Understanding Consumers' Perception of Different Fish Species Marketed in Brazil using Word Association

Selection of Participants

The study was conducted using a convenient sample of Brazilian consumers indicated in qualitative research, to obtain information regarding their intimate feelings, beliefs, attitudes, and motivations [7, 15]. The research was carried out in cities of the southeast region of Brazil, and an interview was conducted with different potential consumers in the fish market, students and employees of the Federal Fluminense University, in addition to people with interest and willingness to participate in the study.

A total of 300 Brazilian consumers were interviewed. The participants received a questionnaire with socio-demographic questions and were divided into two groups (frequent consumers, FC; and occasional consumers; OC) classified according to their frequency of consumption of fish meat. The group of “frequent consumers” comprised the participants who consumed fish daily up to once a week, whereas the “occasional consumers” consisted of the participants who consumed fish once a month, a few times in the year, or only on special occasions. In this context, 150 participants classified as frequent consumers, and 150 as occasional fish consumers were allocated in the present study.

Procedures

The 300 selected participants, who previously answered the questionnaire, were required to complete a word association task about fish meat. The participants were approached individually and randomly at different places and presented to five different stimuli (fish species) in a randomized and balanced way on a white sheet of A4 paper [14, 15]. In this paper, they were asked to write the first four words, phrases, or expressions that came to mind when they received the stimulus [7, 13].

The words quoted in the 300 tests were grouped into 17 categories, through triangulation. To performed that, three different researchers utilized the semantic analysis and personal interpretation of each word and entered into a consensus to define the categories [7, 9, 15].

Data Analysis

The data from valid answers were analyzed [7], and the terms with similar meanings were grouped into categories by triangulation. The categories mentioned by at least 5% of consumers were considered for analyses [16] and 17 categories were established. The frequency of words mentioned and the categories within each class was calculated without considering if the words were provided by the same participant or not [7, 9, 14]. Thus, in some cases, the same participant provided more than one word assigned to the same category.

The presence of statistical differences in the frequency of word mention and the categories among consumer groups (frequent and occasional) was evaluated using chi-square tests. Then, a chi-square per cell test (p<.001, p<.01 e p<.05) was used to identify the source of variation of the Global Chi- square [17].

Word Association Task

The characteristics of participants in terms of gender and age of each group of consumption are summarized in Table 1. Regarding gender, 143 (48%) were female, and 157 (52%) were male, with a gender-balanced sample group. Concerning age, the participants aged between 18-29 years exhibited the highest percentage between frequent and occasional consumers of fish. The frequency of fish meat consumption is greater for males than for female participants. In respect of the frequency of consumption and age, FC kept the fish consumption regardless of age, whereas the OC exhibited a decrease in consumption as the age increased.

Significant differences in perception of fish consumers were observed between the FC and OC through the global chi-square (x² = 104, p <0.0001). In addition, variances were observed in the frequency of mention of individual words, as well as in the categories identified in the WA task of the five fish species studied The categories identified in the free word association and examples of the associated terms to consumers’ perceptions are exhibited in Table 2.

The individual associations regarding fish meat were mainly related to form of consumption and sensory characteristics, indicating the main motivations for fish consumption. The most cited categories were “form of consumption” (18%) and “sensory characteristics” (14%) (Table 2), followed by “origin” (8%) and “quality” (9%) of fish, suggesting that Brazilian consumers currently search for information about the traceability and hygienic-sanitary conditions fish meat.

A total of 15 of 17 categories (Table 3) were significant for both (FC and OC) consumer classes (p ≤.001). However, no significant relevance was observed for the categories “others” and “preference” (p ≥ .05).

Effect of the chi-square per cell. (+) or (-) indicate that the observed value is higher or lower than the expected theoretical value. Categories mentioned by last 5% of respondents. *p≤.05. p≤.01. *p≤.001. Table 3: Frequency of mention of the categories identified in the word association for fish species marketed in Brazil from frequent consumers (FC) and occasional consumers (OC).

Regarding fish species, panga was associated with “distrust,” “lack of knowledge,” and “origin” for FC (Table 3 p ≤.001). On the other hand, for the occasional consumers, panga was associated with “distrust” and “lack knowledge” (p ≤.001). The category “distrust” was evidenced for both classes of consumers, which could be explained by the frequent reports published by the Brazilian media, suggesting that this species is raised in contaminated places and in unsatisfactory sanitary conditions in Vietnamese producing industries. The category “distrust” has also been cited previously by Banovic, et al. [18] in a study conducted with fish consumers in the European Union using the WA technique, in which the authors documented the association of fish with chemical contaminants, antibiotics, and genetic mutation [18].

These results highlight the importance of studies emphasizing the safety of panga consumption. Food safety agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento (MAPA) has inspected panga fish suppliers in Vietnam, attesting their reliability. The Vietnamese industry has been adapted to the most diverse quality standards, from field production to fish processing and distribution around the world [20, 21].

The category “lack of knowledge” was attributed to panga by FC and OC, which could be attributed to the fact of this species was not a Brazilian, but an imported product. Previous investigations Wang & Freitas [22, 23] supported the lack of knowledge of panga fish by the consumers. Wang and Hsieh [22] reported on the menu of 37 restaurants and demonstrated that the majority of the available dishes (66.7%) are described generically as “fish,” although it was prepared with panga. Freitas and Miguel [23] reported that 105 from 114 conumers did not have knowledge about panga fish.. This fish is often consumed by low-income families in various countries around the world in the form of skinned, boneless fillets, frozen in different sizes, and is mainly exported to Europe and North America [24, 25].

Regarding the category “origin,” the FC associated panga with words related to their origin as “Vietnam,” “imported,” and “Asian.” Once they are FC, was expected a greater knowledge about the fish origin, which could explain the relevance of this category to them. The country of fish origin is among the most relevant characteristics for consumers and affects their buying attitude [1].

The WA for tuna reported that the frequent and occasional consumers firstly associated this species as a “form of consumption” and “product technology” with significant frequency (p ≤.001) (Table 3). The difference observed among consumer classes was in the cited terms for the category “form of consumption.” For FC, “natural sandwich” received the highest number of citations, while among the OC, the term “raw” was the most mentioned. The association of FC with “natural sandwiches, could be explained by the consumer’s habits and the form of presentation, which is traditionally utilized by participants [26]. The OC have associated tuna with “raw” due to their consumption as Japanese food. This form of consumption has become frequent in Brazil, so typical products of Japanese cuisine, such as sushi and sashimi, have been highlighted in consumption by the Brazilian population [27, 28].

Some consumers still consider fish a relatively inconvenient food due to their preparation time and the preference for products that are tasty, fast, and easy to cook [18, 23, 29]. This barrier of inconvenience is overcome when the fish industry has different forms of fish commercialization, with the development of new products such as frozen, pickled, packaged, canned, and others. In the present study, FC and OC evidenced in the category “product technology” the term “canned”. Canned tuna is a product widely sold, which delight the taste of different consumer profiles. Although considered a high-priced product, canned tuna is the preferred fish among both high-income and lower-income consumers, who are already familiar with this form of consumption [30].

The FC associates the salmon with “price” and “nutricional values” (p ≤.001) (Table 3) with the terms “expensive” and “fat,” respectively. The OC related salmon with “form of consumption,” “price,” and “nutritional value” (p ≤.001). The most cited expressions in each category were, “Japanese food,” “expensive,” and “omega3”, respectively. For both classes of consumers, the main positive factor involved in the consumption of salmon was the nutritional value, and the negative factor was the price, which was highlighted as an obstacle to consumption. According to Nguyen, et al. [30], additionally to the intrinsic attributes of fish (nutritional value and taste), consumers also evaluate extrinsic characteristics such as price, which directly affects consumer purchase decisions [31, 32, 33]. The price issue has been discussed previously with salmon [34] and other fish species [1, 30, 32, 33]. There is a strong positive correlation between the price and the nutritional value of each fish [1, 30, 32, 33].

The FC and OC related salmon as “healthy” and “fat” fish, which could be attributed to the salmon being high nutritional value meat due to the percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids such as omega 3 [30, 35]. Salmon is also a very versatile fish that allows the production of a variety of products. C The participants reported that salmon can be consumed boiled, grilled, smoked, ground, sliced, and sliced, or mixed with spices such as canned pate [34] which also explains why the OC have associated it with the category “form of consumption.” For this class of consumers, the main form of consumption is raw, as found in Japanese food [23, 28].

Regarding tilapia, the categories most reported by the FC (p ≤.001) were “anatomy,” “presentation,” “origin,” and “production”. The categories “origin” and “production” were also cited among OC (p ≤.001) (Table 3). The most cited terms for categories “anatomy” and “presentation” were “spine” and “fillet, respectively. Badr, et al. [36] concluded that the low consumption of freshwater fish was linked to sensory, convenience and quality barriers. Among the sensory barriers, consumers have revealed the presence of numerous bones (spine) as a negative feature of freshwater fish. In addition, previous investigations reported that the consumers attributed the presence of spines and the difficulty of preparing as a barrier to fish consumption [1, 36, 37, 38]. Moreover, Badr, et al. [36] documented that the attributes related to fish anatomy and appearance may influence their added value and acceptance in the market. However, in the present study, FC the presence of spines was not identified as a limit to the consumption of tilapia. Our results corroborates with Araújo, et al. [39] which demonstrated that high FC prefer freshwater species, and the tilapia is one of the most consumed.

For FC, the category “presentation” was also reported for tilapia, with the term “fillet” often mentioned. The observed results could be attributed to the fillet being the most common form of presentation in the market. The fillet attends to consumer demand due to its easily preparing [23, 36]. FC and OC, associated tilapia with the categories “origin” and “production,” widely related to aquaculture. The most cited expressions were, respectively, “freshwater” and “breeding”. Although OC did not exhibit the habit of consumption of tilapia, they know its origin and form of production once the aquaculture has increased in Brazil [40]. Consumer preference is also related to fish production methods and origin [30]. Pinto, et al. [15] assessed the preference of fish consumers regarding their origin (marine or freshwater), and concluded that there was no difference in consumers’ preference related to the fish origin [15, 39].

Hake was featured only in the category “presentation” for both FC and OC (p ≤.001; Table 3). The term “fillet” has the highest number of citations for both classes of consumers, which could be attributed to the form of presentation. The hake fillet is widely imported to Brazil, due to their firm, light, and good quality meat, which is appreciated by the taste. The fresh or frozen fillet is preferred by the consumers once it is considered a convenient and easily prepared product, favoring consumer purchasing decisions [18, 23, 30, 41].

According to the present results, the WA was able to obtain information about the participant’s perceptions and get a number of categories relevant to fish consumption. In this context, the associations were significantly affected by the frequency of consumption. These results are in agreement with Andrade, et al. [7] who reported that consumption frequency significantly affected the perception of lamb meat.