Consumer Perception of Cows' Milk and Plant-Based Milk Alternatives: Comparing Aotearoa–New Zealand and Singapore Consumers

Abstract

As food provisioning becomes more globalized, a shift to understanding cross-country insights is occurring. This study investigated whether the consumer experience of cows' milk and plant-based milk alternatives (PBMAs) differed between Aotearoa New Zealand (A-NZ) and Singaporean (SG) consumers. Further, as data were collected between two sessions, consumer repeatability across sessions was also explored. Consumers evaluated two cows' milks (high fat and low fat) and five PBMAs (oat, rice, soy, almond, and cashew) products commercially available in both countries. While high-fat cows' milk was liked the most, country-specific liking differences were captured in the PBMA space. SG liked PBMA-related sensory properties that drove disliking and negative emotions. A few exceptions existed if the product was more familiar to consumers of one country than the other. Potential differences in response to PBMAs were noted more than A-NZ. Often, cows' milk evoked positive emotions, and PBMAs evoked neutral/negative emotions. Sensory properties related to dairy milk drove liking and positive emotions, while styles were also observed. SG used the middle range of the liking scale and gave lower rates of CATA citations than A-NZ. This resulted in lower product discrimination, magnitude effects in sensory drivers of liking, and lower numbers of sensory drivers of emotions observed in SG than in A-NZ.