Effect of flour information (origin and organic) and consumer attitude to health and natural product on bread acceptability of Korean consumers

While bread is a staple food in western culture, it is a supplementary food in rice eating societies. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of extrinsic flour information on bread acceptability in one of rice eating societies, Korea. Consumers evaluated six bread samples either blind or with flour information including which country it was produced and whether organic production was applied or not. Consumers' interest in health or in natural products was also measured. The results showed that information of using domestic flour had a strong positive effect on overall bread acceptability, while organic information particularly affected flavor preferences. Health or natural product interested people showed more distinct tendency of the above origin and organic effect. Texture liking remained unaffected by extrinsic information in all cases. Practical applications The results implied the possibility of consumers who consider bread as supplementary food may be either lacking in knowledge about bread quality in relation to flours, resulting in biased expectation induced from extrinsic information or may not care bread quality as carefully as consumers in societies who consume bread as staple food. Consumer attitudes to health and to natural product were observed to be important considerations when developing market strategies for bread consumers in Korea.