Consumer choices of pork chops: Results from two Canadian sites

Digital photographs of 16 pork chops were each modified to give 16 treatments: two levels each of fat cover, colour, marbling and drip (256 images in total). Consumers from two Canadian provinces, Québec (248) and Alberta (805), selected their preferred chop from 16 treatments in different chops and repeated this selection process eight times from different groups of chops. Representative sub-panels of 200 consumers from each province were selected to facilitate comparison. Colour and fat cover were the most frequently chosen characteristics. The three preference-based clusters of consumers showed no correlation with the socio-demographic-based clusters, but did show a significant influence of survey location; the cluster preferring dark red, lean pork had a higher proportion (61%) of consumers from Alberta than Québec, whereas the two clusters preferring light red pork had higher proportions of Québec consumers (about 56% each). These preferences suggest that a more extensive Canadian study is warranted.