Cross-cultural differences in consumer quality perception of rice
Résumé
Most aspects of food product quality perception are culture-bound. We present a cross-cultural study aiming at understanding
how consumers from four countries (French, Japanese, Korean and Thai) perceive, describe and appreciate rice and rice
quality. Marked differences were found in participants' motivation to consume rice: sensory and commodity in France; sensory
and health in Japan; nutrition and commodity in Thailand; and nutrition, health and safety in Korea. For the description of rice
qualities, despite a few cultural differences, especially between Korean and Thai descriptions of white and brown rice samples,
similar sensory profiles were obtained in the four countries. In all countries germinated rice samples were less appreciated
than the other samples. A preference mapping combining descriptive and liking data showed that, contrary to what we
expected, preference of Japanese consumers were closer to that of French consumers than to that of other Asian consumers.
This study suggests that cultural differences in food product quality perception might be more driven by motivation than by
perception and that geographical proximity is not a good predictor of quality perception.