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Research Article Categorical Nature of Consumer Price Estimations of Postharvest Bruised Apples Yasushi Kyutoku , 1 Naoko Hasegawa, 2 Ippeita Dan, 3 and Hiroaki Kitazawa 2 1 Research and Development Initiative, Chuo University, Bunkyo-ku 112-8551, Japan 2 Food Research Institute, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tsukuba 305-8642, Japan 3 Department of Integrated Science and Engineering for Sustainable Society, Chuo University, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-8551, Japan Correspondence should be addressed to Hiroaki Kitazawa; ktz@affrc.go.jp Received 28 May 2018; Revised 2 October 2018; Accepted 10 October 2018; Published 6 November 2018 Academic Editor: Antonio Piga Copyright © 2018 Yasushi Kyutoku et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Postharvest fruits are susceptible to damage which eventually results in large product and financial losses. While abundant studies have been conducted to objectively index the severity of such damage, how consumers subjectively assess the severity of damaged apples has been understudied. Previous studies have indicated that consumers’ aesthetic devaluation of product quality is reflected in estimated price. us, the current online questionnaire study was conducted to examine the effect of objectively indexed severity of damage on consumers’ subjective price estimations. Four hundred thirty-nine consumers of apples were asked to estimate the market price for apples in photographic images of 1 or 3 “Orin” (“Golden Delicious” × “Indo”) apples at 9 levels of severity of damage. A 2 (1- and 3-piece) × 9 (severity of damage) within ANCOVA with reference price as a covariate indicated significant two-way interaction between the number of apples and severity of damage on estimated price. Consequently, the 1- and 3-piece conditions were examined separately. e results of both analyses indicate a categorical rather than quantitative, continuous reduction in estimated price. 1. Introduction e Japanese government has encouraged the consumption of fruits for a healthy diet due to their high nutritional value, including fiber, minerals, and vitamins [1]. Apples are among the most consumed fruits in Japan [2]. After harvest, controlled-atmosphere storage systems preserve apples, which can maintain their freshness for more than 6 months [3]. e surfaces of apples are susceptible to postharvest mechanical damage during handling and transportation [4, 5]. One of the most commonly observed forms of surface damage is bruising [4, 5], which leads to large product and financial losses throughout the industry. Eventually, bruises lead to fungal infections such as gray (Botrytis) and blue (Penicillium) mold [6] and allochroism. Even when the apples are fit for consumption, the reduction in value due to aesthetic damage is substantial [7]. For instance, bruised apples are usually sold in industrial markets where the price of an apple is substantially reduced compared with retail- market prices [6]. In the retail market, the cosmetic appearance of an apple, such as color, shape, and damage, is directly related to a consumer’s evaluation of the product’s quality [8, 9] which is to say that the subjective evaluation of the quality of an apple is strongly related to its appearance [10–12]. Because postharvest bruising is related to large product and financial losses, abundant studies on bruise prevention, such as im- proved transportation techniques, from the viewpoint of suppliers have been conducted [6]. For instance, various researchers have examined physical factors related to damage such as packaging friction [6, 13], vibration [14, 15], and shock [16–18]. However, little research has focused on consumers’ subjective evaluations of the quality of damaged products [11] and reported an association between visual attention to damaged apples and purchase intention. An- other study by Kim and House [19] reported that large Hindawi Journal of Food Quality Volume 2018, Article ID 3572397, 6 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/3572397

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Page 1: Categorical Nature of Consumer Price Estimations of ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/2018/3572397.pdf · Research Article Categorical Nature of Consumer Price Estimations of

Research ArticleCategorical Nature of Consumer Price Estimations ofPostharvest Bruised Apples

Yasushi Kyutoku 1 Naoko Hasegawa2 Ippeita Dan3 and Hiroaki Kitazawa 2

1Research and Development Initiative Chuo University Bunkyo-ku 112-8551 Japan2Food Research Institute National Agriculture and Food Research Organization Tsukuba 305-8642 Japan3Department of Integrated Science and Engineering for Sustainable Society Chuo University Bunkyo-ku Tokyo 112-8551 Japan

Correspondence should be addressed to Hiroaki Kitazawa ktzarcgojp

Received 28 May 2018 Revised 2 October 2018 Accepted 10 October 2018 Published 6 November 2018

Academic Editor Antonio Piga

Copyright copy 2018 Yasushi Kyutoku et al is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons AttributionLicense which permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work isproperly cited

Postharvest fruits are susceptible to damage which eventually results in large product and nancial losses While abundant studieshave been conducted to objectively index the severity of such damage how consumers subjectively assess the severity of damagedapples has been understudied Previous studies have indicated that consumersrsquo aesthetic devaluation of product quality is reectedin estimated price us the current online questionnaire study was conducted to examine the eect of objectively indexedseverity of damage on consumersrsquo subjective price estimations Four hundred thirty-nine consumers of apples were asked toestimate the market price for apples in photographic images of 1 or 3 ldquoOrinrdquo (ldquoGolden Deliciousrdquo times ldquoIndordquo) apples at 9 levels ofseverity of damage A 2 (1- and 3-piece) times 9 (severity of damage) within ANCOVA with reference price as a covariate indicatedsignicant two-way interaction between the number of apples and severity of damage on estimated price Consequently the 1- and3-piece conditions were examined separately e results of both analyses indicate a categorical rather than quantitativecontinuous reduction in estimated price

1 Introduction

e Japanese government has encouraged the consumptionof fruits for a healthy diet due to their high nutritional valueincluding ber minerals and vitamins [1] Apples areamong the most consumed fruits in Japan [2] After harvestcontrolled-atmosphere storage systems preserve appleswhich can maintain their freshness for more than 6 months[3] e surfaces of apples are susceptible to postharvestmechanical damage during handling and transportation[4 5] One of the most commonly observed forms of surfacedamage is bruising [4 5] which leads to large product andnancial losses throughout the industry Eventually bruiseslead to fungal infections such as gray (Botrytis) and blue(Penicillium) mold [6] and allochroism Even when theapples are t for consumption the reduction in value due toaesthetic damage is substantial [7] For instance bruisedapples are usually sold in industrial markets where the price

of an apple is substantially reduced compared with retail-market prices [6]

In the retail market the cosmetic appearance of an applesuch as color shape and damage is directly related toa consumerrsquos evaluation of the productrsquos quality [8 9] whichis to say that the subjective evaluation of the quality of anapple is strongly related to its appearance [10ndash12] Becausepostharvest bruising is related to large product and nanciallosses abundant studies on bruise prevention such as im-proved transportation techniques from the viewpoint ofsuppliers have been conducted [6] For instance variousresearchers have examined physical factors related todamage such as packaging friction [6 13] vibration [14 15]and shock [16ndash18] However little research has focused onconsumersrsquo subjective evaluations of the quality of damagedproducts [11] and reported an association between visualattention to damaged apples and purchase intention An-other study by Kim and House [19] reported that large

HindawiJournal of Food QualityVolume 2018 Article ID 3572397 6 pageshttpsdoiorg10115520183572397

surface damage to grapefruits substantially lowers con-sumersrsquo willingness to pay ere are very few studies thathave incorporated consumersrsquo subjective evaluations ofapples in conjunction with objectively indexed damageBecause consumersrsquo subjective evaluations of productquality are known to be reflected in estimated prices [20] thecurrent study examined the effect of objectively engineereddamage to the surfaces of apples on consumersrsquo estimationof their prices

It is highly possible that an objective index of the severityof surface damage to apples [4 5] does not correspond toconsumersrsquo subjective evaluations of product quality becausethe latter does not scale at a constant rate as does the formerRather the consumerrsquos subjective evaluations should beorganized into graded categories as we tend to simplifyinformation in a graded manner for quantitative visualstimuli because we cannot distinguish subtle differences[21 22] It should be noted that consumersrsquo expectations forthe pricing of products are influenced by their referenceprice which is the price they have internalized as normalbased on past experience [23ndash25] they should tend to de-value the damaged product compared with their referenceprice for the undamaged one Further because apples aresold individually or in multiple-piece packages at grocerystores in Japan we were curious about whether consumersrsquodevaluation of damaged products would differ with thenumber of pieces packaged together According to Ahme-toglu et alrsquos review study on pricing [26] consumers areexpected to anticipate lower prices for multiple-piecepackages of apples because bundled items signal discountIn the same way consumers demand greater compensationfor bundled products that are damaged [27]

ese facts findings and questions led us to define thetwofold purpose of the current study First we aimed toconfirm that consumers use self-reported typical purchaseprice as a reference price Second we assessed the effect ofdamage on estimated prices for photographically displayedapples (1- or 3-piece) with consumersrsquo reference prices asa covariate In doing so we explored the relationship be-tween the effect of objectively indexed surface damage ofapples on consumersrsquo subjective price estimations for thecorresponding apples Here we aimed to propose anevidence-based strategy that may prevent excessive de-valuation of bruised apples

2 Materials and Methods

21 Participants and Procedure Four hundred thirty-nineconsumers of apples (μage 448 SD 1362 Mdpurchase-frequency more than once a month Table 1) were randomlyrecruited from a Japanese online research company (Npar-

ticipant pool gt 36 million) who met the following recruitingcriteria (1) aged over 20 and (2) at least one annual purchaseof an apple After agreeing to the terms of the study withinformed consent participants proceeded to the participantcharacteristics questionnaire (age gender employmentstatus and purchase frequency of apples) en they wereasked to estimate the market price (estimated price) for 1 or3 yellow-green ldquoOrinrdquo apples in the free-answer format

based on photographic images presenting apples with 9different levels of damage 0 (normal apple) 6 7 8 9 10 1112 and 13 (the area of the applersquos surface that is damagedeach number represents times10minus4m2 of damage) (Figure 1)Damage severity levels 1 to 5 times10minus4m2 were not used for thecurrent study due to technical difficulties with consistentlysetting up damages for those levels Photographic imagescorresponding to each level of damage were randomlyshown 3 times for each piece count (1 and 3 apples) epresentation order of the photographic images was ran-domized Finally participants provided the average pur-chase price of a single apple based on their daily groceryshopping experience (reference price) in response to a free-answer-format question (six participants who providedextremely high experiential purchase prices for a single apple(SD gt 329) were eliminated as outliers in order to excludenonrepresentative consumers of apples) e entire pro-cedure took approximately 20 minutes e study was ap-proved by the institutional ethics committee of the NationalFood Research Institute (HU2015-1)

22 Materials and Stimuli Checks e apples in photo-graphs for each level of damage were randomly selected tocontrol for differences in surface color (Figure 1) Damagewas inflicted on each apple using a shock tester with acushioning adjusting system (SDST-300 and SVS-300Shinyei Testing Machinery Japan) set to various shockconditions based on [28] (Figure 2 and Table 2) e area ofdamage (times10minus4 m2) was estimated using the followingequation [29]

damage area W1 times W2 times π( 1113857

4 (1)

where W1 and W2 represent damage widths along the majorand minor axes and π the circle ratio e shock conditionsfor damaging the apples were the same as those described ina previous study and thus the severity of the damage of eachfruit in this study corresponded to that of the previous study[28] An Olympus E-30 camera with a standard lens (ZuikoDigital 14ndash54mm f28ndash35 II Olympus Japan) was used totake photographs in the autofocus shooting mode

Internal consistency for 3 photographs at each level ofdamage for 1 and 3 apples indicated sufficient reliability of

Table 1 Participant characteristics

Demographics N ()Gender

Male 191 (451)Female 248 (549)

EmploymentFull time 234 (533)Part time 52 (118)Unemployedretired 53 (121)Housewifehousehusband 91 (210)

Experiential purchase price fora single apple (reference price)

Mean (SD)yen1175 (458)

Note Six outliers were eliminated from this table Monthly currency ex-change rate for Aug 2016 was yen100 $099

2 Journal of Food Quality

price estimation for all severities of damage (smallestCronbachrsquos α 091 for 1 piece smallest Cronbachrsquos α

093 for 3 pieces)e following preliminary analyses were conducted

before the main analysesFirst it was important that participants be familiar with

market prices at the time of the study (1146 yen) [30] inorder to collect credible responses erefore each partic-ipantrsquos experiential purchase (reference) price for a singleapple (Table 1) was compared with the market price to verifythat their responses would be credible [31] us a one-sample t-test against 1146 yen was conducted against ref-erence prices and there was little difference (t(438) 131p 019 d 005) supporting the idea that the currentparticipants were representative Japanese apple consumersin terms of familiarity with purchase price Next to explorepotential covariates of estimated price correlations betweendemographics and reference prices were explored None ofthe demographics or self-reported purchase-related vari-ables were associated with estimated prices (largestr(439) 006 pgt 030) erefore demographic variableswere not used as covariates in the subsequent analyses

23 Statistical Analyses To ascertain that consumersrsquo esti-mations were based on their past shopping experiencea paired t-test was conducted No difference was expectedbetween a participantrsquos experiential purchase (reference)price for an apple and their estimated price for a 0-damageapple en a 2 (1- or 3-piece) times 9 (severity of damage)within ANCOVA with reference price for a single apple asthe covariate was conducted to examine whether the 1- and3-piece conditions respectively exhibited different patternsof estimated price reduction Due to the significant in-teraction a one-way within ANCOVA was conducted forphotographic images of apples from the 1- and 3-piececonditions separately to examine the effect of damage se-verity with reference price as a covariate If a main effect ofdamage severity was observed post hoc comparison usingthe SidakndashBonferroni procedure was conducted for each

Acce

lera

tion

(mmiddotsndash2

)

Time (s)

Velocity change(mmiddotsndash1)

Shock pulse

Peak acceleration

Figure 2 Relationship between time peak acceleration and ve-locity change for a half-sine shock pulse

Table 2 Relationship between velocity change peak accelerationand the damage area of appleslowast

Velocity change(mmiddotsminus1)

Peak acceleration(mmiddotsminus2) Damage area (times10minus4m2)

25 4903 625 5884 725 6865 725 7845 825 13729 930 3923 630 4903 730 5884 830 6865 830 7845 930 8829 1030 9807 1035 3923 635 4903 735 5884 835 6865 1035 7845 1035 8829 1135 9807 1140 3923 740 4903 740 5884 940 6865 1040 7845 1140 8829 1240 9807 1245 3923 745 4903 845 5884 1045 6865 1045 7845 1145 8829 1345 9807 1350 3923 750 4903 950 5884 1050 6865 1050 7845 1250 9807 13lowastEach datum was obtained from a previous study [28] For velocity changeand peak acceleration refer to Figure 2

0

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

Figure 1 Apple photographs used in the questionnaire Note enumbers to the left of each photograph stand for the severity of thedamage estimated by area (times10minus4m2)

Journal of Food Quality 3

neighboring severity of damage Only meaningful differ-ences Cohenrsquos dge 020 were subsequently interpreted

3 Results

e paired t-test examining whether the reference and es-timated prices for a 0-damage apple differed revealed asexpected that there was no significant difference(t(438) 128 p 021 d 006)

e 2 (1- and 3-piece) times 9 (severity of damage) withinANCOVA with reference price as the covariate revealeda significant two-way interaction between the number ofpieces and the severity of damage on estimated priceF(83456) 625 plt 0001 and η2p 003 (Figure 3)Consequently 1- and 3-piece conditions were examinedseparately

A one-way within ANCOVA was conducted to examinethe effect of severity of damage on estimated price for the 1-piece condition with reference price as the covariate erewas a main effect of severity of damage F(83480) 3651plt 0001 and η2p 008 (Figure 3) ere was a reduction inestimated price between damage severities of 0 and 6(plt 0001 d 119) 7 and 8 (plt 0001 d 043) and 11and 12 (plt 0001 d 028) indicating categorical ratherthan quantitative reductions in estimated prices us es-timated prices did not steadily decrease at each point withthe objective damage index for the 1-piece condition

A one-way within ANCOVA was conducted to examinethe effect of damage on estimated price for the 3-piececondition with reference price as the covariate ere wasa main effect of severity of damage F(83472) 1689plt 0001 and η2p 004 (Figure 3) ere was a reduction inestimated price between damage severities of 0 and 6(plt 0001 and d 098) 7 and 8 (plt 0001 and d 045) 8and 9 (plt 0001 and d 020) and 12 and 13 (plt 0001 andd 028) indicating categorical rather than quantitative re-ductions in estimated prices Estimated prices did not steadilydecrease at each point with the objective damage index for the3-piece condition as with the 1-piece condition

4 Discussion

Despite the great amount of effort put into and many ad-vancements in postharvest technology to prevent fungalinfections and to extend shelf life [32 33] cosmetic defectssuch as bruising are unavoidable in the fresh-fruit market[34] Such damage is associated with a reduction of thequality of fresh products which leads to large product andfinancial losses [5] erefore understanding the wayconsumers estimate prices for bruised fruits in relation toobjectively indexed damage severity is crucial in order toadequately price damaged products and avoid unnecessaryprofit losses e purpose of the current study was twofoldwe first examined whether the daily purchase (reference)price of apples is associated with the estimated price andsecond examined the association between objectively mea-sured manually produced surface damage of apples [28]and prices estimated by consumers To the authorsrsquoknowledge this is the first study to incorporate consumersrsquo

subjective evaluation of apples in conjunction with objec-tively indexed damage

Regarding the first objective as expected consumersrsquoreference prices were based on their daily purchase experi-ences [23ndash25] is implies that retailers should use theirstandard price for a normal apple as a baseline price As for thesecond objective price reductions appeared to occur in gradedcategories rather than in a continuous progression at eachseverity of damage is is consistent with previous findingsfor other cognitive processes [21 22] e price reductionsestimated by consumers from undamaged to damaged appleswere at most one-third regardless of the number of piecesHowever there were slightly different patterns of estimatedprice reductions for the 1- and 3-piece conditions Specificallya greater number of points of price reduction were found forthe 3-piece compared with the 1-piece condition as inAhmetogly et alrsquos review [26] is might be attributed toconsumers being more sensitive to defects among a largernumber of pieces compared with a single piece as reported[27]ese results together indicate that while damaged appleswere regarded as viable merchandise there was a significantreduction in estimated prices between damaged and un-damaged apples rather than among apples with different se-verities of damage As for packaging and transportation effortand resources should be allocated to avoid any damage at allrather than merely alleviating damage because even a smallamount of damage is associated with substantial devaluationAs for retailers consumers expect lower prices for damagedapples especially those that are sold as multiple pieces

e limitations of the current study are as follows Firstless severe damage levels should be incorporated into a futurestudy the effect size between no damage and the first level ofdamage severitymay be reduced if smaller severities of damagecould be reliably reproduced Further consumersrsquo willingnessto pay should be measured in addition to estimated prices inorder to examine the market demand for damaged apples

5 Conclusion

In conclusion the current study demonstrates that con-sumersrsquo reference prices are based on their daily purchase

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

0 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Estim

ated

pric

e

Severity of damage

1 piece3 piece

Figure 3 Estimated prices of 1 and 3 apples Error bar representsa 95 confidence interval

4 Journal of Food Quality

experiences Additionally these results imply a qualitativerather than quantitative reduction in estimated pricing asdamage increases While a greater number of points of pricereduction were found for the 3-piece condition whatmatters to the consumer appears to be whether an apple isldquodamaged or notrdquo rather than ldquohow damagedrdquo it is ecurrent findings will contribute to the elucidation of thevalue of damaged apples from the consumerrsquos perspectiveFurther studies that incorporate both objective and sub-jective indices of damage should be conducted to extend thecurrent findings to apples in general fruits and possibly toother food products

Data Availability

e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request

Conflicts of Interest

e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

is study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for YoungScientists (B) (No 26850160) from the Japan Society for thePromotion of Science (JSPS)

References

[1] Ministry of Agriculture Foresty and Fisheries of JapanldquoGuidelines for food liferdquo httpwwwmaffgojpjsyokuikushishinnhtml 2016

[2] Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications ldquoFamilybudget inquiryrdquo httpwwwstatgojpdatakakei 2016

[3] A Rocha M C Nunes A Morais and M M De BernadoldquoEffects of controlled atmosphere on quality of minimallyprocessed apple (cv Jonagored)rdquo Journal of Food Processingand Preservation vol 24 no 6 pp 435ndash451 2000

[4] Z Li and C omas ldquoQuantitative evaluation of mechanicaldamage to fresh fruitsrdquo Trends in Food Science and Tech-nology vol 35 no 2 pp 138ndash150 2014

[5] U L Opara and P B Pathare ldquoBruise damage measurementand analysis of fresh horticultural produce a reviewrdquo Post-harvest Biology and Technology vol 91 pp 9ndash24 2014

[6] M Van Zeebroeck H Ramon J De BaerdemaekerB Nicolaı and E Tijskens ldquoImpact damage of apples duringtransport and handlingrdquo Postharvest Biology and Technologyvol 45 no 2 pp 157ndash167 2007

[7] J C Buzby J Hyman H Stewart and H F Wells ldquoe valueof retail-and consumer-level fruit and vegetable losses in theUnited Statesrdquo Journal of Consumer Affairs vol 45 no 3pp 492ndash515 2011

[8] R Moser R Raffaelli and D ilmany-McFadden ldquoCon-sumer preferences for fruit and vegetables with credence-based attributes a reviewrdquo International Food and Agri-business Management Review vol 14 no 2 pp 121ndash142 2011

[9] C Yue H H Jensen D S Mueller G R NonneckeD Bonnet and M L Gleason ldquoEstimating consumersrsquo val-uation of organic and cosmetically damaged applesrdquoHortScience vol 42 no 6 pp 1366ndash1371 2007

[10] S Arivazhagan R N Shebiah S S Nidhyanandhan andL Ganesan ldquoFruit recognition using color and texture fea-turesrdquo Journal of Emerging Trends in Computing and In-formation Sciences vol 1 no 2 pp 90ndash94 2010

[11] S R Jaeger L Antunez G Ares J W Johnston M Hall andF R Harker ldquoConsumersrsquo visual attention to fruit defects anddisorders a case study with apple imagesrdquo Postharvest Biologyand Technology vol 116 pp 36ndash44 2016

[12] V Leemans and M-F Destain ldquoA real-time grading methodof apples based on features extracted from defectsrdquo Journal ofFood Engineering vol 61 no 1 pp 83ndash89 2004

[13] G L Barchi A Berardinelli A Guarnieri L Ragni andC T Fila ldquoDamage to loquats by vibration-simulating intra-state transportrdquo Biosystems Engineering vol 82 no 3pp 305ndash312 2002

[14] V Chonhenchob S Sittipod D Swasdee P RachtanapunS Singh and J A Singh ldquoEffect of truck vibration duringtransport on damage to fresh produce shipments inailandrdquoJournal of Applied Packaging Research vol 3 no 1 pp 27ndash382009

[15] B Soleimani and E Ahmadi ldquoEvaluation and analysis ofvibration during fruit transport as a function of road con-ditions suspension system and travel speedsrdquo Engineering inAgriculture Environment and Food vol 8 no 1 pp 26ndash322015

[16] Y Ishikawa H Kitazawa and T Shiina ldquoVibration and shockanalysis of fruit and vegetables transport -Cherry transportfrom Yamagata to Taipeindashrdquo Japan Agricultural ResearchQuarterly vol 43 no 2 pp 129ndash135 2009

[17] H Kitazawa K Saito and Y Ishikawa ldquoEffect of difference inacceleration and velocity change on product damage due torepetitive shockrdquo Packaging Technolgy and Science vol 27no 3 pp 221ndash230 2014

[18] E Yasunaga S Fukuda M Nagle and W Spreer ldquoEffect ofstorage conditions on the postharvest quality changes of freshmango fruits for export during transportationrdquo Environ-mental Control in Biology vol 56 no 2 pp 39ndash44 2018

[19] H Kim and L A House ldquoe impact of cosmetic defects onJapanese consumersrsquo preference for fresh grapefruitrdquo Journalof International Food and Agribusiness Marketing vol 24no 3 pp 201ndash212 2012

[20] X Li S Jervis and M Drake ldquoExamining extrinsic factorsthat influence product acceptance a reviewrdquo Journal of FoodScience vol 80 no 5 pp S1083ndashS1092 2015

[21] I Douven ldquoVagueness graded membership and conceptualspacesrdquo Cognition vol 151 pp 80ndash95 2016

[22] I Douven S Wenmackers Y Jraissati and L DecockldquoMeasuring graded membership the case of colorrdquo CognitiveScience vol 41 no 3 pp 686ndash722 2017

[23] L E Bolton L Warlop and J W Alba ldquoConsumer per-ceptions of price (un) fairnessrdquo Journal of Consumer Researchvol 29 no 4 pp 474ndash491 2003

[24] L L Cheng and K B Monroe ldquoAn appraisal of behavioralprice research (part 1) price as a physical stimulusrdquo AMSReview vol 3 no 3 pp 103ndash129 2013

[25] A O Peschel S Zielke and J Scholderer ldquoReference priceformation for product innovationsndashthe role of consistentprice-value-relationshipsrdquo Proceedings in System Dynamicsand Innovation in Food Networks 2016 pp 101ndash103 2016

[26] G Ahmetoglu A Furnham and P Fagan ldquoPricing practicesa review of their effects on consumer perceptions and be-haviourrdquo Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services vol 21no 5 pp 696ndash707 2014

Journal of Food Quality 5

[27] F Shaddy and A Fishbach ldquoSeller beware how bundlingaffects valuationrdquo Journal of Markeitng Research vol 54no 5 pp 737ndash751 2017

[28] H Kitazawa N Hasegawa and Y Tsukakoshi ldquoEvaluation ofthe relationship between shock and bruise area of apple fruitrdquoFood Science and Technology Research vol 22 no 4pp 485ndash489 2016

[29] F Lu Y Ishikawa H Kitazawa and T Satake ldquoMeasurementof impact pressure and bruising of apple fruit using pressure-sensitive film techniquerdquo Journal of Food Engineering vol 96no 4 pp 614ndash620 2010

[30] Statistics Bureau of Japan Average Retail Price of PrimaryItems Statistics Bureau of Japan Tokyo Japan httpwwwstatgojpdatakouridoukou3html 2013

[31] V Aalto-Setala and A Raijas ldquoActual market prices andconsumer price knowledgerdquo Journal of Product and BrandManagement vol 12 no 3 pp 180ndash192 2003

[32] M A De Leon-Zapata A Saenz-Galindo R Rojas-MolinaR Rodrıguez-Herrera D Jasso-Cantu and C N AguilarldquoEdible candelilla wax coating with fermented extract oftarbush improves the shelf life and quality of applesrdquo FoodPackaging and Shelf Life vol 3 pp 70ndash75 2015

[33] H Morales S Marın A J Ramos and V Sanchis ldquoInfluenceof post-harvest technologies applied during cold storage ofapples in Penicillium expansum growth and patulin accu-mulation a reviewrdquo Food Control vol 21 no 7 pp 953ndash9622010

[34] N-N Wang D-W Sun Y-C Yang H Pu and Z ZhuldquoRecent advances in the application of hyperspectral imagingfor evaluating fruit qualityrdquo Food Analytical Methods vol 9no 1 pp 178ndash191 2016

6 Journal of Food Quality

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Page 2: Categorical Nature of Consumer Price Estimations of ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/2018/3572397.pdf · Research Article Categorical Nature of Consumer Price Estimations of

surface damage to grapefruits substantially lowers con-sumersrsquo willingness to pay ere are very few studies thathave incorporated consumersrsquo subjective evaluations ofapples in conjunction with objectively indexed damageBecause consumersrsquo subjective evaluations of productquality are known to be reflected in estimated prices [20] thecurrent study examined the effect of objectively engineereddamage to the surfaces of apples on consumersrsquo estimationof their prices

It is highly possible that an objective index of the severityof surface damage to apples [4 5] does not correspond toconsumersrsquo subjective evaluations of product quality becausethe latter does not scale at a constant rate as does the formerRather the consumerrsquos subjective evaluations should beorganized into graded categories as we tend to simplifyinformation in a graded manner for quantitative visualstimuli because we cannot distinguish subtle differences[21 22] It should be noted that consumersrsquo expectations forthe pricing of products are influenced by their referenceprice which is the price they have internalized as normalbased on past experience [23ndash25] they should tend to de-value the damaged product compared with their referenceprice for the undamaged one Further because apples aresold individually or in multiple-piece packages at grocerystores in Japan we were curious about whether consumersrsquodevaluation of damaged products would differ with thenumber of pieces packaged together According to Ahme-toglu et alrsquos review study on pricing [26] consumers areexpected to anticipate lower prices for multiple-piecepackages of apples because bundled items signal discountIn the same way consumers demand greater compensationfor bundled products that are damaged [27]

ese facts findings and questions led us to define thetwofold purpose of the current study First we aimed toconfirm that consumers use self-reported typical purchaseprice as a reference price Second we assessed the effect ofdamage on estimated prices for photographically displayedapples (1- or 3-piece) with consumersrsquo reference prices asa covariate In doing so we explored the relationship be-tween the effect of objectively indexed surface damage ofapples on consumersrsquo subjective price estimations for thecorresponding apples Here we aimed to propose anevidence-based strategy that may prevent excessive de-valuation of bruised apples

2 Materials and Methods

21 Participants and Procedure Four hundred thirty-nineconsumers of apples (μage 448 SD 1362 Mdpurchase-frequency more than once a month Table 1) were randomlyrecruited from a Japanese online research company (Npar-

ticipant pool gt 36 million) who met the following recruitingcriteria (1) aged over 20 and (2) at least one annual purchaseof an apple After agreeing to the terms of the study withinformed consent participants proceeded to the participantcharacteristics questionnaire (age gender employmentstatus and purchase frequency of apples) en they wereasked to estimate the market price (estimated price) for 1 or3 yellow-green ldquoOrinrdquo apples in the free-answer format

based on photographic images presenting apples with 9different levels of damage 0 (normal apple) 6 7 8 9 10 1112 and 13 (the area of the applersquos surface that is damagedeach number represents times10minus4m2 of damage) (Figure 1)Damage severity levels 1 to 5 times10minus4m2 were not used for thecurrent study due to technical difficulties with consistentlysetting up damages for those levels Photographic imagescorresponding to each level of damage were randomlyshown 3 times for each piece count (1 and 3 apples) epresentation order of the photographic images was ran-domized Finally participants provided the average pur-chase price of a single apple based on their daily groceryshopping experience (reference price) in response to a free-answer-format question (six participants who providedextremely high experiential purchase prices for a single apple(SD gt 329) were eliminated as outliers in order to excludenonrepresentative consumers of apples) e entire pro-cedure took approximately 20 minutes e study was ap-proved by the institutional ethics committee of the NationalFood Research Institute (HU2015-1)

22 Materials and Stimuli Checks e apples in photo-graphs for each level of damage were randomly selected tocontrol for differences in surface color (Figure 1) Damagewas inflicted on each apple using a shock tester with acushioning adjusting system (SDST-300 and SVS-300Shinyei Testing Machinery Japan) set to various shockconditions based on [28] (Figure 2 and Table 2) e area ofdamage (times10minus4 m2) was estimated using the followingequation [29]

damage area W1 times W2 times π( 1113857

4 (1)

where W1 and W2 represent damage widths along the majorand minor axes and π the circle ratio e shock conditionsfor damaging the apples were the same as those described ina previous study and thus the severity of the damage of eachfruit in this study corresponded to that of the previous study[28] An Olympus E-30 camera with a standard lens (ZuikoDigital 14ndash54mm f28ndash35 II Olympus Japan) was used totake photographs in the autofocus shooting mode

Internal consistency for 3 photographs at each level ofdamage for 1 and 3 apples indicated sufficient reliability of

Table 1 Participant characteristics

Demographics N ()Gender

Male 191 (451)Female 248 (549)

EmploymentFull time 234 (533)Part time 52 (118)Unemployedretired 53 (121)Housewifehousehusband 91 (210)

Experiential purchase price fora single apple (reference price)

Mean (SD)yen1175 (458)

Note Six outliers were eliminated from this table Monthly currency ex-change rate for Aug 2016 was yen100 $099

2 Journal of Food Quality

price estimation for all severities of damage (smallestCronbachrsquos α 091 for 1 piece smallest Cronbachrsquos α

093 for 3 pieces)e following preliminary analyses were conducted

before the main analysesFirst it was important that participants be familiar with

market prices at the time of the study (1146 yen) [30] inorder to collect credible responses erefore each partic-ipantrsquos experiential purchase (reference) price for a singleapple (Table 1) was compared with the market price to verifythat their responses would be credible [31] us a one-sample t-test against 1146 yen was conducted against ref-erence prices and there was little difference (t(438) 131p 019 d 005) supporting the idea that the currentparticipants were representative Japanese apple consumersin terms of familiarity with purchase price Next to explorepotential covariates of estimated price correlations betweendemographics and reference prices were explored None ofthe demographics or self-reported purchase-related vari-ables were associated with estimated prices (largestr(439) 006 pgt 030) erefore demographic variableswere not used as covariates in the subsequent analyses

23 Statistical Analyses To ascertain that consumersrsquo esti-mations were based on their past shopping experiencea paired t-test was conducted No difference was expectedbetween a participantrsquos experiential purchase (reference)price for an apple and their estimated price for a 0-damageapple en a 2 (1- or 3-piece) times 9 (severity of damage)within ANCOVA with reference price for a single apple asthe covariate was conducted to examine whether the 1- and3-piece conditions respectively exhibited different patternsof estimated price reduction Due to the significant in-teraction a one-way within ANCOVA was conducted forphotographic images of apples from the 1- and 3-piececonditions separately to examine the effect of damage se-verity with reference price as a covariate If a main effect ofdamage severity was observed post hoc comparison usingthe SidakndashBonferroni procedure was conducted for each

Acce

lera

tion

(mmiddotsndash2

)

Time (s)

Velocity change(mmiddotsndash1)

Shock pulse

Peak acceleration

Figure 2 Relationship between time peak acceleration and ve-locity change for a half-sine shock pulse

Table 2 Relationship between velocity change peak accelerationand the damage area of appleslowast

Velocity change(mmiddotsminus1)

Peak acceleration(mmiddotsminus2) Damage area (times10minus4m2)

25 4903 625 5884 725 6865 725 7845 825 13729 930 3923 630 4903 730 5884 830 6865 830 7845 930 8829 1030 9807 1035 3923 635 4903 735 5884 835 6865 1035 7845 1035 8829 1135 9807 1140 3923 740 4903 740 5884 940 6865 1040 7845 1140 8829 1240 9807 1245 3923 745 4903 845 5884 1045 6865 1045 7845 1145 8829 1345 9807 1350 3923 750 4903 950 5884 1050 6865 1050 7845 1250 9807 13lowastEach datum was obtained from a previous study [28] For velocity changeand peak acceleration refer to Figure 2

0

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

Figure 1 Apple photographs used in the questionnaire Note enumbers to the left of each photograph stand for the severity of thedamage estimated by area (times10minus4m2)

Journal of Food Quality 3

neighboring severity of damage Only meaningful differ-ences Cohenrsquos dge 020 were subsequently interpreted

3 Results

e paired t-test examining whether the reference and es-timated prices for a 0-damage apple differed revealed asexpected that there was no significant difference(t(438) 128 p 021 d 006)

e 2 (1- and 3-piece) times 9 (severity of damage) withinANCOVA with reference price as the covariate revealeda significant two-way interaction between the number ofpieces and the severity of damage on estimated priceF(83456) 625 plt 0001 and η2p 003 (Figure 3)Consequently 1- and 3-piece conditions were examinedseparately

A one-way within ANCOVA was conducted to examinethe effect of severity of damage on estimated price for the 1-piece condition with reference price as the covariate erewas a main effect of severity of damage F(83480) 3651plt 0001 and η2p 008 (Figure 3) ere was a reduction inestimated price between damage severities of 0 and 6(plt 0001 d 119) 7 and 8 (plt 0001 d 043) and 11and 12 (plt 0001 d 028) indicating categorical ratherthan quantitative reductions in estimated prices us es-timated prices did not steadily decrease at each point withthe objective damage index for the 1-piece condition

A one-way within ANCOVA was conducted to examinethe effect of damage on estimated price for the 3-piececondition with reference price as the covariate ere wasa main effect of severity of damage F(83472) 1689plt 0001 and η2p 004 (Figure 3) ere was a reduction inestimated price between damage severities of 0 and 6(plt 0001 and d 098) 7 and 8 (plt 0001 and d 045) 8and 9 (plt 0001 and d 020) and 12 and 13 (plt 0001 andd 028) indicating categorical rather than quantitative re-ductions in estimated prices Estimated prices did not steadilydecrease at each point with the objective damage index for the3-piece condition as with the 1-piece condition

4 Discussion

Despite the great amount of effort put into and many ad-vancements in postharvest technology to prevent fungalinfections and to extend shelf life [32 33] cosmetic defectssuch as bruising are unavoidable in the fresh-fruit market[34] Such damage is associated with a reduction of thequality of fresh products which leads to large product andfinancial losses [5] erefore understanding the wayconsumers estimate prices for bruised fruits in relation toobjectively indexed damage severity is crucial in order toadequately price damaged products and avoid unnecessaryprofit losses e purpose of the current study was twofoldwe first examined whether the daily purchase (reference)price of apples is associated with the estimated price andsecond examined the association between objectively mea-sured manually produced surface damage of apples [28]and prices estimated by consumers To the authorsrsquoknowledge this is the first study to incorporate consumersrsquo

subjective evaluation of apples in conjunction with objec-tively indexed damage

Regarding the first objective as expected consumersrsquoreference prices were based on their daily purchase experi-ences [23ndash25] is implies that retailers should use theirstandard price for a normal apple as a baseline price As for thesecond objective price reductions appeared to occur in gradedcategories rather than in a continuous progression at eachseverity of damage is is consistent with previous findingsfor other cognitive processes [21 22] e price reductionsestimated by consumers from undamaged to damaged appleswere at most one-third regardless of the number of piecesHowever there were slightly different patterns of estimatedprice reductions for the 1- and 3-piece conditions Specificallya greater number of points of price reduction were found forthe 3-piece compared with the 1-piece condition as inAhmetogly et alrsquos review [26] is might be attributed toconsumers being more sensitive to defects among a largernumber of pieces compared with a single piece as reported[27]ese results together indicate that while damaged appleswere regarded as viable merchandise there was a significantreduction in estimated prices between damaged and un-damaged apples rather than among apples with different se-verities of damage As for packaging and transportation effortand resources should be allocated to avoid any damage at allrather than merely alleviating damage because even a smallamount of damage is associated with substantial devaluationAs for retailers consumers expect lower prices for damagedapples especially those that are sold as multiple pieces

e limitations of the current study are as follows Firstless severe damage levels should be incorporated into a futurestudy the effect size between no damage and the first level ofdamage severitymay be reduced if smaller severities of damagecould be reliably reproduced Further consumersrsquo willingnessto pay should be measured in addition to estimated prices inorder to examine the market demand for damaged apples

5 Conclusion

In conclusion the current study demonstrates that con-sumersrsquo reference prices are based on their daily purchase

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

0 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Estim

ated

pric

e

Severity of damage

1 piece3 piece

Figure 3 Estimated prices of 1 and 3 apples Error bar representsa 95 confidence interval

4 Journal of Food Quality

experiences Additionally these results imply a qualitativerather than quantitative reduction in estimated pricing asdamage increases While a greater number of points of pricereduction were found for the 3-piece condition whatmatters to the consumer appears to be whether an apple isldquodamaged or notrdquo rather than ldquohow damagedrdquo it is ecurrent findings will contribute to the elucidation of thevalue of damaged apples from the consumerrsquos perspectiveFurther studies that incorporate both objective and sub-jective indices of damage should be conducted to extend thecurrent findings to apples in general fruits and possibly toother food products

Data Availability

e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request

Conflicts of Interest

e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

is study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for YoungScientists (B) (No 26850160) from the Japan Society for thePromotion of Science (JSPS)

References

[1] Ministry of Agriculture Foresty and Fisheries of JapanldquoGuidelines for food liferdquo httpwwwmaffgojpjsyokuikushishinnhtml 2016

[2] Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications ldquoFamilybudget inquiryrdquo httpwwwstatgojpdatakakei 2016

[3] A Rocha M C Nunes A Morais and M M De BernadoldquoEffects of controlled atmosphere on quality of minimallyprocessed apple (cv Jonagored)rdquo Journal of Food Processingand Preservation vol 24 no 6 pp 435ndash451 2000

[4] Z Li and C omas ldquoQuantitative evaluation of mechanicaldamage to fresh fruitsrdquo Trends in Food Science and Tech-nology vol 35 no 2 pp 138ndash150 2014

[5] U L Opara and P B Pathare ldquoBruise damage measurementand analysis of fresh horticultural produce a reviewrdquo Post-harvest Biology and Technology vol 91 pp 9ndash24 2014

[6] M Van Zeebroeck H Ramon J De BaerdemaekerB Nicolaı and E Tijskens ldquoImpact damage of apples duringtransport and handlingrdquo Postharvest Biology and Technologyvol 45 no 2 pp 157ndash167 2007

[7] J C Buzby J Hyman H Stewart and H F Wells ldquoe valueof retail-and consumer-level fruit and vegetable losses in theUnited Statesrdquo Journal of Consumer Affairs vol 45 no 3pp 492ndash515 2011

[8] R Moser R Raffaelli and D ilmany-McFadden ldquoCon-sumer preferences for fruit and vegetables with credence-based attributes a reviewrdquo International Food and Agri-business Management Review vol 14 no 2 pp 121ndash142 2011

[9] C Yue H H Jensen D S Mueller G R NonneckeD Bonnet and M L Gleason ldquoEstimating consumersrsquo val-uation of organic and cosmetically damaged applesrdquoHortScience vol 42 no 6 pp 1366ndash1371 2007

[10] S Arivazhagan R N Shebiah S S Nidhyanandhan andL Ganesan ldquoFruit recognition using color and texture fea-turesrdquo Journal of Emerging Trends in Computing and In-formation Sciences vol 1 no 2 pp 90ndash94 2010

[11] S R Jaeger L Antunez G Ares J W Johnston M Hall andF R Harker ldquoConsumersrsquo visual attention to fruit defects anddisorders a case study with apple imagesrdquo Postharvest Biologyand Technology vol 116 pp 36ndash44 2016

[12] V Leemans and M-F Destain ldquoA real-time grading methodof apples based on features extracted from defectsrdquo Journal ofFood Engineering vol 61 no 1 pp 83ndash89 2004

[13] G L Barchi A Berardinelli A Guarnieri L Ragni andC T Fila ldquoDamage to loquats by vibration-simulating intra-state transportrdquo Biosystems Engineering vol 82 no 3pp 305ndash312 2002

[14] V Chonhenchob S Sittipod D Swasdee P RachtanapunS Singh and J A Singh ldquoEffect of truck vibration duringtransport on damage to fresh produce shipments inailandrdquoJournal of Applied Packaging Research vol 3 no 1 pp 27ndash382009

[15] B Soleimani and E Ahmadi ldquoEvaluation and analysis ofvibration during fruit transport as a function of road con-ditions suspension system and travel speedsrdquo Engineering inAgriculture Environment and Food vol 8 no 1 pp 26ndash322015

[16] Y Ishikawa H Kitazawa and T Shiina ldquoVibration and shockanalysis of fruit and vegetables transport -Cherry transportfrom Yamagata to Taipeindashrdquo Japan Agricultural ResearchQuarterly vol 43 no 2 pp 129ndash135 2009

[17] H Kitazawa K Saito and Y Ishikawa ldquoEffect of difference inacceleration and velocity change on product damage due torepetitive shockrdquo Packaging Technolgy and Science vol 27no 3 pp 221ndash230 2014

[18] E Yasunaga S Fukuda M Nagle and W Spreer ldquoEffect ofstorage conditions on the postharvest quality changes of freshmango fruits for export during transportationrdquo Environ-mental Control in Biology vol 56 no 2 pp 39ndash44 2018

[19] H Kim and L A House ldquoe impact of cosmetic defects onJapanese consumersrsquo preference for fresh grapefruitrdquo Journalof International Food and Agribusiness Marketing vol 24no 3 pp 201ndash212 2012

[20] X Li S Jervis and M Drake ldquoExamining extrinsic factorsthat influence product acceptance a reviewrdquo Journal of FoodScience vol 80 no 5 pp S1083ndashS1092 2015

[21] I Douven ldquoVagueness graded membership and conceptualspacesrdquo Cognition vol 151 pp 80ndash95 2016

[22] I Douven S Wenmackers Y Jraissati and L DecockldquoMeasuring graded membership the case of colorrdquo CognitiveScience vol 41 no 3 pp 686ndash722 2017

[23] L E Bolton L Warlop and J W Alba ldquoConsumer per-ceptions of price (un) fairnessrdquo Journal of Consumer Researchvol 29 no 4 pp 474ndash491 2003

[24] L L Cheng and K B Monroe ldquoAn appraisal of behavioralprice research (part 1) price as a physical stimulusrdquo AMSReview vol 3 no 3 pp 103ndash129 2013

[25] A O Peschel S Zielke and J Scholderer ldquoReference priceformation for product innovationsndashthe role of consistentprice-value-relationshipsrdquo Proceedings in System Dynamicsand Innovation in Food Networks 2016 pp 101ndash103 2016

[26] G Ahmetoglu A Furnham and P Fagan ldquoPricing practicesa review of their effects on consumer perceptions and be-haviourrdquo Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services vol 21no 5 pp 696ndash707 2014

Journal of Food Quality 5

[27] F Shaddy and A Fishbach ldquoSeller beware how bundlingaffects valuationrdquo Journal of Markeitng Research vol 54no 5 pp 737ndash751 2017

[28] H Kitazawa N Hasegawa and Y Tsukakoshi ldquoEvaluation ofthe relationship between shock and bruise area of apple fruitrdquoFood Science and Technology Research vol 22 no 4pp 485ndash489 2016

[29] F Lu Y Ishikawa H Kitazawa and T Satake ldquoMeasurementof impact pressure and bruising of apple fruit using pressure-sensitive film techniquerdquo Journal of Food Engineering vol 96no 4 pp 614ndash620 2010

[30] Statistics Bureau of Japan Average Retail Price of PrimaryItems Statistics Bureau of Japan Tokyo Japan httpwwwstatgojpdatakouridoukou3html 2013

[31] V Aalto-Setala and A Raijas ldquoActual market prices andconsumer price knowledgerdquo Journal of Product and BrandManagement vol 12 no 3 pp 180ndash192 2003

[32] M A De Leon-Zapata A Saenz-Galindo R Rojas-MolinaR Rodrıguez-Herrera D Jasso-Cantu and C N AguilarldquoEdible candelilla wax coating with fermented extract oftarbush improves the shelf life and quality of applesrdquo FoodPackaging and Shelf Life vol 3 pp 70ndash75 2015

[33] H Morales S Marın A J Ramos and V Sanchis ldquoInfluenceof post-harvest technologies applied during cold storage ofapples in Penicillium expansum growth and patulin accu-mulation a reviewrdquo Food Control vol 21 no 7 pp 953ndash9622010

[34] N-N Wang D-W Sun Y-C Yang H Pu and Z ZhuldquoRecent advances in the application of hyperspectral imagingfor evaluating fruit qualityrdquo Food Analytical Methods vol 9no 1 pp 178ndash191 2016

6 Journal of Food Quality

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Page 3: Categorical Nature of Consumer Price Estimations of ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/2018/3572397.pdf · Research Article Categorical Nature of Consumer Price Estimations of

price estimation for all severities of damage (smallestCronbachrsquos α 091 for 1 piece smallest Cronbachrsquos α

093 for 3 pieces)e following preliminary analyses were conducted

before the main analysesFirst it was important that participants be familiar with

market prices at the time of the study (1146 yen) [30] inorder to collect credible responses erefore each partic-ipantrsquos experiential purchase (reference) price for a singleapple (Table 1) was compared with the market price to verifythat their responses would be credible [31] us a one-sample t-test against 1146 yen was conducted against ref-erence prices and there was little difference (t(438) 131p 019 d 005) supporting the idea that the currentparticipants were representative Japanese apple consumersin terms of familiarity with purchase price Next to explorepotential covariates of estimated price correlations betweendemographics and reference prices were explored None ofthe demographics or self-reported purchase-related vari-ables were associated with estimated prices (largestr(439) 006 pgt 030) erefore demographic variableswere not used as covariates in the subsequent analyses

23 Statistical Analyses To ascertain that consumersrsquo esti-mations were based on their past shopping experiencea paired t-test was conducted No difference was expectedbetween a participantrsquos experiential purchase (reference)price for an apple and their estimated price for a 0-damageapple en a 2 (1- or 3-piece) times 9 (severity of damage)within ANCOVA with reference price for a single apple asthe covariate was conducted to examine whether the 1- and3-piece conditions respectively exhibited different patternsof estimated price reduction Due to the significant in-teraction a one-way within ANCOVA was conducted forphotographic images of apples from the 1- and 3-piececonditions separately to examine the effect of damage se-verity with reference price as a covariate If a main effect ofdamage severity was observed post hoc comparison usingthe SidakndashBonferroni procedure was conducted for each

Acce

lera

tion

(mmiddotsndash2

)

Time (s)

Velocity change(mmiddotsndash1)

Shock pulse

Peak acceleration

Figure 2 Relationship between time peak acceleration and ve-locity change for a half-sine shock pulse

Table 2 Relationship between velocity change peak accelerationand the damage area of appleslowast

Velocity change(mmiddotsminus1)

Peak acceleration(mmiddotsminus2) Damage area (times10minus4m2)

25 4903 625 5884 725 6865 725 7845 825 13729 930 3923 630 4903 730 5884 830 6865 830 7845 930 8829 1030 9807 1035 3923 635 4903 735 5884 835 6865 1035 7845 1035 8829 1135 9807 1140 3923 740 4903 740 5884 940 6865 1040 7845 1140 8829 1240 9807 1245 3923 745 4903 845 5884 1045 6865 1045 7845 1145 8829 1345 9807 1350 3923 750 4903 950 5884 1050 6865 1050 7845 1250 9807 13lowastEach datum was obtained from a previous study [28] For velocity changeand peak acceleration refer to Figure 2

0

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

Figure 1 Apple photographs used in the questionnaire Note enumbers to the left of each photograph stand for the severity of thedamage estimated by area (times10minus4m2)

Journal of Food Quality 3

neighboring severity of damage Only meaningful differ-ences Cohenrsquos dge 020 were subsequently interpreted

3 Results

e paired t-test examining whether the reference and es-timated prices for a 0-damage apple differed revealed asexpected that there was no significant difference(t(438) 128 p 021 d 006)

e 2 (1- and 3-piece) times 9 (severity of damage) withinANCOVA with reference price as the covariate revealeda significant two-way interaction between the number ofpieces and the severity of damage on estimated priceF(83456) 625 plt 0001 and η2p 003 (Figure 3)Consequently 1- and 3-piece conditions were examinedseparately

A one-way within ANCOVA was conducted to examinethe effect of severity of damage on estimated price for the 1-piece condition with reference price as the covariate erewas a main effect of severity of damage F(83480) 3651plt 0001 and η2p 008 (Figure 3) ere was a reduction inestimated price between damage severities of 0 and 6(plt 0001 d 119) 7 and 8 (plt 0001 d 043) and 11and 12 (plt 0001 d 028) indicating categorical ratherthan quantitative reductions in estimated prices us es-timated prices did not steadily decrease at each point withthe objective damage index for the 1-piece condition

A one-way within ANCOVA was conducted to examinethe effect of damage on estimated price for the 3-piececondition with reference price as the covariate ere wasa main effect of severity of damage F(83472) 1689plt 0001 and η2p 004 (Figure 3) ere was a reduction inestimated price between damage severities of 0 and 6(plt 0001 and d 098) 7 and 8 (plt 0001 and d 045) 8and 9 (plt 0001 and d 020) and 12 and 13 (plt 0001 andd 028) indicating categorical rather than quantitative re-ductions in estimated prices Estimated prices did not steadilydecrease at each point with the objective damage index for the3-piece condition as with the 1-piece condition

4 Discussion

Despite the great amount of effort put into and many ad-vancements in postharvest technology to prevent fungalinfections and to extend shelf life [32 33] cosmetic defectssuch as bruising are unavoidable in the fresh-fruit market[34] Such damage is associated with a reduction of thequality of fresh products which leads to large product andfinancial losses [5] erefore understanding the wayconsumers estimate prices for bruised fruits in relation toobjectively indexed damage severity is crucial in order toadequately price damaged products and avoid unnecessaryprofit losses e purpose of the current study was twofoldwe first examined whether the daily purchase (reference)price of apples is associated with the estimated price andsecond examined the association between objectively mea-sured manually produced surface damage of apples [28]and prices estimated by consumers To the authorsrsquoknowledge this is the first study to incorporate consumersrsquo

subjective evaluation of apples in conjunction with objec-tively indexed damage

Regarding the first objective as expected consumersrsquoreference prices were based on their daily purchase experi-ences [23ndash25] is implies that retailers should use theirstandard price for a normal apple as a baseline price As for thesecond objective price reductions appeared to occur in gradedcategories rather than in a continuous progression at eachseverity of damage is is consistent with previous findingsfor other cognitive processes [21 22] e price reductionsestimated by consumers from undamaged to damaged appleswere at most one-third regardless of the number of piecesHowever there were slightly different patterns of estimatedprice reductions for the 1- and 3-piece conditions Specificallya greater number of points of price reduction were found forthe 3-piece compared with the 1-piece condition as inAhmetogly et alrsquos review [26] is might be attributed toconsumers being more sensitive to defects among a largernumber of pieces compared with a single piece as reported[27]ese results together indicate that while damaged appleswere regarded as viable merchandise there was a significantreduction in estimated prices between damaged and un-damaged apples rather than among apples with different se-verities of damage As for packaging and transportation effortand resources should be allocated to avoid any damage at allrather than merely alleviating damage because even a smallamount of damage is associated with substantial devaluationAs for retailers consumers expect lower prices for damagedapples especially those that are sold as multiple pieces

e limitations of the current study are as follows Firstless severe damage levels should be incorporated into a futurestudy the effect size between no damage and the first level ofdamage severitymay be reduced if smaller severities of damagecould be reliably reproduced Further consumersrsquo willingnessto pay should be measured in addition to estimated prices inorder to examine the market demand for damaged apples

5 Conclusion

In conclusion the current study demonstrates that con-sumersrsquo reference prices are based on their daily purchase

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

0 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Estim

ated

pric

e

Severity of damage

1 piece3 piece

Figure 3 Estimated prices of 1 and 3 apples Error bar representsa 95 confidence interval

4 Journal of Food Quality

experiences Additionally these results imply a qualitativerather than quantitative reduction in estimated pricing asdamage increases While a greater number of points of pricereduction were found for the 3-piece condition whatmatters to the consumer appears to be whether an apple isldquodamaged or notrdquo rather than ldquohow damagedrdquo it is ecurrent findings will contribute to the elucidation of thevalue of damaged apples from the consumerrsquos perspectiveFurther studies that incorporate both objective and sub-jective indices of damage should be conducted to extend thecurrent findings to apples in general fruits and possibly toother food products

Data Availability

e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request

Conflicts of Interest

e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

is study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for YoungScientists (B) (No 26850160) from the Japan Society for thePromotion of Science (JSPS)

References

[1] Ministry of Agriculture Foresty and Fisheries of JapanldquoGuidelines for food liferdquo httpwwwmaffgojpjsyokuikushishinnhtml 2016

[2] Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications ldquoFamilybudget inquiryrdquo httpwwwstatgojpdatakakei 2016

[3] A Rocha M C Nunes A Morais and M M De BernadoldquoEffects of controlled atmosphere on quality of minimallyprocessed apple (cv Jonagored)rdquo Journal of Food Processingand Preservation vol 24 no 6 pp 435ndash451 2000

[4] Z Li and C omas ldquoQuantitative evaluation of mechanicaldamage to fresh fruitsrdquo Trends in Food Science and Tech-nology vol 35 no 2 pp 138ndash150 2014

[5] U L Opara and P B Pathare ldquoBruise damage measurementand analysis of fresh horticultural produce a reviewrdquo Post-harvest Biology and Technology vol 91 pp 9ndash24 2014

[6] M Van Zeebroeck H Ramon J De BaerdemaekerB Nicolaı and E Tijskens ldquoImpact damage of apples duringtransport and handlingrdquo Postharvest Biology and Technologyvol 45 no 2 pp 157ndash167 2007

[7] J C Buzby J Hyman H Stewart and H F Wells ldquoe valueof retail-and consumer-level fruit and vegetable losses in theUnited Statesrdquo Journal of Consumer Affairs vol 45 no 3pp 492ndash515 2011

[8] R Moser R Raffaelli and D ilmany-McFadden ldquoCon-sumer preferences for fruit and vegetables with credence-based attributes a reviewrdquo International Food and Agri-business Management Review vol 14 no 2 pp 121ndash142 2011

[9] C Yue H H Jensen D S Mueller G R NonneckeD Bonnet and M L Gleason ldquoEstimating consumersrsquo val-uation of organic and cosmetically damaged applesrdquoHortScience vol 42 no 6 pp 1366ndash1371 2007

[10] S Arivazhagan R N Shebiah S S Nidhyanandhan andL Ganesan ldquoFruit recognition using color and texture fea-turesrdquo Journal of Emerging Trends in Computing and In-formation Sciences vol 1 no 2 pp 90ndash94 2010

[11] S R Jaeger L Antunez G Ares J W Johnston M Hall andF R Harker ldquoConsumersrsquo visual attention to fruit defects anddisorders a case study with apple imagesrdquo Postharvest Biologyand Technology vol 116 pp 36ndash44 2016

[12] V Leemans and M-F Destain ldquoA real-time grading methodof apples based on features extracted from defectsrdquo Journal ofFood Engineering vol 61 no 1 pp 83ndash89 2004

[13] G L Barchi A Berardinelli A Guarnieri L Ragni andC T Fila ldquoDamage to loquats by vibration-simulating intra-state transportrdquo Biosystems Engineering vol 82 no 3pp 305ndash312 2002

[14] V Chonhenchob S Sittipod D Swasdee P RachtanapunS Singh and J A Singh ldquoEffect of truck vibration duringtransport on damage to fresh produce shipments inailandrdquoJournal of Applied Packaging Research vol 3 no 1 pp 27ndash382009

[15] B Soleimani and E Ahmadi ldquoEvaluation and analysis ofvibration during fruit transport as a function of road con-ditions suspension system and travel speedsrdquo Engineering inAgriculture Environment and Food vol 8 no 1 pp 26ndash322015

[16] Y Ishikawa H Kitazawa and T Shiina ldquoVibration and shockanalysis of fruit and vegetables transport -Cherry transportfrom Yamagata to Taipeindashrdquo Japan Agricultural ResearchQuarterly vol 43 no 2 pp 129ndash135 2009

[17] H Kitazawa K Saito and Y Ishikawa ldquoEffect of difference inacceleration and velocity change on product damage due torepetitive shockrdquo Packaging Technolgy and Science vol 27no 3 pp 221ndash230 2014

[18] E Yasunaga S Fukuda M Nagle and W Spreer ldquoEffect ofstorage conditions on the postharvest quality changes of freshmango fruits for export during transportationrdquo Environ-mental Control in Biology vol 56 no 2 pp 39ndash44 2018

[19] H Kim and L A House ldquoe impact of cosmetic defects onJapanese consumersrsquo preference for fresh grapefruitrdquo Journalof International Food and Agribusiness Marketing vol 24no 3 pp 201ndash212 2012

[20] X Li S Jervis and M Drake ldquoExamining extrinsic factorsthat influence product acceptance a reviewrdquo Journal of FoodScience vol 80 no 5 pp S1083ndashS1092 2015

[21] I Douven ldquoVagueness graded membership and conceptualspacesrdquo Cognition vol 151 pp 80ndash95 2016

[22] I Douven S Wenmackers Y Jraissati and L DecockldquoMeasuring graded membership the case of colorrdquo CognitiveScience vol 41 no 3 pp 686ndash722 2017

[23] L E Bolton L Warlop and J W Alba ldquoConsumer per-ceptions of price (un) fairnessrdquo Journal of Consumer Researchvol 29 no 4 pp 474ndash491 2003

[24] L L Cheng and K B Monroe ldquoAn appraisal of behavioralprice research (part 1) price as a physical stimulusrdquo AMSReview vol 3 no 3 pp 103ndash129 2013

[25] A O Peschel S Zielke and J Scholderer ldquoReference priceformation for product innovationsndashthe role of consistentprice-value-relationshipsrdquo Proceedings in System Dynamicsand Innovation in Food Networks 2016 pp 101ndash103 2016

[26] G Ahmetoglu A Furnham and P Fagan ldquoPricing practicesa review of their effects on consumer perceptions and be-haviourrdquo Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services vol 21no 5 pp 696ndash707 2014

Journal of Food Quality 5

[27] F Shaddy and A Fishbach ldquoSeller beware how bundlingaffects valuationrdquo Journal of Markeitng Research vol 54no 5 pp 737ndash751 2017

[28] H Kitazawa N Hasegawa and Y Tsukakoshi ldquoEvaluation ofthe relationship between shock and bruise area of apple fruitrdquoFood Science and Technology Research vol 22 no 4pp 485ndash489 2016

[29] F Lu Y Ishikawa H Kitazawa and T Satake ldquoMeasurementof impact pressure and bruising of apple fruit using pressure-sensitive film techniquerdquo Journal of Food Engineering vol 96no 4 pp 614ndash620 2010

[30] Statistics Bureau of Japan Average Retail Price of PrimaryItems Statistics Bureau of Japan Tokyo Japan httpwwwstatgojpdatakouridoukou3html 2013

[31] V Aalto-Setala and A Raijas ldquoActual market prices andconsumer price knowledgerdquo Journal of Product and BrandManagement vol 12 no 3 pp 180ndash192 2003

[32] M A De Leon-Zapata A Saenz-Galindo R Rojas-MolinaR Rodrıguez-Herrera D Jasso-Cantu and C N AguilarldquoEdible candelilla wax coating with fermented extract oftarbush improves the shelf life and quality of applesrdquo FoodPackaging and Shelf Life vol 3 pp 70ndash75 2015

[33] H Morales S Marın A J Ramos and V Sanchis ldquoInfluenceof post-harvest technologies applied during cold storage ofapples in Penicillium expansum growth and patulin accu-mulation a reviewrdquo Food Control vol 21 no 7 pp 953ndash9622010

[34] N-N Wang D-W Sun Y-C Yang H Pu and Z ZhuldquoRecent advances in the application of hyperspectral imagingfor evaluating fruit qualityrdquo Food Analytical Methods vol 9no 1 pp 178ndash191 2016

6 Journal of Food Quality

Hindawiwwwhindawicom

International Journal of

Volume 2018

Zoology

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Anatomy Research International

PeptidesInternational Journal of

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Journal of Parasitology Research

GenomicsInternational Journal of

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2013Hindawiwwwhindawicom

The Scientific World Journal

Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

BioinformaticsAdvances in

Marine BiologyJournal of

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Neuroscience Journal

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

BioMed Research International

Cell BiologyInternational Journal of

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Biochemistry Research International

ArchaeaHindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Genetics Research International

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Advances in

Virolog y Stem Cells International

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Enzyme Research

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

International Journal of

MicrobiologyHindawiwwwhindawicom

Nucleic AcidsJournal of

Volume 2018

Submit your manuscripts atwwwhindawicom

Page 4: Categorical Nature of Consumer Price Estimations of ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/2018/3572397.pdf · Research Article Categorical Nature of Consumer Price Estimations of

neighboring severity of damage Only meaningful differ-ences Cohenrsquos dge 020 were subsequently interpreted

3 Results

e paired t-test examining whether the reference and es-timated prices for a 0-damage apple differed revealed asexpected that there was no significant difference(t(438) 128 p 021 d 006)

e 2 (1- and 3-piece) times 9 (severity of damage) withinANCOVA with reference price as the covariate revealeda significant two-way interaction between the number ofpieces and the severity of damage on estimated priceF(83456) 625 plt 0001 and η2p 003 (Figure 3)Consequently 1- and 3-piece conditions were examinedseparately

A one-way within ANCOVA was conducted to examinethe effect of severity of damage on estimated price for the 1-piece condition with reference price as the covariate erewas a main effect of severity of damage F(83480) 3651plt 0001 and η2p 008 (Figure 3) ere was a reduction inestimated price between damage severities of 0 and 6(plt 0001 d 119) 7 and 8 (plt 0001 d 043) and 11and 12 (plt 0001 d 028) indicating categorical ratherthan quantitative reductions in estimated prices us es-timated prices did not steadily decrease at each point withthe objective damage index for the 1-piece condition

A one-way within ANCOVA was conducted to examinethe effect of damage on estimated price for the 3-piececondition with reference price as the covariate ere wasa main effect of severity of damage F(83472) 1689plt 0001 and η2p 004 (Figure 3) ere was a reduction inestimated price between damage severities of 0 and 6(plt 0001 and d 098) 7 and 8 (plt 0001 and d 045) 8and 9 (plt 0001 and d 020) and 12 and 13 (plt 0001 andd 028) indicating categorical rather than quantitative re-ductions in estimated prices Estimated prices did not steadilydecrease at each point with the objective damage index for the3-piece condition as with the 1-piece condition

4 Discussion

Despite the great amount of effort put into and many ad-vancements in postharvest technology to prevent fungalinfections and to extend shelf life [32 33] cosmetic defectssuch as bruising are unavoidable in the fresh-fruit market[34] Such damage is associated with a reduction of thequality of fresh products which leads to large product andfinancial losses [5] erefore understanding the wayconsumers estimate prices for bruised fruits in relation toobjectively indexed damage severity is crucial in order toadequately price damaged products and avoid unnecessaryprofit losses e purpose of the current study was twofoldwe first examined whether the daily purchase (reference)price of apples is associated with the estimated price andsecond examined the association between objectively mea-sured manually produced surface damage of apples [28]and prices estimated by consumers To the authorsrsquoknowledge this is the first study to incorporate consumersrsquo

subjective evaluation of apples in conjunction with objec-tively indexed damage

Regarding the first objective as expected consumersrsquoreference prices were based on their daily purchase experi-ences [23ndash25] is implies that retailers should use theirstandard price for a normal apple as a baseline price As for thesecond objective price reductions appeared to occur in gradedcategories rather than in a continuous progression at eachseverity of damage is is consistent with previous findingsfor other cognitive processes [21 22] e price reductionsestimated by consumers from undamaged to damaged appleswere at most one-third regardless of the number of piecesHowever there were slightly different patterns of estimatedprice reductions for the 1- and 3-piece conditions Specificallya greater number of points of price reduction were found forthe 3-piece compared with the 1-piece condition as inAhmetogly et alrsquos review [26] is might be attributed toconsumers being more sensitive to defects among a largernumber of pieces compared with a single piece as reported[27]ese results together indicate that while damaged appleswere regarded as viable merchandise there was a significantreduction in estimated prices between damaged and un-damaged apples rather than among apples with different se-verities of damage As for packaging and transportation effortand resources should be allocated to avoid any damage at allrather than merely alleviating damage because even a smallamount of damage is associated with substantial devaluationAs for retailers consumers expect lower prices for damagedapples especially those that are sold as multiple pieces

e limitations of the current study are as follows Firstless severe damage levels should be incorporated into a futurestudy the effect size between no damage and the first level ofdamage severitymay be reduced if smaller severities of damagecould be reliably reproduced Further consumersrsquo willingnessto pay should be measured in addition to estimated prices inorder to examine the market demand for damaged apples

5 Conclusion

In conclusion the current study demonstrates that con-sumersrsquo reference prices are based on their daily purchase

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

0 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Estim

ated

pric

e

Severity of damage

1 piece3 piece

Figure 3 Estimated prices of 1 and 3 apples Error bar representsa 95 confidence interval

4 Journal of Food Quality

experiences Additionally these results imply a qualitativerather than quantitative reduction in estimated pricing asdamage increases While a greater number of points of pricereduction were found for the 3-piece condition whatmatters to the consumer appears to be whether an apple isldquodamaged or notrdquo rather than ldquohow damagedrdquo it is ecurrent findings will contribute to the elucidation of thevalue of damaged apples from the consumerrsquos perspectiveFurther studies that incorporate both objective and sub-jective indices of damage should be conducted to extend thecurrent findings to apples in general fruits and possibly toother food products

Data Availability

e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request

Conflicts of Interest

e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

is study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for YoungScientists (B) (No 26850160) from the Japan Society for thePromotion of Science (JSPS)

References

[1] Ministry of Agriculture Foresty and Fisheries of JapanldquoGuidelines for food liferdquo httpwwwmaffgojpjsyokuikushishinnhtml 2016

[2] Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications ldquoFamilybudget inquiryrdquo httpwwwstatgojpdatakakei 2016

[3] A Rocha M C Nunes A Morais and M M De BernadoldquoEffects of controlled atmosphere on quality of minimallyprocessed apple (cv Jonagored)rdquo Journal of Food Processingand Preservation vol 24 no 6 pp 435ndash451 2000

[4] Z Li and C omas ldquoQuantitative evaluation of mechanicaldamage to fresh fruitsrdquo Trends in Food Science and Tech-nology vol 35 no 2 pp 138ndash150 2014

[5] U L Opara and P B Pathare ldquoBruise damage measurementand analysis of fresh horticultural produce a reviewrdquo Post-harvest Biology and Technology vol 91 pp 9ndash24 2014

[6] M Van Zeebroeck H Ramon J De BaerdemaekerB Nicolaı and E Tijskens ldquoImpact damage of apples duringtransport and handlingrdquo Postharvest Biology and Technologyvol 45 no 2 pp 157ndash167 2007

[7] J C Buzby J Hyman H Stewart and H F Wells ldquoe valueof retail-and consumer-level fruit and vegetable losses in theUnited Statesrdquo Journal of Consumer Affairs vol 45 no 3pp 492ndash515 2011

[8] R Moser R Raffaelli and D ilmany-McFadden ldquoCon-sumer preferences for fruit and vegetables with credence-based attributes a reviewrdquo International Food and Agri-business Management Review vol 14 no 2 pp 121ndash142 2011

[9] C Yue H H Jensen D S Mueller G R NonneckeD Bonnet and M L Gleason ldquoEstimating consumersrsquo val-uation of organic and cosmetically damaged applesrdquoHortScience vol 42 no 6 pp 1366ndash1371 2007

[10] S Arivazhagan R N Shebiah S S Nidhyanandhan andL Ganesan ldquoFruit recognition using color and texture fea-turesrdquo Journal of Emerging Trends in Computing and In-formation Sciences vol 1 no 2 pp 90ndash94 2010

[11] S R Jaeger L Antunez G Ares J W Johnston M Hall andF R Harker ldquoConsumersrsquo visual attention to fruit defects anddisorders a case study with apple imagesrdquo Postharvest Biologyand Technology vol 116 pp 36ndash44 2016

[12] V Leemans and M-F Destain ldquoA real-time grading methodof apples based on features extracted from defectsrdquo Journal ofFood Engineering vol 61 no 1 pp 83ndash89 2004

[13] G L Barchi A Berardinelli A Guarnieri L Ragni andC T Fila ldquoDamage to loquats by vibration-simulating intra-state transportrdquo Biosystems Engineering vol 82 no 3pp 305ndash312 2002

[14] V Chonhenchob S Sittipod D Swasdee P RachtanapunS Singh and J A Singh ldquoEffect of truck vibration duringtransport on damage to fresh produce shipments inailandrdquoJournal of Applied Packaging Research vol 3 no 1 pp 27ndash382009

[15] B Soleimani and E Ahmadi ldquoEvaluation and analysis ofvibration during fruit transport as a function of road con-ditions suspension system and travel speedsrdquo Engineering inAgriculture Environment and Food vol 8 no 1 pp 26ndash322015

[16] Y Ishikawa H Kitazawa and T Shiina ldquoVibration and shockanalysis of fruit and vegetables transport -Cherry transportfrom Yamagata to Taipeindashrdquo Japan Agricultural ResearchQuarterly vol 43 no 2 pp 129ndash135 2009

[17] H Kitazawa K Saito and Y Ishikawa ldquoEffect of difference inacceleration and velocity change on product damage due torepetitive shockrdquo Packaging Technolgy and Science vol 27no 3 pp 221ndash230 2014

[18] E Yasunaga S Fukuda M Nagle and W Spreer ldquoEffect ofstorage conditions on the postharvest quality changes of freshmango fruits for export during transportationrdquo Environ-mental Control in Biology vol 56 no 2 pp 39ndash44 2018

[19] H Kim and L A House ldquoe impact of cosmetic defects onJapanese consumersrsquo preference for fresh grapefruitrdquo Journalof International Food and Agribusiness Marketing vol 24no 3 pp 201ndash212 2012

[20] X Li S Jervis and M Drake ldquoExamining extrinsic factorsthat influence product acceptance a reviewrdquo Journal of FoodScience vol 80 no 5 pp S1083ndashS1092 2015

[21] I Douven ldquoVagueness graded membership and conceptualspacesrdquo Cognition vol 151 pp 80ndash95 2016

[22] I Douven S Wenmackers Y Jraissati and L DecockldquoMeasuring graded membership the case of colorrdquo CognitiveScience vol 41 no 3 pp 686ndash722 2017

[23] L E Bolton L Warlop and J W Alba ldquoConsumer per-ceptions of price (un) fairnessrdquo Journal of Consumer Researchvol 29 no 4 pp 474ndash491 2003

[24] L L Cheng and K B Monroe ldquoAn appraisal of behavioralprice research (part 1) price as a physical stimulusrdquo AMSReview vol 3 no 3 pp 103ndash129 2013

[25] A O Peschel S Zielke and J Scholderer ldquoReference priceformation for product innovationsndashthe role of consistentprice-value-relationshipsrdquo Proceedings in System Dynamicsand Innovation in Food Networks 2016 pp 101ndash103 2016

[26] G Ahmetoglu A Furnham and P Fagan ldquoPricing practicesa review of their effects on consumer perceptions and be-haviourrdquo Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services vol 21no 5 pp 696ndash707 2014

Journal of Food Quality 5

[27] F Shaddy and A Fishbach ldquoSeller beware how bundlingaffects valuationrdquo Journal of Markeitng Research vol 54no 5 pp 737ndash751 2017

[28] H Kitazawa N Hasegawa and Y Tsukakoshi ldquoEvaluation ofthe relationship between shock and bruise area of apple fruitrdquoFood Science and Technology Research vol 22 no 4pp 485ndash489 2016

[29] F Lu Y Ishikawa H Kitazawa and T Satake ldquoMeasurementof impact pressure and bruising of apple fruit using pressure-sensitive film techniquerdquo Journal of Food Engineering vol 96no 4 pp 614ndash620 2010

[30] Statistics Bureau of Japan Average Retail Price of PrimaryItems Statistics Bureau of Japan Tokyo Japan httpwwwstatgojpdatakouridoukou3html 2013

[31] V Aalto-Setala and A Raijas ldquoActual market prices andconsumer price knowledgerdquo Journal of Product and BrandManagement vol 12 no 3 pp 180ndash192 2003

[32] M A De Leon-Zapata A Saenz-Galindo R Rojas-MolinaR Rodrıguez-Herrera D Jasso-Cantu and C N AguilarldquoEdible candelilla wax coating with fermented extract oftarbush improves the shelf life and quality of applesrdquo FoodPackaging and Shelf Life vol 3 pp 70ndash75 2015

[33] H Morales S Marın A J Ramos and V Sanchis ldquoInfluenceof post-harvest technologies applied during cold storage ofapples in Penicillium expansum growth and patulin accu-mulation a reviewrdquo Food Control vol 21 no 7 pp 953ndash9622010

[34] N-N Wang D-W Sun Y-C Yang H Pu and Z ZhuldquoRecent advances in the application of hyperspectral imagingfor evaluating fruit qualityrdquo Food Analytical Methods vol 9no 1 pp 178ndash191 2016

6 Journal of Food Quality

Hindawiwwwhindawicom

International Journal of

Volume 2018

Zoology

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Anatomy Research International

PeptidesInternational Journal of

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Journal of Parasitology Research

GenomicsInternational Journal of

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2013Hindawiwwwhindawicom

The Scientific World Journal

Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

BioinformaticsAdvances in

Marine BiologyJournal of

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Neuroscience Journal

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

BioMed Research International

Cell BiologyInternational Journal of

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Biochemistry Research International

ArchaeaHindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Genetics Research International

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Advances in

Virolog y Stem Cells International

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Enzyme Research

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

International Journal of

MicrobiologyHindawiwwwhindawicom

Nucleic AcidsJournal of

Volume 2018

Submit your manuscripts atwwwhindawicom

Page 5: Categorical Nature of Consumer Price Estimations of ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/2018/3572397.pdf · Research Article Categorical Nature of Consumer Price Estimations of

experiences Additionally these results imply a qualitativerather than quantitative reduction in estimated pricing asdamage increases While a greater number of points of pricereduction were found for the 3-piece condition whatmatters to the consumer appears to be whether an apple isldquodamaged or notrdquo rather than ldquohow damagedrdquo it is ecurrent findings will contribute to the elucidation of thevalue of damaged apples from the consumerrsquos perspectiveFurther studies that incorporate both objective and sub-jective indices of damage should be conducted to extend thecurrent findings to apples in general fruits and possibly toother food products

Data Availability

e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request

Conflicts of Interest

e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

is study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for YoungScientists (B) (No 26850160) from the Japan Society for thePromotion of Science (JSPS)

References

[1] Ministry of Agriculture Foresty and Fisheries of JapanldquoGuidelines for food liferdquo httpwwwmaffgojpjsyokuikushishinnhtml 2016

[2] Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications ldquoFamilybudget inquiryrdquo httpwwwstatgojpdatakakei 2016

[3] A Rocha M C Nunes A Morais and M M De BernadoldquoEffects of controlled atmosphere on quality of minimallyprocessed apple (cv Jonagored)rdquo Journal of Food Processingand Preservation vol 24 no 6 pp 435ndash451 2000

[4] Z Li and C omas ldquoQuantitative evaluation of mechanicaldamage to fresh fruitsrdquo Trends in Food Science and Tech-nology vol 35 no 2 pp 138ndash150 2014

[5] U L Opara and P B Pathare ldquoBruise damage measurementand analysis of fresh horticultural produce a reviewrdquo Post-harvest Biology and Technology vol 91 pp 9ndash24 2014

[6] M Van Zeebroeck H Ramon J De BaerdemaekerB Nicolaı and E Tijskens ldquoImpact damage of apples duringtransport and handlingrdquo Postharvest Biology and Technologyvol 45 no 2 pp 157ndash167 2007

[7] J C Buzby J Hyman H Stewart and H F Wells ldquoe valueof retail-and consumer-level fruit and vegetable losses in theUnited Statesrdquo Journal of Consumer Affairs vol 45 no 3pp 492ndash515 2011

[8] R Moser R Raffaelli and D ilmany-McFadden ldquoCon-sumer preferences for fruit and vegetables with credence-based attributes a reviewrdquo International Food and Agri-business Management Review vol 14 no 2 pp 121ndash142 2011

[9] C Yue H H Jensen D S Mueller G R NonneckeD Bonnet and M L Gleason ldquoEstimating consumersrsquo val-uation of organic and cosmetically damaged applesrdquoHortScience vol 42 no 6 pp 1366ndash1371 2007

[10] S Arivazhagan R N Shebiah S S Nidhyanandhan andL Ganesan ldquoFruit recognition using color and texture fea-turesrdquo Journal of Emerging Trends in Computing and In-formation Sciences vol 1 no 2 pp 90ndash94 2010

[11] S R Jaeger L Antunez G Ares J W Johnston M Hall andF R Harker ldquoConsumersrsquo visual attention to fruit defects anddisorders a case study with apple imagesrdquo Postharvest Biologyand Technology vol 116 pp 36ndash44 2016

[12] V Leemans and M-F Destain ldquoA real-time grading methodof apples based on features extracted from defectsrdquo Journal ofFood Engineering vol 61 no 1 pp 83ndash89 2004

[13] G L Barchi A Berardinelli A Guarnieri L Ragni andC T Fila ldquoDamage to loquats by vibration-simulating intra-state transportrdquo Biosystems Engineering vol 82 no 3pp 305ndash312 2002

[14] V Chonhenchob S Sittipod D Swasdee P RachtanapunS Singh and J A Singh ldquoEffect of truck vibration duringtransport on damage to fresh produce shipments inailandrdquoJournal of Applied Packaging Research vol 3 no 1 pp 27ndash382009

[15] B Soleimani and E Ahmadi ldquoEvaluation and analysis ofvibration during fruit transport as a function of road con-ditions suspension system and travel speedsrdquo Engineering inAgriculture Environment and Food vol 8 no 1 pp 26ndash322015

[16] Y Ishikawa H Kitazawa and T Shiina ldquoVibration and shockanalysis of fruit and vegetables transport -Cherry transportfrom Yamagata to Taipeindashrdquo Japan Agricultural ResearchQuarterly vol 43 no 2 pp 129ndash135 2009

[17] H Kitazawa K Saito and Y Ishikawa ldquoEffect of difference inacceleration and velocity change on product damage due torepetitive shockrdquo Packaging Technolgy and Science vol 27no 3 pp 221ndash230 2014

[18] E Yasunaga S Fukuda M Nagle and W Spreer ldquoEffect ofstorage conditions on the postharvest quality changes of freshmango fruits for export during transportationrdquo Environ-mental Control in Biology vol 56 no 2 pp 39ndash44 2018

[19] H Kim and L A House ldquoe impact of cosmetic defects onJapanese consumersrsquo preference for fresh grapefruitrdquo Journalof International Food and Agribusiness Marketing vol 24no 3 pp 201ndash212 2012

[20] X Li S Jervis and M Drake ldquoExamining extrinsic factorsthat influence product acceptance a reviewrdquo Journal of FoodScience vol 80 no 5 pp S1083ndashS1092 2015

[21] I Douven ldquoVagueness graded membership and conceptualspacesrdquo Cognition vol 151 pp 80ndash95 2016

[22] I Douven S Wenmackers Y Jraissati and L DecockldquoMeasuring graded membership the case of colorrdquo CognitiveScience vol 41 no 3 pp 686ndash722 2017

[23] L E Bolton L Warlop and J W Alba ldquoConsumer per-ceptions of price (un) fairnessrdquo Journal of Consumer Researchvol 29 no 4 pp 474ndash491 2003

[24] L L Cheng and K B Monroe ldquoAn appraisal of behavioralprice research (part 1) price as a physical stimulusrdquo AMSReview vol 3 no 3 pp 103ndash129 2013

[25] A O Peschel S Zielke and J Scholderer ldquoReference priceformation for product innovationsndashthe role of consistentprice-value-relationshipsrdquo Proceedings in System Dynamicsand Innovation in Food Networks 2016 pp 101ndash103 2016

[26] G Ahmetoglu A Furnham and P Fagan ldquoPricing practicesa review of their effects on consumer perceptions and be-haviourrdquo Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services vol 21no 5 pp 696ndash707 2014

Journal of Food Quality 5

[27] F Shaddy and A Fishbach ldquoSeller beware how bundlingaffects valuationrdquo Journal of Markeitng Research vol 54no 5 pp 737ndash751 2017

[28] H Kitazawa N Hasegawa and Y Tsukakoshi ldquoEvaluation ofthe relationship between shock and bruise area of apple fruitrdquoFood Science and Technology Research vol 22 no 4pp 485ndash489 2016

[29] F Lu Y Ishikawa H Kitazawa and T Satake ldquoMeasurementof impact pressure and bruising of apple fruit using pressure-sensitive film techniquerdquo Journal of Food Engineering vol 96no 4 pp 614ndash620 2010

[30] Statistics Bureau of Japan Average Retail Price of PrimaryItems Statistics Bureau of Japan Tokyo Japan httpwwwstatgojpdatakouridoukou3html 2013

[31] V Aalto-Setala and A Raijas ldquoActual market prices andconsumer price knowledgerdquo Journal of Product and BrandManagement vol 12 no 3 pp 180ndash192 2003

[32] M A De Leon-Zapata A Saenz-Galindo R Rojas-MolinaR Rodrıguez-Herrera D Jasso-Cantu and C N AguilarldquoEdible candelilla wax coating with fermented extract oftarbush improves the shelf life and quality of applesrdquo FoodPackaging and Shelf Life vol 3 pp 70ndash75 2015

[33] H Morales S Marın A J Ramos and V Sanchis ldquoInfluenceof post-harvest technologies applied during cold storage ofapples in Penicillium expansum growth and patulin accu-mulation a reviewrdquo Food Control vol 21 no 7 pp 953ndash9622010

[34] N-N Wang D-W Sun Y-C Yang H Pu and Z ZhuldquoRecent advances in the application of hyperspectral imagingfor evaluating fruit qualityrdquo Food Analytical Methods vol 9no 1 pp 178ndash191 2016

6 Journal of Food Quality

Hindawiwwwhindawicom

International Journal of

Volume 2018

Zoology

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Anatomy Research International

PeptidesInternational Journal of

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Journal of Parasitology Research

GenomicsInternational Journal of

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2013Hindawiwwwhindawicom

The Scientific World Journal

Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

BioinformaticsAdvances in

Marine BiologyJournal of

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Neuroscience Journal

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

BioMed Research International

Cell BiologyInternational Journal of

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Biochemistry Research International

ArchaeaHindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Genetics Research International

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Advances in

Virolog y Stem Cells International

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Enzyme Research

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

International Journal of

MicrobiologyHindawiwwwhindawicom

Nucleic AcidsJournal of

Volume 2018

Submit your manuscripts atwwwhindawicom

Page 6: Categorical Nature of Consumer Price Estimations of ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/2018/3572397.pdf · Research Article Categorical Nature of Consumer Price Estimations of

[27] F Shaddy and A Fishbach ldquoSeller beware how bundlingaffects valuationrdquo Journal of Markeitng Research vol 54no 5 pp 737ndash751 2017

[28] H Kitazawa N Hasegawa and Y Tsukakoshi ldquoEvaluation ofthe relationship between shock and bruise area of apple fruitrdquoFood Science and Technology Research vol 22 no 4pp 485ndash489 2016

[29] F Lu Y Ishikawa H Kitazawa and T Satake ldquoMeasurementof impact pressure and bruising of apple fruit using pressure-sensitive film techniquerdquo Journal of Food Engineering vol 96no 4 pp 614ndash620 2010

[30] Statistics Bureau of Japan Average Retail Price of PrimaryItems Statistics Bureau of Japan Tokyo Japan httpwwwstatgojpdatakouridoukou3html 2013

[31] V Aalto-Setala and A Raijas ldquoActual market prices andconsumer price knowledgerdquo Journal of Product and BrandManagement vol 12 no 3 pp 180ndash192 2003

[32] M A De Leon-Zapata A Saenz-Galindo R Rojas-MolinaR Rodrıguez-Herrera D Jasso-Cantu and C N AguilarldquoEdible candelilla wax coating with fermented extract oftarbush improves the shelf life and quality of applesrdquo FoodPackaging and Shelf Life vol 3 pp 70ndash75 2015

[33] H Morales S Marın A J Ramos and V Sanchis ldquoInfluenceof post-harvest technologies applied during cold storage ofapples in Penicillium expansum growth and patulin accu-mulation a reviewrdquo Food Control vol 21 no 7 pp 953ndash9622010

[34] N-N Wang D-W Sun Y-C Yang H Pu and Z ZhuldquoRecent advances in the application of hyperspectral imagingfor evaluating fruit qualityrdquo Food Analytical Methods vol 9no 1 pp 178ndash191 2016

6 Journal of Food Quality

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Page 7: Categorical Nature of Consumer Price Estimations of ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/2018/3572397.pdf · Research Article Categorical Nature of Consumer Price Estimations of

Hindawiwwwhindawicom

International Journal of

Volume 2018

Zoology

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Anatomy Research International

PeptidesInternational Journal of

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Journal of Parasitology Research

GenomicsInternational Journal of

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2013Hindawiwwwhindawicom

The Scientific World Journal

Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

BioinformaticsAdvances in

Marine BiologyJournal of

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Neuroscience Journal

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

BioMed Research International

Cell BiologyInternational Journal of

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Biochemistry Research International

ArchaeaHindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Genetics Research International

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Advances in

Virolog y Stem Cells International

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

Enzyme Research

Hindawiwwwhindawicom Volume 2018

International Journal of

MicrobiologyHindawiwwwhindawicom

Nucleic AcidsJournal of

Volume 2018

Submit your manuscripts atwwwhindawicom