Research appearing in the Journal of Dairy Science shows that consumers may have less trust in food processes that they don’t understand, and animal-based foods may be subject to more uninformed scrutiny than other foods due to consumers’ perception of higher risk. The food and beverage industry has seen this manifest itself through how companies promote cow-less milk alternatives and the intense debate about the use of dairy-centric terms, such as “milk” or “yogurt.”
Dairy producers can benefit from understanding how consumers interpret unfamiliar terms and claims on dairy product labels, the researchers said. Scientists from North Carolina State University conducted interviews and surveyed more than 1,200 consumers regarding their knowledge of and attitudes toward dairy processing terms that may appear on product labels.