Factors influencing consumers’ attitudes towards the consumption of grape pomace powder

Abstract

Grape pomace powder added to food is a trend in current literature, although there is still little data on consumers’ attitudes towards this ingredient. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate consumers’ behavior regarding the consumption of grape pomace-based products. To achieve this objective, 315 volunteers were recruited online in order to investigate whether grape residue powder added to a cake affects the initial acceptance of the product using a 7-point hedonic scale. By employing the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the main drivers of intention to purchase products with this by-product were evaluated with 5 hypotheses (attitude, health and environmental concerns, personal beliefs, and previous knowledge) with a 7-ponit Likert scale. Our findings showed that informing consumers of the presence of grape pomace powder in food formulation positively impacted the acceptance of the product. The TPB approach indicated that attitude, environmental concern, knowledge, and personal beliefs are key drivers of grape pomace powder consumption. The hypothesis that health concerns play a significant role in consumer intention of purchasing was statistically rejected. The results support the food industry marketing sector to explore the sustainable aspect of products added with food by-products with possible good acceptance.

Keywords

• Grape skin
• Grape bagasse
• Food by-product
• Planned behavior theory