Perceptions of handmade food: A questionnaire survey exploring their impact on food evaluations

People's preferences and perceptions of food change depending on the information they receive prior to eating. According to previous studies, preferences and sensory perceptions change with positive naming and self-production. In this study, we focused on information regarding the food preparation process and aimed to investigate the influence of the presence of a person cooking on food evaluation. An online questionnaire survey was conducted with 2233 participants (57.9% male, 42.0% female, M_age = 43.6 years) recruited through a crowdsourcing service. For the same-food-photo (rice ball or miso soup), participants had to complete a nine-item questionnaire related to their food evaluation using a seven-point Likert scale, divided into cases where only the name of the food was written and where it was written as being machine-made or handmade. We also administered the same questionnaire divided into cases with text-only recipes, with photos of cooking utensils and ingredients, or with photos of the cook. The groups labeled with only the food names and the handmade label had significantly higher scores than those labeled as being machine-made regarding healthiness, time and effort, and whether the food was made with love. The text-only versions significantly improved the appearance of the miso soup compared to photos with the cook. This study revealed that information regarding food being handmade had a more positive impact than that which was machine-made, but this was comparable to text-only photos. Because the handmade label can be influenced by context, future research should investigate in more detail the circumstances in which the handmade label influences it .