THEME ELDERLY- Attractive food for elderly : the role of inspiring and informative packaging

• Background: Malnutrition is common among elderly due to low appetite. Appetite is highly connected to age, health and social activities. For home-living elderly, readymade meals are often served for both lunch and dinner. When appetite is reduced, apart from the food itself, the packaging should stimulate appetite by enhancing the attractiveness of the packaged food. The food itself has to fulfil the sensory expectations. Aim: To identify important packaging attributes that will increase attractiveness of readymade meals for elderly. Method: Iterative design in which consumer tests, focus group discussions and deep interviews for evaluation of prototypes were held with elderly (65-88 years) focussing on food and food packaging. Sensory factors were of specific interest. Results: The packaging and the meal inside must attract all senses in order to stimulate appetite, mainly visual and tactile senses were of importance. Although many claim they would like to be able to see the food, photographs of the packed meal are preferred over transparency. The photographs have to be truthful. Easy to read is the most important factor, information should be clearly visible (contrast and size) and not be too verbose. Furthermore, easy to open and handle and consequently, size and weight of the packaging, are also important factors. Discussion: The stepwise iterative design of the study included several user tests with different generations of developed prototypes as well as benchmarking against commercial products were useful in identifications of important packaging attributes. A high level of consumer interaction was reached and it became clear that the packaging had a profound impact on the appetite of readymade meals. Conclusion: Visual factors are of highest importance as well as tactile properties. Pictures clearly showing the meal in a true and attractive way as well as clearly visible and informative information, size and weight were deemed important.

Ämnesord

LANTBRUKSVETENSKAPER  -- Lantbruksvetenskap, skogsbruk och fiske -- Livsmedelsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES  -- Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries -- Food Science (hsv//eng)

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