The influence of information about organic production and fair trade on preferences for and perception of pineapple

The influence of information about organic production and fair trade on hedonic and analytic judgments of pineapple was studied in British (n = 44) and Dutch (n = 51) subjects. The subjects received pineapple pieces of three regularly grown varieties, in which information about organic production and fair trade was systematically varied. Taken over all subjects, organic or fair trade information did not seem to have much influence on liking or on perception. Although they seemed to positively affect liking when presented alone, in combination, they did not. When subjects were grouped according to their – indirectly measured – affective attitudes towards organic or fair trade products by means of conjoint analysis, perception differed as a result of the information provided. Subjects with a positive attitude towards organic or fair trade information perceived the products to have an overall stronger sensory impact in the presence of such information than its in absence, whereas the opposite was true for subjects with a negative attitude towards organic or fair trade information. When the subjects are considered as a uniform group, the individual differences indicating different outcome of underlying cognitive processes cannot be revealed.