Flavoured oils virtually paired with culinary preparations: Exploratory survey on preferences and willingness to try and buy

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

In recent decades, the concept of food pairing has gained importance across various aspects of gastronomic science. Flavoured oils serve as an excellent case for exploring food pairing with specific culinary preparations. Simultaneously, as consumers increasingly prioritize sustainability in food production, the search for ingredients that are both sustainable and appealing has become essential for both producers and consumers. This study investigates the willingness to try (WTT) and buy (WTB) three oils flavoured with by-products from food production and explores consumers' preferences toward pairing these oils with different culinary preparations, all within a virtual context. The dataset was analysed through Cochran's Q test to examine CATA (Check-All-That-Apply) data, with the objective of identifying the culinary preparations most frequently associated with each of the three oil types. Subsequently, six OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) models were implemented - two for each oil: one for WTT and one for WTB - to determine the drivers influencing each willingness. The exploratory survey, conducted with 333 Italian consumers, revealed key insights: first, how consumers pair these oils with various culinary preparations, offering valuable directions for practical sensory analysis, and second, highlight the factors that most influence WTT and WTB oils flavoured with agri-food by-products. • Virtual food pairing offers a cheap way to predict the consumer’s matching desires. • Younger subjects are more interested in trying innovative flavoured oils. • Inclination to innovation is an attitudinal aspect measurable through scales. • The CSC scale offers more information when used through single dimensions. • Neophobic subjects refuse flavoured oils regardless of the flavouring agent used.