EXPLORING PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUES TO UNDERSTANDING CONSUMERS PERCEPTIONS ABOUT GLUTEN-FREE BREAD.

There has been a rise in the gluten-free (GF) diet followers in recent years, but there is a lack of information about consumer’s opinions on GF products. Projective techniques are able to identify consumer feelings and motivations, and to provide insight of consumer opinions regarding the product. An online questionnaire was used to assess GF consumer perceptions about commercially available GF bread in Brazil. The 290 respondents were classified according to their condition: 205 with celiac disease (CD), 43 with other gluten-related disorders (GRDs) and 42 following a GF “lifestyle”. In the sentence completion task, participants complete the phrase “What I miss most about GF products….”. Results showed that taste (32%) and texture (30%) were the categories most missed by coeliac consumers. Results from non-coeliac consumers (n=85) were grouped, with no statistically significant categories obtained. For the word association, participants wrote the first four words, terms or phrases that came to mind “When I think of GFB….”. The most prominent categories were texture, taste, and price, with 36% to 48% of the mentions by coeliac consumers. Results from non-coeliac consumers also revealed taste (29%), texture (27%) and price (26%) as the most cited. Participants responded to the open-closed questions revealing the reasons for liking and for disliking GFB. Texture is the main motive for disliking GF bread and received most of the negative comments from both coeliac (52%) and non-coeliac (15%). Consumers also cited negative opinions related to the price of bread, the amount paid for the product being excessive. The findings unanimously show that texture and taste are the most important characteristics of GF bread and the main reasons for disliking the currently available products in Brazil. Consumers expect them to have the same qualities found in wheat bread.