Chapter 12: Cross-cultural Consumer Studies

Culture influences the processes of individual and social representation by moulding people’s behaviour towards food, orienting their perceptions, tastes, preferences and choices. This chapter addresses the main goals of intercultural consumer research in the food domain and related methodological issues. Recent approaches and techniques applied in sensory consumer research when designing cross-cultural studies are presented. Methodological aspects associated with sampling, data collection procedures, differences in conceptual constructs in survey questionnaires and the use of new tools, such as new, language-independent techniques of data collection, along with future area trends, are discussed.