Anais do Simpósio Latino Americano de Ciências de Alimentos
Anais do 14 SLACA - Simpósio Latino Americano de Ciência de Alimentos

Honey is a natural food produced by honeybees from flower nectar, secretions from living parts of plants, and insect excretions. It is commercialized in packages of different designs, which may have an important impact on the consumer perception of the products. This study aimed to construct and validate a scale to evaluate the honey consumer perception. Furthermore, the impact of packaging design on honey's perceived quality and purchase intention was evaluated. Brazilian consumers (n=343) answered an online questionnaire consisting of 21 self-descriptive statements using 7-point Likert scales. The statements considered benefits, origin, price, quality, and consumption form aspects. Furthermore, six different packages were presented (squeeze, glass jar with a dipper, glass bottle, stick, squeeze bottle, and glass jar) in a randomized order, and the consumer perception (health, origin, safety, and taste) and purchase intention were evaluated using 5-point and 7-point Likert scales, respectively. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and partial least square path modeling were employed. Data on the influence of packaging on the honey quality perception and willingness to purchase were analyzed by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and comparison of means by the Fisher test, using a significance level of 5% (p < 0.05). The validated scale had 15 self-descriptive statements (indicators with factor loading higher than 0.4) and showed discriminant (heterotrait-monotrait ratio values <0.85) and convergent validity (average variance extracted > 0.4) and adequate reliability (composite reliability > 0.6). The consumers associated honey with health properties and a safe product. Furthermore, they preferred honey purchased directly from producers due to its perceived quality (natural and pure). Honey packaged in glass jars with or without dipper was perceived as healthier, tastier, higher quality, and from trusted origin. Furthermore, glass jars were considered more practical and sustainable packages. It can be concluded that packaging design influences the honey's perceived quality.