Consumers’ perception of olive oil-based dressings evaluated by complementary techniques: Focus group and word association

Abstract

Aromatized olive oils or olive oil based dressings have gained interest from the food industry since they expand the flavors offered to consumers. The present work compared the results obtained from the Word Association (WA) technique with those obtained from a Focus Group (FG) about olive oil, extra virgin olive oil and olive oil-based dressings, and analyzed the advantages of performing a FG prior to data analysis of WA. The results of the FG analyzed prior to the application of the WA technique allowed a better interpretation and understanding of the words associated by the consumers with each WA stimulus. The WA technique clearly differentiated preparations prepared from olive oil with the oils themselves, mainly in terms of taste, texture and combinations allowed.