ORGANIC PROBIOTIC YOGHURTS WITH AND WITHOUT FRUIT PULP: ACCEPTANCE AND BUYING INTENTION
The growing demand for foods that are less harmful and produced in an ecological and sustainable way is boosting the organic foods market in Brazil and in the world. This study’s purpose was to evaluate the acceptance and buying intention of yogurts prepared with organic milk. Three flavors were produced: Blueberry, guarana with açai (GA) and plain (sweetened), and each one was tasted by around 100 volunteers that were around UFRGS on the days of the sensory analysis. The evaluation was made with two hedonic scales: The first, with 9 points (where 1 stands for “I extremely disliked” and 9 means “I liked a lot”), evaluated the yogurt’s acceptance. The other scale, with 5 points (where 1 represents “I would never eat” and 5 means “I would always eat”), checked the buying intention of the product on the market. The average score for the acceptance stood between 7, 16 (blueberry flavor) and 7, 82 (plain yogurt). About the buying intention, the plain yogurt was the one with more ”5 points answer” (32, 7%), while the other two flavors reached 21, 8%. Generally, most of the volunteers “Would eat frequently” (4 points of the scale) all flavors, being GA the flavor with highest percentage on this answer (61, 4%). Blueberry received the worst score, with 20% of the people claiming they would rarely eat it. This survey showed a very good acceptance and buying intention for the probiotic organic yogurt in different flavors, highlighting the preference for the plain yogurt.