Sensory evaluation and willingness to pay for food safety

Progetto europea "CoExtra - GM and non GM supply chains: their COEXistence and TRAceability". Contratto n° 007158, realizzato nell'ambito del Sesto Programma Quadro - Priorità 5 «Food Quality and Safety». ; International audience; Until recently, fresh fruits such as pears were provided to markets as generic products. Nowadays, these products are differentiated by cultivars, origins and appearances, as well as by companies’ production and processing methods. Therefore, we may now observe a lot of denominations of origin, retailers’ and private labels in order to signal the differentiation to the consumers, who are often willing to pay large price premiums for products with specific attributes. Indeed the value consumers put on fruits depends on the degree of product-information that is available to them and this information derives mainly from tasting and from the label of the products. In this paper, we used an experimental auction to assess how information on quality attributes affects consumers’ willingness to pay for different types of pears. The BDM auction mechanism was combined with sensory analyses in order to develop an integrated approach to evaluate product’s attributes. The main results show that information on the products’ characteristics related to food safety, instantly influences consumers’ willingness to pay. However, it appears that, in the end, sensory intrinsic attributes related to taste beat the guarantee of food safety in driving the buying behaviour.