Utilização de metodologias com consumidores para o desenvolvimento de bebida mista de romã (Punica granatun L.)

Abstract

The large number of new products that are developed and made available to the consumer has allowed access to industrialized food, which are sources of carbohydrates and saturated fats. The high consumption of this type of product in Brazil associated with the decreased physical activity, resulted in the epidemiological phenomenon known as nutritional transition, characterized by overweight and obesity. This trend is not only observed in Brazil, therefore the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the reduction of sugar and fat consumption. From this scenario, this study aimed to develop a beverage of pomegranate as a healthier alternative to products available in the market. The pomegranate is a fruit with low use in Brazil; however, it presents nutritional characteristics that justify the increase in consumption. It was performed an online study to identify the fruit that would compose the mixed juice with pomegranate, and it has been suggested the orange. Then, it was evaluated the beverages intention to purchase. The blend of orange and pomegranate reached the highest average score for such as parameter by consumers, and the sugar content reached the highest relative importance. In a second phase of the study it was evaluated the formulations by varying the ratio water/pulp, pomegranate/orange and sugar content. The most preferred sample had a lower proportion of pomegranate pulp, higher orange content and sugar. The following study has focused on the replacement of sucrose by high intensity sweeteners (sucralose, stevia and monk fruit extract) were evaluated. Firstly it was estimated the sweetness equivalence for each of them using two different methods (paired comparison and magnitude estimation), and two ways of data analyses (logistic regression and survival analysis). The methods provided similar results, but the survival analysis showed a better alternative for the data analysis. From this result it was investigated the effect of information on the sweetener used on the perception of the product. It was considered the effect of extrinsic variables, namely: design (traditional vs. minimalist), nutritional information (present vs. absent), processing information technology (present vs. absent) and nutritional traffic light (present vs. absent) on the consumer intention to purchase, considering the time constraint as a variable in the study. The time factor did not affect the purchase intent and the highest averages were achieved by packaging with traditional design, which was used in the subsequent study. The study investigated the effects of the information on the additive used to sweeten beverages (sweetener: sucralose, stevia or extract of monk fruit; or sucrose: sugar or no added sugar) on the acceptance, sensory characteristics and wellbeing associated with the beverages. The information was significant on the sensory description of the samples, wellbeing associated to the products and acceptance. Results have shown that samples with the most similar characteristics to the beverage sweetened with sugar were those that achieved the highest acceptance means. The findings achieved in the several studies carried out in this Thesis can be considered relevantto the development of healthier products, which include pomegranate in its composition.