*3.1. The Effect of the Surrounding Environment on Participants' Hedonic Ratings of Beef Steaks*

Tenderness, juiciness, and flavour are the most important palatability attributes affecting beef eating quality [23,24]. In this trial, participants evaluated beef steak in terms of smell, tenderness, juiciness, flavour, and overall liking in two different contextual settings. Participants were unaware that the sample of beef presented in both settings was taken from the same steak. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed that the environmental condition had a significant effect of liking of attributes smell (Z = −2.514, *p* = 0.012), tenderness (Z = −3.094, *p* = 0.002), juiciness (Z = −3.129, *p* = 0.002) and flavour (Z = −2.982, *p* = 0.003), with beef consumed in the VR restaurant environment setting receiving higher liking scores, compared to the sensory booths. In addition, overall liking scores were significantly greater (Z = −2.898, *p* = 0.004) for beef eaten in the VR context, indicating that the VR restaurant had a positive impact on participants' hedonic ratings of beef steaks. Descriptive statistics for the data is presented in Table 1. To the best of our knowledge, no studies to date have investigated the application of immersive technologies, such as VR, in meat sensory research. Hersleth et al., (2015) [25], showed that evoked meal contexts in the form of written texts and images, affected consumers' responses to both the intrinsic and extrinsic attributes in dry-cured ham, although the strongest effects were observed for the extrinsic ratings. In addition, many studies have demonstrated that a restaurant environment is typically associated with positive emotions [26–28], and that consumers tend to be more critical of beef tenderness in the home than in a restaurant [24]. Taken together, these findings indicate that the surrounding environment can considerably influence consumers' sensory perception of beef. As a result, VR technology could provide the food industry with new opportunities to improve sensory marketing efforts through the creation of immersive, multisensory dining experiences, specifically designed to enhance consumer engagement.

The potential for VR in creating a unique eating experience has never been more relevant, as the current coronavirus pandemic continues to hamper access to sharing meal experiences with family and friends. In addition, recent advancements in virtual reality and computational gastronomy could be used an as innovative tool to create multisensory meat-eating experiences while potentially alleviating the health concerns consumers often associate with red meat [13,29]. A more realistic insight into the environmental or contextual cues which influence sensory perception of meat, may also assist industry in developing innovative strategies that will assist in improving the meat-eating experience, and enhance brand characteristics by eliciting stronger emotional connections towards meat products.


**Table 1.** Means, standard deviations (SD), medians and interquartile ranges (IQR) for participant hedonic ratings \* of beef in a traditional sensory booth and a virtual reality (VR) restaurant environment.

\* Evaluated on a 9-point hedonic scale, where 1 = dislike extremely and 9 = like extremely.
