Consumer‐led approach to adapt a food‐odors emotional lexicon for the Spanish population: A tool for designing the scent of food spaces

• Published in: Journal of sensory studies 2021-12, Vol.36 (6), p.n/a
• Main Authors: Romeo‐Arroyo, Elena, Mora, María, Vázquez‐Araújo, Laura
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Emotions; Food; Language; Odor; Odors
• ISSN: 0887-8250; 1745-459X
• DOI: 10.1111/joss.12707

Aromas are powerful stimuli capable of triggering emotions. The Geneva Emotion and Odor Scale (GEOS) was developed to measure the affective response to odors, and was later adapted to other countries and cultures (EOSs). Also, an universal scale was proposed (UniGEOS) to be used regardless of the culture, but without considering Spanish‐speaking cultures. During the present research, a lexicon for measuring the emotions evoked by food‐related odors has been developed, adapting the aforementioned scales to the Spanish population and using a consumer‐led approach. Using EOSs lists as starting point, the procedure was: to discard nonemotional terms and translate the selected ones, to group the emotions and remove the irrelevant ones for the food‐odors category, and to test the lexicon. The developed lexicon (SEFrOS) contained six categories, 25 terms. The lexicon shared some dimensions with EOSs, but with specific differences, maybe related to culture or the food‐linked nature of the lexicon. Practical applications Emotions elicited by foods have been investigated during the last years to favor proper products positioning in the market. Odors have been used to modulate customer perceptions and attitudes towards products and stores, because of being closely linked to these emotions' elicitation. Although some lexicons have been developed to assess food‐related emotions, no lexicon has been developed to specifically evaluate the emotions elicited by food‐odors, and to study the emotions elicited by the odor of food‐related spaces. This research presents the development of a new lexicon for food‐odors, using previously validated odor scales as starting point, and adapting them to the Spanish population, well‐known because of its eating‐out model closely related to different food spaces.