TEXT HIGHLIGHTING TECHNIQUE TO ASSESS CONSUMER ATTITUDES TOWARDS USING HIGH-INTENSITY ULTRASOUND IN PROCESSING MINAS FRESCAL CHEESE

INTRODUCTION: Techniques investigating consumers' motivations, attitudes, and behaviors have gained prominence in highly competitive sectors such as dairy products, allowing manufacturers to develop and reformulate products in line with consumer expectations. OBJECTIVES: This study used the recently proposed Text Highlighting Technique to assess the explicit attitudes of Brazilian consumers toward using high-intensity ultrasound technology in the processing of Minas Frescal Cheese. METHODOLOGY: The technique consisted of presenting a didactic text (seven sentences) with information about the classical (pasteurization) and emerging (ultrasound) processing of Minas Frescal Cheese. Then consumers were asked to highlight with a green pen the terms they "liked" and with a red pen mark the terms that they "unlike." Data analysis determined the general frequency of marked words in each sentence and the frequency of terms marked as "liked" and "disliked." Secondarily, the grammatical characteristics of the highlighted words were evaluated in search of underlying patterns. RESULTS: Consumers are more attentive to nutritional and sensory benefits information than to specific technical information about the method. Sentences presenting nutritional or sensory advantages of processing with ultrasound had at least one word highlighted by 83% of consumers, most marked as liked (on average 78%). Sentences containing technical information about the method had at least one word highlighted by 42% of consumers (33% liked it, and 19% disliked it). DISCUSSION: TH indicated that consumers are more attentive to nouns and adjectives (e.g., pathogen, healthy, healthiness, sustainability, sodium, fat, food safety, and pleasure), highlighting the importance of such grammatical classes in communicating with consumers. CONCLUSION: Including information about the nutritional and sensory advantages of ultrasound is related to the positive attitudes of Brazilian consumers and can be used in communication with the target audience.