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The purpose of this paper is to explore and compare consumer perceptions of unpolished pigmented rice and milled white rice between unfamiliar and typical consumers.

This study first employed focus groups to explore attitudes and habits relating to rice consumption among British subjects. A sensory descriptive analysis method, flash profiling (FP), was then applied on consumer panels in the UK and Thailand to gain perceived sensory quality of unfamiliar and typical rice samples. The sensory profiles generated by British and Thai panellists were analysed by generalised procrustean analysis (GPA) and compared based on perceived attributes, dominant characteristics and repeatability.

Focus group results suggested that consumer familiarity with rice might influence preferred rice textural quality. The prominent textures of stickiness and bittiness of unpolished pigmented rice were negatively associated with perceived quality in the UK participants. The sensory profiles generated by GPA consisted of similarity with darkness of colour and sweet/earthy type odours that are key dominant characteristics of the Thai pigmented rice.

The research has provided sensory information of the unpolished pigmented rice as compared with milled white rice. The information gives insights on product development directions for export and further research on rice processing and cooking instructions.

This study is the first to apply sensory evaluation in a cross-cultural comparison of pigmented rice.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of providing information regarding antioxidant content on the liking for a food item consumed in relatively small quantities as a complement to main dishes.

Heavy users consuming chilli paste three to four times a week were recruited for consumer tests (n=129). Two sessions of taste tests (with and without antioxidant information) were conducted for hedonic measurement of six ready‐to‐eat Thai chilli pastes. Antioxidant activity of the samples were analysed by DPPH and hydroxyl scavenging methods and reported relative to vitamin C. The four experimental and two commercial samples tested ranged between mild to medium hot levels classified by capsaicin quantity and were served using balanced first‐order carry‐over effect design. Principal component analysis and analysis of variance for split‐plot design of the experiment were employed for data analysis.

The key finding is that the antioxidant information had no significant effect on consumer liking (p > 0.05). Even though one of the research samples presented high antioxidant efficiency (1.63‐1.80 times higher than commercial samples sold in market places), the sample received only low liking scores and liking was not increased when the antioxidant information was attached. An interaction effect occurred when commercial samples gained high liking scores and increased to even higher when antioxidant information was given with the samples.

The research was based on a target group of Thai consumers whose ages ranged between 18‐40 years old and who were frequent consumers of the product. Also, the product tested in this research was not a principal meal item but was a condiment. Hence, caution must be exercised in generalising to other target groups or food products.

Health benefit labelling by producers needs to take into account the usage context of the food. Health information provision may not boost consumer demand in all contexts.

This is one of very few studies exploring the effect of health information provision on liking for a food that is not consumed as a main dish in large quantities, but rather as a condiment consumed in small quantities.