Food-Evoked Emotion, Product Acceptance, Food Preference, Food Choice and Consumption: The New Perspective on Developing Novel and Healthier Products

Food choice, acceptance, preference, and consumption are affected by many factors, including both intrinsic and extrinsic factors and cues. Emotions are becoming a critical component in designing products that meet consumers’ needs and expectations. Emotional profiles may effectively differentiate products with similar sensory characteristics and hedonic ratings; hence, they may provide additional information that goes beyond traditional hedonic ratings. In addition to the sensory quality of food, food-evoked emotion has been reported to be critical in predicting a consumer's food preference, acceptance, and food choice, which are, in turn, critical in developing novel products. Appropriate health benefit information has also been reported to impact emotion, purchase decisions, and food choices. Human senses and cues play an instrumental role in food choice and intake, emotion, and product acceptance; hence, understanding their roles and importance is critical. This Special Issue includes both original and cutting-edge research and comprehensive reviews contributing to a deeper understanding of food-evoked emotion, food choice, preference, acceptance, and consumption. The editor hopes that the readers will find this Special Issue insightful and interesting. The work presented in this Special Issue inspired and encouraged future exploration of multidisciplinary research collaboration which would lead to a better understanding of the complex relationship among emotion, acceptance, preference, choice, and consumption of food.