ECROPOLIS
At a glance
- Project leader : Annette Bongartz
- Project team : Marie-Louise Cezanne
- Project budget : CHF 2'100'000
- Project status : completed
- Funding partner : EU and other international programmes
- Project partner : Wageningen University and Research, Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau FiBL, AgroParisTech, University of Bologna, University of Warsaw, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Technologie-Transfer-Zentrum Bremerhaven
- Contact person : Annette Bongartz
Description
Distributors and promoters of organic food claim superior tastes
for their products
compared to the conventional alternative. This argument however is
still subject to a hard
debate and thus deserves more scientific evidence. Since
repurchases are dependent on
the overall liking of a product, and sensory experiences may have
an important impact,
knowledge about these dimensions is crucial for producers and
marketers of organic food
to offer products which meet consumer expectations. The main
purpose of this project
therefore is to develop the first Organic Sensory Information
System (OSIS), a multilingual
and centrally based data folder for data deposition along with an
interface scheme that
serves as a basis for data exchange to the benefit of the organic
food market (organic
associations, producer, processors, retailer, wholesaler as well as
consumers). To this aim,
a multidisciplinary and international research approach is
necessary which comprises
sensory and consumer research linked with standards requirements in
different European
countries (CH, DE, FR, IT, NL, PL). The extendable data folder will
contain descriptions of
sensory properties of specific products from six product categories
as well as information
about underlying production methods which explain the sensory
differences between
organic and conventional as well as consumer and expectations. The
comprehensive
sensory evaluations will also result in a preference mapping of
sensory quality. The impact
of EU legislation and standards of organic farming associations,
which define production
methods and ingredients, will also be elaborated for OSIS.
Qualitative and quantitative
consumer research is carried out to develop segment-specific
marketing strategies based
on OSIS for all stakeholders involved. Comprehensive dissemination
and training activities,
including the preparation of training materials for all stakeholder
groups involved a well as
for sale staff, will ensure the broad information of the organic
food market.