital (No. 558/IV/HREC/2022).

2.4 Research design

In the present study, a blind and informed test was carried out. The following information was enclosed in the sensory sheet for investigating the effect of the health effect of ginger and cinnamon: “(1) cinnamon contains antioxidant and is beneficial for health particularly due to its ability as anti-tumour and anti-viral agents as well as to help improving blood lipid profile and reducing blood pressure; (2) ginger contains antioxidant and is beneficial for health particularly improving digestion system, increasing appetite and strengthening heart.” Meanwhile, the following information was enclosed in the sensory sheet for investigating the effect of the health effect of stabilizer: “Stabilizer containing in this cocoa drink may have an adverse effect particularly in the digestion system if consumed in high portion.”

Identification of the effect of additional ingredients on the sample was done using the Friedman test with a significance level of 5% and Tukey post hoc test. Identification of the effect of stabilizer or information intervention was done using a non-parametric analysis by means of the Mann–Whitney U test (IBM SPSS Statistics Version 25.0). Analysis of emo-sensory and sensory perceptions was done using the CATA (Check-All-That-Apply) method [23] with the Cochran’s Q test and Correspondence analysis assisted by using XLSTAT 2021 (Addinsoft, Paris, France).

3 Results and discussion

3.1 Hedonic response of consumers as affected by additional ingredients and information intervention

3.1.1 Effect of additional ingredients

Sensory characteristic is a highly important for determining product’s competitiveness in the market, including for newly developed cocoa-derived products such as chocolate and cocoa drink. Appearance, aroma, taste and texture are substantial attributes determining overall acceptance. Briefly, appearance is the visual properties of food including color, size, shape and surface texture. Aroma is an odor caused by volatile compounds of the food that is perceived by the sensory organ of the nasal cavity through the olfactory system. Aroma is identified when these volatile compounds enter the nose when humans inhale them. Texture is a combination of several physical properties of a food product that can be felt by the senses of taste, touch and sight. Texture is the result of tactile sense to stimuli when there is a contact between oral cavity and foods [24].

These attributes can be the indicator whether a product will be liked or not. Table 1 shows the effect of ginger and cinnamon on the consumer acceptance of chocolate bars. It is shown that the addition of these spices in chocolate formula could not increase the hedonic response of consumer, and even in some cases, the addition significantly decreased the product acceptability. As such, in the attributes of aroma, the chocolate controls obtained a hedonic response of 5.15 ± 0.83, while chocolate added with ginger and cinnamon gained scores of 3.88 ± 1.04 and 4.10 ± 1.03, respectively. This also happened in the parameter of taste, appearance and texture.

Table 1

Panelists’ hedonic response of chocolate bars formulated with ginger and cinnamon

Chocolate sample	Appearance	Aroma	Texture	Taste	Overall
Choc. control	5.38 ± 0.71^b	5.15 ± 0.83^b	5.18 ± 0.68^b	5.43 ± 0.78^c	5.42 ± 0.71^b
Choc. ginger	4.95 ± 0.78^a	3.88 ± 1.04^a	4.70 ± 0.85^ab	3.32 ± 1.19^a	3.88 ± 1.04^a
Choc. cinnamon	5.37 ± 0.67^b	4.10 ± 1.03^a	4.68 ± 1.12^a	4.30 ± 1.22^b	4.30 ± 1.09^a

Samples are tested separately with score 1 – very dislike; 2 – dislike; 3 – slightly dislike; 4 – sightly like; 5 – like and 6 – very like.

Mean values with different superscript on the same column are significantly different at α = 0.05 level.

A decrease in consumer acceptance in the parameter of appearance and texture was less pronounced than those of aroma and taste. This can be understood because spices are generally really strong in aroma and taste and, thus, significantly influence the aroma and taste of the enriched-product. For instance, cinnamon contains volatile compounds such as cinnamaldehyde, limonene, linalool, 4-terpineol and cinnamyl acetate as well as nonvolatile compounds such as catechin, epicatechin, procyanidin, quercitrin, 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde, protocatechuic acid and cinnamic acid in which the presence is able to significantly alter the aroma and taste of the product [12,13]. Meanwhile, ginger has strong volatile compounds due to sesquiterpene and monoterpene derivatives [25]. As a result, the overall acceptance of spiced-chocolates was lower than control agreeing the previous study of Ilmi et al. [26].

The similar phenomenon was also found in the case of cocoa drink, which was supplemented with ginger and cinnamon (Table 2). Significant decreases of the hedonic level at the attribute of aroma and taste were identified. The above explanation may be true as well for the cocoa drink formulated with spices. This means that the addition of ginger and cinnamon at a concentration of 2% was strong enough to alter the aroma and taste of the cocoa drink. It is perceptible that the addition of spices to cocoa drink did not significantly affect the consumer acceptance on the parameter of appearance. It is presumably because the concentration of ginger and cinnamon powder is relatively low, namely 2%; thus, the effect on appearance is relatively unnoticeable.

Table 2

Panelists’ hedonic response of cocoa drinks formulated with ginger, cinnamon powder and stabilizer

Cocoa drink sample	Appearance	Aroma	Texture	Taste	Overall
Cocoa drink control	4 . 37 ± 0 . 87 A a	4 . 85 ± 0 . 66 A b	4 . 58 ± 0 . 96 A b	4 . 80 ± 1 . 04 A b	4 . 65 ± 0 . 92 A b
Cocoa drink cinnamon	4 . 08 ± 1 . 02 A a	3 . 45 ± 1 . 09 A a	4 . 08 ± 1 . 02 A ab	3 . 72 ± 1 . 15 A a	3 . 70 ± 1 . 02 A a
Cocoa drink ginger	4 . 10 ± 0 . 96 A a	3 . 70 ± 1 . 02 A a	4 . 00 ± 0 . 93 A a	3 . 50 ± 1 . 20 A a	3 . 78 ± 0 . 95 A a
Cocoa drink control + stabilizer	5 . 03 ± 0 . 58 B a	4 . 95 ± 0 . 75 A b	4 . 88 ± 0 . 76 A b	5 . 12 ± 0 . 79 A b	5 . 05 ± 0 . 78 B b
Cocoa drink cinnamon + stabilizer	4 . 70 ± 0 . 76 B a	4 . 65 ± 1 . 21 A a	4 . 27 ± 0 . 88 A a	3 . 38 ± 1 . 17 A a	3 . 55 ± 0 . 96 A a
Cocoa drink ginger + stabilizer	4 . 70 ± 0 . 88 B a	3 . 98 ± 0 . 97 A a	4 . 58 ± 0 . 81 B ab	3 . 65 ± 1 . 37 A a	4 . 00 ± 0 . 99 A a

Samples are tested separately with score 1 – very dislike; 2 – dislike; 3 – slightly dislike; 4 – sightly like; 5 – like and 6 – very like.

Mean values with different superscripts within the same column are significantly different (ρ = 0.05).

Mean values with different subscripts within the same column are significantly different between with and without the addition of stabilizer at α = 0.05 level.

Table 2 also shows that the addition of stabilizer can really improve the consumers’ hedonic response particularly in the attribute of appearance as hypothesized. Previous studies have shown that stabilizer has an ability to improve the viscosity of cocoa drink and to form hydrocolloid network, which can significantly improve the suspension stability of cocoa particles and prevent sedimentation [4,6]. As a result, a better appearance was attained and a higher hedonic level was obtained. Interestingly, the ability of stabilizer to improve the viscosity of cocoa drink may have additional effect, which is improvement of consumer acceptance in the attribute of texture. In the case of cocoa drink formulated with ginger, for instance, it is shown that the hedonic score of the drink without stabilizer was 4.00 ± 0.93, while that of with stabilizer was 4.58 ± 0.81.

3.1.2 Effect of information intervention

Generally, information given on a product greatly determines consumer preferences for this product [27]. In the selection and determination of food products, customers tend to consider particular factors based on their needs. In this study, based on the results of the Mann–Whitney U test with a significance level of 0.05, the information given about health effect did not show any significant difference between chocolate formulated with ginger and the chocolate control particularly at the attributes of appearance and texture. Meanwhile, in terms of aroma, taste and overall attributes, the information intervention on the product significantly affects the acceptance (Table 3). Meanwhile, for the cinnamon-enriched chocolate, the information intervention did not have a significant effect on the customer acceptance at all the examined attributes.

Table 3

The effect of product information on hedonic response of chocolate bar formulated with ginger and cinnamon

Treatment	Chocolate sample	Appearance	Aroma	Texture	Taste	Overall
Blind	Choc. control	5.38 ± 0.71^a	5.15 ± 0.83^a	5.18 ± 0.68^a	5.43 ± 0.78^a	5.43 ± 0.71^a
	Choc. ginger	4.95 ± 0.78^a	3.88 ± 1.04^a	4.70 ± 0.85^a	3.32 ± 1.19^a	3.88 ± 1.04^a
	Choc. cinnamon	5.38 ± 0.67^a	4.10 ± 1.03^a	4.68 ± 1.12^a	4.30 ± 1.22^a	4.30 ± 1.09^a
Informed	Choc. control	5.43 ± 0.55^a	5.13 ± 0.85^a	5.08 ± 0.69^a	5.45 ± 0.75^a	5.40 ± 0.67^a
	Choc. ginger	5.20 ± 0.65^a	4.85 ± 0.83^b	4.68 ± 0.76^a	4.43 ± 0.98^b	4.75 ± 0.67^b
	Choc. cinnamon	5.45 ± 0.64^a	4.53 ± 1.09^a	4.65 ± 0.89^a	4.58 ± 0.98^a	4.78 ± 0.83^a

Samples are tested separately with score 1 – very dislike; 2 – dislike; 3 – slightly dislike; 4 – sightly like; 5 – like and 6 – very like.

Mean values with different superscripts between blind and informed treatment from each sample means there are effects provided from product information at α = 0.05 level.

Table 4 shows that the effect of information intervention on the hedonic level of the panelist to cocoa drink product mostly had no significant effect. It is noted that the information intervention positively affected the attributes of aroma, texture and taste of cocoa drink formulated with cinnamon and stabilizer, as well as aroma of cocoa drink formulated with ginger and stabilizer. It has been well-known that information intervention can affect consumers’ hedonic response to food, including the information of health effect of the food, in addition to the information of organic, origin, brand, production method, ethics and descriptive food names and ingredients [28]. However, in this study, most of responses were not significantly influenced by information intervention. It might be because ginger and cinnamon have been already well-known as spices containing health-promoting properties in the area where this study is located. Using other ingredients that are not familiar to the consumer may be interesting for the next research to validate this hypothesis.

Table 4

The effect of product information on hedonic response of cocoa drinks formulated with ginger and cinnamon

Treatment	Cocoa drink sample	Appearance	Aroma	Texture	Taste	Overall
Blind	Cocoa drink control	4.38 ± 0.87^a	4.85 ± 0.66^a	4.58 ± 0.96^a	4.80 ± 1.04^a	4.65 ± 0.92^a
	Cocoa drink cinnamon	4.08 ± 1.02^a	3.45 ± 1.09^a	4.08 ± 1.02^a	3.73 ± 1.15^a	3.70 ± 1.02^a
	Cocoa drink ginger	4.10 ± 0.96^a	4.33 ± 1.14^a	4.00 ± 0.93^a	3.50 ± 1.20^a	3.78 ± 0.95^a
	Cocoa drink control + stabilizer	5.03 ± 0.58^a	4.95 ± 0.75^a	4.88 ± 0.76^a	5.13 ± 0.79^a	5.05 ± 0.78^a
	Cocoa drink cinnamon + stabilizer	4.70 ± 0.76^a	3.65 ± 1.21^a	4.28 ± 0.88^a	3.38 ± 1.17^a	3.55 ± 0.96^a
	Cocoa drink ginger + stabilizer	4.70 ± 0.88^a	3.98 ± 0.97^a	4.58 ± 0.81^a	3.65 ± 1.37^a	4.00 ± 0.99^a
Informed	Cocoa drink control	4.68 ± 0.80^a	4.85 ± 0.89^a	4.55 ± 0.93^a	5.18 ± 0.96^a	4.95 ± 0.75^a
	Cocoa drink cinnamon	4.38 ± 1.10^a	4.28 ± 0.99^b	4.08 ± 1.07^a	3.93 ± 1.14^a	4.03 ± 0.89^a
	Cocoa drink ginger	4.33 ± 1.14^a	4.20 ± 1.02^a	4.03 ± 1.03^a	3.95 ± 1.28^a	4.13 ± 1.07^a
	Cocoa drink control + stabilizer	4.98 ± 0.80^a	4.95 ± 0.90^a	4.93 ± 0.83^a	5.18 ± 0.93^a	5.13 ± 0.79^a
	Cocoa drink cinnamon + stabilizer	4.80 ± 0.76^a	4.35 ± 0.98^b	4.75 ± 1.03^b	4.10 ± 1.22^b	4.43 ± 0.96^a
	Cocoa drink ginger + stabilizer	4.93 ± 0.73^a	4.58 ± 1.04^b	4.70 ± 0.91^a	4.53 ± 1.06^a	4.63 ± 1.01^a

Samples are tested separately with score 1 – very dislike; 2 – dislike; 3 – slightly dislike; 4 – sightly like; 5 – like and 6 – very like.

Mean values with different superscripts between Blind and Informed treatment from each sample means there are effects provided from product information at α = 0.05 level.

3.2 Emo-sensory profile of cocoa-derived products as affected by additional ingredients and information intervention

3.2.1 Effect of additional ingredients

To identify the customer acceptance toward a product, hedonic responses are perceived to be insufficient. Therefore, emotional responses are commonly included to provide information about customer acceptance as they can describe more various points of view from diverse customers [18,22]. Figure 2 shows that emotional response of consumer to chocolate and cocoa drink was significantly affected by the additional ingredients supplemented to the original formula. As such, chocolate control tends to have “pleased” and “pleasant” attributes. Meanwhile, in the other quadrants, chocolate formulated with ginger obtained “bored,” “disgusted,” “strong” and “disappointed” responses from the consumers and chocolate supplemented with cinnamon closely related to “calm,” “fed up,” “satisfied,” attractive,” “angry” and “enthusiastic.” Flavor compounds contained in the ginger and cinnamon may significantly alter the sensory characteristic of the chocolate, and thus, the emotional response of the consumers to the chocolate also changed.

Figure 2

Emo-sensory profile of chocolate bar without information intervention (a) and with information intervention (b) and cocoa drink without information intervention (c) and with information intervention (d).

The supplementation of ginger and cinnamon also altered the emotional response of the consumers to cocoa drink in which the cocoa drink control, cocoa drink with ginger and cocoa drink with cinnamon are in the three different quadrants. The emotional response of the consumers to cocoa drink with ginger and cinnamon was most likely similar to that to chocolate formulated with the spices. In general, ginger is likely to get “bored,” “disgusted,” “strong” and “disappointed” responses, while cinnamon is likely to get “fed up” and “angry” responses. This may be true as well when the spices are applied in other food products.

The addition of stabilizer in the cocoa drink did not significantly change the emotional response of the consumer, except for the cocoa drink formulated with cinnamon. The combination of cinnamon and stabilizer resulted in a similar quadrant with the cocoa drink formulated with ginger and stabilizer. In the technological point of a view, the addition of stabilizer can have significant impact on the appearance of cocoa drink [4,6]. In the previous section, the stabilizer also improved the hedonic response of the consumers. However, in terms of emotional response, there is no meaningful effect of the stabilizer incorporation.

3.2.2 Effect of information intervention

Figure 2 also illustrates the comparison between the emo-sensory profile of chocolate bar without information intervention (a) and with information intervention (b) as well as cocoa drink without information intervention (c) and with information intervention (d). By comparing Figure 2a and b, it is clear that, in both test conditions, the chocolate samples were still spread in three different quadrants. The differences are spotted in the chocolate control in which the sample obtained “enthusiastic” and “calm” responses. Meanwhile, the chocolate formulated with cinnamon obtained “bored” and “sad” responses.

In samples of cocoa drink, the information intervention did not affect the emotional responses as well. As such, the cocoa drink control tends to have “pleased,” “pleasant” and “satisfied” properties, regardless the stabilizer addition. Meanwhile, the cocoa drink with spices, which were tested with information intervention, still obtained responses as similar to that without information intervention such as “bored,” “disgusted,” “strong” and “disappointed” responses. This finding is different with the result obtained in the study of Oliveira et al. [29] who is believe that information intervention has positive effect on customer perceptions toward the sensory characteristics, physical health and emotional aspects. The unsignificant effect of information intervention in this study might be because ginger and cinnamon have been already familiar to the consumer. Thus, even before receiving information about the samples, the consumers already have knowledge background related to the functional properties of the spices.

3.3 Collative properties of cocoa-derived products as affected by additional ingredients and information intervention

3.3.1 Effect of additional ingredients

In addition to the emotional responses that may arise toward a product, the assessment of collative properties is required to identify the level of consumer acceptance, which can be used as a reference in future product development [30]. The correspondence analysis has been conducted, and the perception of collative properties of chocolate bars is presented in Figure 3. The dominant collative properties of the chocolate control are “like chocolate in general,” “familiar” and “common.” Meanwhile, as expected, the chocolate formulated with spices is “not like chocolate in general,” “not authentic” and “complex.” Interestingly, the properties of “authentic” and “simple” also exist implying that the ginger and cinnamon are already well known. In the cocoa drink samples, a similar situation was found in which the dominant collative properties of the cocoa drink control are “like chocolate in general,” “familiar” and “common,” regardless the addition of stabilizer. The properties of “not like chocolate in general,” “not authentic,” “complex,” “authentic” and “simple” also present in the cocoa drink formulated with spices with or without stabilizer.

Figure 3

Consumer’s collative perception of chocolate bar without information intervention (a) and with information intervention (b) and cocoa drink without information intervention (c) and with information intervention (d).

3.3.2 Effect of information intervention

Figure 3 also shows that without any information intervention, the perception of collative properties of the samples is different from that under informed condition. Each sample is located in different quadrants, indicating that each sample has different characteristics based on customer perception. Under blind condition, the dominant collative properties of the chocolate control are “familiar” and “common.” Meanwhile the dominant collative properties of the chocolate formulated with cinnamon are “complex,” “authentic,” “simple” and “not original”; and the chocolate formulated with ginger is perceived to be “unusual” and “unlike other products.”

Under informed condition, the dominant collative properties of the original chocolate are “simple” and “authentic,” in addition to “familiar” and “usual.” Meanwhile, the dominant collative properties of chocolates formulated with cinnamon or ginger are “complex” and “not like chocolate in general.” These responses may be due to the complex formula of the chocolates resulting a more complex flavor. Also, correlating chocolate with health may result in a complex situation according to the consumer. In terms of cocoa drink, it is shown once again that information intervention did not significantly influence the perception of collative properties of the products. Cocoa drink control regardless the stabilizer addition has “familiar,” “common” and “like chocolate in general” properties, while the cocoa drink formulated with ginger or cinnamon has “like chocolate in general” characteristic.

4 Conclusion

The present study concludes that the addition of ginger and cinnamon in chocolate and cocoa drink formula could not increase the hedonic response of consumer, and even in some cases, the addition significantly decreased the product acceptability. However, the addition of stabilizer in the cocoa drink formula had an advantageous effect on the level of customer acceptance particularly on the attributes of texture and appearance. The supplementation of spices altered the emotional response and also collative properties of the chocolate and cocoa drink, but the incorporation of stabilizer in cocoa drink resulted in a less-pronounced effect on both the emotional response and also collative properties. In this study, information intervention only resulted in a very limited effect that may be because the consumers already have a strong knowledge to the additional ingredients. Therefore, further studies investigating the effect of familiarity to material on the consumer acceptance, emotional response and collative properties of the newly developed products may be interesting. The result obtained from the study can be useful to design a strategy for developing a new food product.

Funding information: This research is financially supported by Universitas Sebelas Maret within the scheme of Hibah Penelitian Unggulan Terapan (No. 254/UN27.22/PT.01.03/2022).
Author contributions: DRAM: conceptualization, funding acquisition, supervision, writing – review and editing; NMM: data curation, investigation, formal analysis, writing – original draft; GF: formal analysis, resources, validation, funding acquisition; DRA: validation, writing – review and editing, funding acquisition
Conflict of interest: The authors state no conflict of interest.
Data availability statement: The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Received: 2022-08-21

Revised: 2022-09-15

Accepted: 2022-10-01

Published Online: 2022-10-27

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/opag-2022-0146

Keywords for this article

milk chocolate; cocoa drink; information intervention; collative perception

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