Are fish products healthy? Eye tracking as a new food technology tool for a better understanding of consumer perception

- Eye tracking was applied to understand how healthfulness was assessed.
- Low familiarity with the product influenced the perception of healthfulness.
- Consumers focused more attention on new fish presentation (fishburger).
- Unfamiliar presentations and fried products were perceived as less healthy.

This study explored the use of eye tracking methods to investigate what underlies perceptions of the healthiness of different fish products. Fifteen different combinations of fish products (fillet, nuggets and fishburger) and side vegetables (lettuce, boiled potatoes, tempura and French fries) were presented as stimuli. Consumers had to answer the question: “In your opinion, how healthy is this dish?”Qualitatively, the results of the eye-tracking heatmaps revealed that the fishburger was an “attractive stimulus” as consumers focused more on a “new or different presentation” in order to decide whether the dish was more or less healthy. Quantitatively, the eye tracking metrics showed that first fixation was not an important variable for explaining the responses. Both the fish products and the side vegetables had a significant effect on the perception of healthiness, but their interaction did not. The findings suggested that unusual presentations and fried products were perceived as being less healthy. Eye tracking proved a successful tool for acquiring a better understanding of perceptions of some quality factors, opening the door to application of this technique in other studies that focus on the consumers' visual perception of food.