FROM WINE CHEMISTRY TO CONSUMER CHOICE: TRANSLATING ANALYTICAL EVIDENCE INTO CONSUMER-RELEVANT QUALITY CUES

Wine chemistry can reveal differences in composition and support assessments of product quality, but these data only acquire market relevance when they can be translated into information that consumers understand and use. This study examined that analytical-to-consumer pathway using wine as a model food product. Chemical profiles generated from wine characterization, together with sensory information supported by sommelier evaluations, were used to construct experimental descriptions of intrinsic wine quality. Rather than relying on generic claims such as “high quality”, the questionnaire translated analytical and sensory evidence into comparative information that allowed consumers to evaluate wines from two origins with markedly different reputations: Brazil, a New World producer, and France, an established Old World producer. A between-subjects experiment was conducted with 600 Brazilian wine consumers. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions in which the same type of science-based evidence indicated either that the Brazilian wine had superior intrinsic quality or that the French wine had superior intrinsic quality. After exposure to the analytical and sensory information, participants evaluated their trust in the winemaking systems of both countries, completed the Wine Neophobia Scale, and selected which wine they would choose. A moderated mediation model was estimated using 10,000 bootstrap resamples. Translating analytical evidence into consumer-facing quality information produced a substantial effect on perceptions of the production system. When the evidence favored the Brazilian wine, trust in the Brazilian winemaking system increased significantly (b = 1.57, SE = 0.06, t = 26.41, p < .001, 95% CI [1.45, 1.69]). Greater trust, in turn, increased the likelihood of choosing the Brazilian wine (b = 0.29, SE = 0.04, t = 7.08, p < .001, 95% CI [0.21, 0.37]). However, the translation of analytical quality into trust depended on consumer profile. Wine neophobia negatively moderated the effect of scientific evidence on trust (b = −0.25, SE = 0.05, t = −4.73, p < .001), with effects decreasing from 1.89 at low neophobia to 1.57 at moderate and 1.28 at high neophobia. The corresponding indirect effect on wine choice through trust also declined from 0.55 to 0.46 and 0.37, respectively; the index of moderated mediation was significant (−0.07, BootSE = 0.02, 95% BootCI [−0.11, −0.04]). These findings demonstrate a translational application of analytical chemistry in consumer-food research: chemical and sensory data used to characterize wine can be converted into quality information that influences consumers’ evaluation of a production system and subsequent product choice. The results also show that analytical evidence is not interpreted uniformly, highlighting wine neophobia as a consumer characteristic that conditions how scientific information about food quality is incorporated into decision-making. This analytical-to-consumer framework extends the value of food chemistry beyond characterization, connecting laboratory-generated evidence with consumer perception and choice.