Investigating the effect of artificial flavours and external information on consumer liking of apples

In this paper, the influence of flavour modification, artificially induced, on consumer acceptability of apple fruit is studied. The method consists of modifying the flavour of a real food matrix dipping apples into flavour solutions. Two flavouring compounds (linalool and anethole) that were responsible of "floral" and "anise" aroma descriptors, respectively, were considered here. The effectiveness of flavouring treatments was confirmed by instrumental analysis of volatile compounds profile using solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (SPME/GC-MS) and by discriminative and descriptive sensory analyses. The effect of flavour-impact was evaluated in an informed test on the two flavoured 'Fuji' apples: the consumers were asked to evaluate the global liking of the treated and non-treated apples with information regarding the aromatic features. Participants' additional data on the characteristics on their "ideal apple", attitudes toward natural food, food neophobia, and demographic data were also recorded by specific questionnaires. A statistically significant effect on liking was found for the flavour factor, whereas external information only affected apple acceptance for subgroups of consumers, depending on their attitude towards food.