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Categorical Nature of Consumer Price Estimations of Postharvest Bruised Apples 时间:2018-11-15 12:04 来源:未知作者:admin 点击: 次 Abstract:Postharvest fruits are susceptible to damage which eventually results in large product and financial losses. While abundant studies have been conducted to objectively index the severity of such damage, how consumers subjectively assess the severity of damaged apples has been understudied. Previous studies have indicated that consumers’ aesthetic devaluation of product quality is reflected in estimated price. Thus, the current online questionnaire study was conducted to examine the effect of objectively indexed severity of damage on consumers’ subjective price estimations. Four hundred thirty-nine consumers of apples were asked to estimate the market price for apples in photographic images of 1 or 3 “Orin” (“Golden Delicious” × “Indo”) apples at 9 levels of severity of damage. A 2 (1- and 3-piece) × 9 (severity of damage) within ANCOVA with reference price as a covariate indicated significant two-way interaction between the number of apples and severity of damage on estimated price. Consequently, the 1- and 3-piece conditions were examined separately. The results of both analyses indicate a categorical rather than quantitative, continuous reduction in estimated price.
1. Introduction
The Japanese government has encouraged the consumption of fruits for a healthy diet due to their high nutritional value, including fiber, minerals, and vitamins [1]. Apples are among the most consumed fruits in Japan [2]. After harvest, controlled-atmosphere storage systems preserve apples, which can maintain their freshness for more than 6 months [3]. The surfaces of apples are susceptible to postharvest mechanical damage during handling and transportation [4, 5]. One of the most commonly observed forms of surface damage is bruising [4, 5], which leads to large product and financial losses throughout the industry. Eventually, bruises lead to fungal infections such as gray (Botrytis) and blue (Penicillium) mold [6] and allochroism. Even when the apples are fit for consumption, the reduction in value due to aesthetic damage is substantial [7]. For instance, bruised apples are usually sold in industrial markets where the price of an apple is substantially reduced compared with retail-market prices [6].
In the retail market, the cosmetic appearance of an apple, such as color, shape, and damage, is directly related to a consumer’s evaluation of the product’s quality [8, 9] which is to say that the subjective evaluation of the quality of an apple is strongly related to its appearance [10–12]. Because postharvest bruising is related to large product and financial losses, abundant studies on bruise prevention, such as improved transportation techniques, from the viewpoint of suppliers have been conducted [6]. For instance, various researchers have examined physical factors related to damage such as packaging friction [6, 13], vibration [14, 15], and shock [16–18]. However, little research has focused on consumers’ subjective evaluations of the quality of damaged products [11] and reported an association between visual attention to damaged apples and purchase intention. Another study by Kim and House [19] reported that large surface damage to grapefruits substantially lowers consumers’ willingness to pay. There are very few studies that have incorporated consumers’ subjective evaluations of apples in conjunction with objectively indexed damage. Because consumers’ subjective evaluations of product quality are known to be reflected in estimated prices [20], the current study examined the effect of objectively engineered damage to the surfaces of apples on consumers’ estimation of their prices.