Food Quality and Preference 21 (2010) 225233

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Food Quality and Preference

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodqual

Perception of traditional food products in six European regions using free

word association
Luis Guerrero a,*, Anna Claret a, Wim Verbeke b, Geraldine Enderli c, Sylwia Zakowska-Biemans d,
Filiep Vanhonacker b, Sylvie Issanchou c, Marta Sajdakowska d, Britt Signe Granli e, Luisa Scalvedi f,
Michele Contel f, Margrethe Hersleth e
a
IRTA Monells, Finca Camps i Armet, E-17121 Monells, Spain
b
Ghent University, Department of Agricultural Economics, Coupure links 653, B-9000 Gent, Belgium
c
INRA, UMR 1129 FLAVIC, F-21000 Dijon, France
d
Warsaw University of Life Sciences SGGW (WULS-SGGW), Department of Organization and Consumption Economics, Nowoursynowska Street 166, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland
e
Noma Mat As, Osloveien 1, 1430 s, Norway
f
PEGroup, Viale Gorizia 25/C, 00198 Rome, Italy

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A total of 721 consumers were interviewed in order to obtain and compare consumer-driven associations
Received 31 October 2008 to the word Traditional, in a food context, in six European regions. Participants, who were individually
Received in revised form 10 May 2009 interviewed, had to state the rst words that came into their mind when the word Traditional was ver-
Accepted 2 June 2009
bally presented. Frequencies of occurrence of associations were obtained and analysed by means of sim-
Available online 6 June 2009
ple correspondence analysis. The different word associations obtained were classied in 55 classes and
then grouped in ten principal dimensions by triangulation. In general, southern European regions tended
Keywords:
to associate the concept of Traditional more frequently with broad concepts such as heritage, culture or
Traditional food products
Free word association
history. Central and Nordic European regions tended to focus mainly on practical issues such as conve-
European regions nience, health or appropriateness. As a nal outcome of the analyses, a consensus conceptual map of tra-
ditional food products was obtained. The empirical ndings of this qualitative exploratory free word
association test provide valuable insights for product positioning, innovation and new developments in
the traditional food market.
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction In order to better understand and predict the likelihood of suc-

Traditional food is an important element of the European cul-
tural heritage. Production and sale of traditional food products pro-
vide a decisive economic input to many regions (European
Commission, 2007) and can contribute to diversication of rural
areas and preventing them from depopulation.
European consumers demand for safe and tasteful traditional
food products (Cayot, 2007), but also for a higher variety, more
convenient, more nutritive and healthier options that t better
with the present needs in modern societies. In this context, there
are some unexploited opportunities for traditional food producers
to maintain and even increase their market share by introducing
innovations in their products, given that some of the current tech-
nologies involved in the production of traditional food products
still rely on traditional manufacturing practices with low compet-
itiveness and poor efciency (Fito & Toldra, 2006).
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 972 630052; fax: +34 972 630373.
E-mail address: lluis.guerrero@irta.es (L. Guerrero).
cess or failure of different innovations in traditional foods it is cru-
cial to know the meaning that the word Traditional has in
consumers minds and what values they relate to this concept.
Some denitions of traditional food exist already (Bertozzi, 1998;
EU, 2006; EuroFIR, 2007; Jordana, 2000; Ministero Agricoltura,
1999; Trichopoulou, Soukara, & Vasilopoulou, 2007; Truefood,
2006), although all of them are coming from the experts perspec-
tive. The only published denition of traditional food from the con-
sumers point of view is the one provided by Guerrero et al. (2009).
According to these authors European consumers perceived a tradi-
tional food product as a product frequently consumed or associated
with specic celebrations and/or seasons, normally transmitted from
one generation to another, made accurately in a specic way accord-
ing to the gastronomic heritage, with little or no processing/manipula-
tion, distinguished and known because of its sensory properties and
associated with a certain local area, region or country. This deni-
tion was obtained by means of qualitative research using focus
groups discussions carried out in six European regions. Focus group
discussion is a qualitative exploratory research technique that pro-
vides a rational and cognitive approach to a specic topic.

0950-3293/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2009.06.003
226 L. Guerrero et al. / Food Quality and Preference 21 (2010) 225233
However, in some cases, the results may be affected by stereotypes
(Krueger, 1988) even when led by an experienced moderator. So-
cial barriers and pressure may bias the expression of feelings,
thoughts and self-reported behaviour. In some cases and when
interviewed, subjects tend to provide answers that are socially
desirable and stereotypical, thus trying to be polite and comply
with the supposed answer that the interviewer expects (Will, Ea-
die, & Macaskill, 1996).
Projective techniques, although qualitative in nature too, might
provide complementary information since they reveal the internal
thoughts and feelings of a person, thus yielding a more spontane-
ous and affective answer from consumer. Projective techniques are
based on the use of vague, ambiguous, unstructured stimulus ob-
jects or situations in which the subject projects his/her personality,
attitude, opinions and self-concept to give the situation some
structure (Donoghue, 2000). In the scientic literature, there are
different commonly used projective techniques, both for personal-
ity and clinical evaluation, such as Rorschach Inkblot Test, The-
matic Apperception Test, Drawing Techniques (Garba, Wood,
Lilienfeld, & Nezworski, 2002) or Free Word Association (Colangelo,
Stephenson, Westbury, & Buchanan, 2003) among others.
Word association allows the evaluation of conceptual struc-
tures, as well as ascertaining belief or attitude changes in psychol-
ogy and sociology (Ross, 2003) and even in food science. According
to Dean et al. (2006) word association has proven to be useful in
eliciting the affective element behind the concepts involved. The
elicitation of word associations is a relatively simple procedure,
which is one of its attractions (Schmitt, 1998). Rozin, Kurzer, and
Cohen (2002) stated that after the rst free association, both the
target word and prior associations inuence any subsequent asso-
ciation. Based on this assumption only the rst association elicited
by each consumer would provide new and relevant information.
However, Schmitt (1998) stated that subjects will not necessarily
give the most relevant elicitation initially. In some cases they
may give an idiosyncratic response rst and a very pertinent as a
second one. According to the latter author, allowing for multiple
responses gives the individual more chances to supply the more
relevant associations and to capture better the richness of a sub-
jects association network.
Word association has proven to be useful also in the domain of
food research. Roininen, Arvola, and Lhteenmki (2006) and Ares,
Gimnez, and Gmbaro (2008) concluded that this technique was
an efcient and rapid method for obtaining information on con-
sumer perceptions of local foods and conventional and functional
yogurts, respectively. Rozin et al. (2002) studied the free associa-
tion patterns to the word food depending on gender, generation
and culture. They observed that the results of free associations had
some stability over time, as well as some validity. Despite apparent
simplicity and usefulness of this technique, very few studies have
been published based on word associations in the food area.
Donoghue (2000) stated that the main disadvantages of projec-
tive techniques are in general the complexity of the data and the
expertise required to interpret them. According to this author,
the responses have little meaning without a careful evaluation by
Table 1
Characteristics of the participants recruited per quota and region (%).
Region Gender (%)
Males
Flanders (Belgium) 55.4
Burgundy (Dijon, France) 47.6
Lazio region (Italy) 47.9
Akershus and stfold counties (Norway) 38.2
Mazovia (Warsaw, Poland) 27.4
Catalonia (Spain) 35.3
trained and experienced researchers and skilled interpreters. This
may explain why projective techniques have been heavily criti-
cised. The degree of subjectivity involved in the interpretation of
the responses obtained together with the high cost (time and
money) required for performing them and the difculties for test-
ing the reliability and validity of the results obtained might explain
why these techniques have not been more frequently applied.
The aim of this study was to identify European consumers asso-
ciations to the concept of Traditional in a food context in six Euro-
pean regions by means of free word association. In addition,
different approaches for analysing the obtained information were
compared and discussed. The robustness of the results was also
checked by comparing the ndings with a previous denition of
traditional food products obtained by means of focus groups dis-
cussions in the same six regions (see Guerrero et al., 2009).
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Participants
This study was carried out in six different regions from six Euro-
pean countries: Flanders in Belgium, Burgundy (Dijon) in France,
Lazio region in Italy, the counties of Akershus and stfold in Nor-
way, Mazovia (Warsaw) in Poland and Catalonia in Spain.
Consumers were selected within each area or region using a
convenient intentional and reasoned sampling with predetermined
quotas (Pedret, Sanier, Garca, & Morell, 2003). Convenience sam-
pling is often used in exploratory research where the researcher
is interested in getting an inexpensive approximation to a specic
topic through involving participants who meet specic recruit-
ment criteria with relevance for the subject under investigation.
This non-probability method is recommended during preliminary
research activities to get a gross estimate of the results, without
incurring the cost or time required to select a random sample
(Pla, 1999). Convenience sampling is probably used more often
than any other kind of sampling in behavioural science research
(Graveter & Forzano, 2008). On average 120 participants in each re-
gion (total n = 721 consumers) were recruited from previous dat-
abases and/or through different advertising systems. Participants
did not have any relationship with the research centre/university
where the test was carried out.
The rst criterion for selecting the participants was their
involvement in deciding about food shopping and preparation of
food at home. Only consumers who stated to be involved in these
two activities were selected. Second, the different quotas for
selecting consumers were age (a minimum of 15% of consumers
in each decade from 20 to 60 years old) and gender (a minimum
of 25% of individuals of each gender within each age group). Table
1 shows the distribution of the recruited consumers per quota and
region. In each country, all the participants belonged to the same
geographical area or region. At the recruitment stage, participants
were not informed about the specic objective of the study. No
mention was made of the word Traditional when recruiting them.
Age groups (%) n
Females 2030 3140 4150 5160
44.6 26.4 18.2 23.1 32.2 121
52.4 26.2 24.3 24.3 25.2 103
52.1 35.6 24.8 19.8 19.8 121
61.8 23.5 19.6 35.3 21.6 102
72.6 33.9 23.4 18.5 24.2 124
64.7 27.3 26.0 22.0 24.7 150
 L. Guerrero et al. / Food Quality and Preference 21 (2010) 225233
2.2. Free word association test
Consumers were interviewed individually. Interviewers (one or
two in each region) explained the procedure for carrying out the
test to the participant and provided him/her with some examples
(house, holiday. . .) in order to relax the individual and to train
him/her. Once the interviewer assumed that the participant had
properly understood the dynamics of the experiment the word
association test started. To focus on a food context, participants
were rst asked to concentrate on food-related issues and matters
when providing their answer. They were asked to provide single-
word responses and avoid brands, specic dishes or foods in their
answers, since these words could be highly country/region specic
and could complicate the comparison between regions. The word
association test consisted of verbally presenting the word Tradi-
tional (the stimulus) to the participants and wait for the rst ver-
bal response that came to his/her mind. Consumers were asked to
elicit up to three different words (Schmitt & Meara, 1997). A max-
imum of 30 seconds were allowed for giving each valid association.
The total duration of the test including the introductory and train-
ing phase ranged between 10 and 15 min.
2.3. Data analysis
All valid words elicited by each participant were retained for
data analysis according to Schmitt (1998). Although this procedure
violates the assumption of independence between the different
associations (up to three associations coming from the same indi-
vidual may occur), this violation was not considered in the present
exploratory-qualitative approach as suggested by Schmitt (1998).
The words elicited in each region were rst translated to Eng-
lish and then entered into an Excel le template made up of seven
columns (participant, region, gender, age, rst association, second
association and third association) and 721 rows (one per partici-
pant). All the translations were performed and/or veried by the
researchers involved in each region, who also performed or at-
tended the individual interviews. A back-translation process (Bris-
lin, 1970; Maneesriwongul & Dixon, 2004) was applied for those
words difcult to translate.
Frequencies of elicitation were obtained for each region, each
gender and each age group following three different approaches:
rst, using the raw data (the different words elicited); second,
grouping raw data (words elicited) in different classes and third,
grouping the classes in different dimensions. The grouping proce-
dure was based on the personal interpretation of the meaning of
the different words; words were grouped together by means of a
semantic analysis. All the grouping processes were performed by
triangulation: three different researchers built up their own classes
and dimensions in an independent way. The denitive classes and
dimensions and the name or label assigned to each of them was ob-
tained by consensus between the three researchers over the three
independent classications generated previously. The researchers
involved in this task had a minimum of 5 years of experience in
semantic analyses applied to different qualitative techniques
(including free word association). Triangulation, or the application
of multiple data collection and/or analysis techniques with the
same objective, provides a relatively potent means of assessing
the degree of convergence as well as elaborating on divergences be-
tween results obtained (Modell, 2005; Wadsworth, 2000).
The existence of statistical differences between the total num-
ber of words elicited per region, age and gender was tested by
means of a Chi-Square statistic. Previously, these gures were con-
verted to relative frequencies depending on the number of partic-
ipants available in each region, age or gender group. Additionally,
simple correspondence analysis was performed in order to better
visualise the information contained in the matrices of frequency
227
data. In this analysis, each cell in the data le indicated the relative
frequency that a word, class or dimension (columns) was men-
tioned in each region (rows). Relative frequencies of elicitation
for each word, class or dimension per gender and age were also in-
cluded in all cases as supplementary variables (rows) to avoid
redundant information. All the analyses were performed by means
of the software XLSTAT 2006, v.4 (Addinsfot SARL, Paris, France).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Number of elicited words
The total number of valid elicited words was 1743, which repre-
sents an average of 2.42 associations per participant. Most of the
participants (82.8%) were able to provide two or three different
associations and only 8.5% could not associate anything to the word
traditional during the available time (30 s). Verbal uency, dened
as the ability to produce words under specic constraints and with-
in a xed time interval (Lezak, Howieson, Loring, Hannay, & Fischer,
2004), has frequently been related to semantic knowledge (Kemper
& McDowd, 2008, chap. 11). Semantic knowledge refers to the com-
ponent of long-term memory containing knowledge of objects,
facts, and concepts as well as words and their meanings (Tulving,
1972). In consequence, the relatively high number of words elicited
in the free word association test seems to indicate that, in general,
consumers had a clear image formation of the word traditional, gi-
ven that the access to their internal mental representation of the
stimulus occurred relatively easily. Usually mentally working with
abstract concepts is more difcult than working with objects or ac-
tions (Prabhu, 1987). The degree of abstractness of the word Tradi-
tional could have made the word association test quite
complicated, but this did not seem to be the case in the present
study probably because of the familiarity and the emotional values
associated with the word Traditional for most consumers.
No signicant differences (p > 0.05) were found in the number of
words elicited by gender or by age group, although verbal uency
may be related with both age (Tomer & Levin, 1993; Mathuranath
et al., 2003) and gender (Kimura, 1992; Weiss, Kemmler, Deisen-
hammer, Fleischhacker, & Delazer, 2003). According to Herrmann,
Walter, Ehlis, and Fallgatter (2006) functional brain activation dur-
ing a cognitive task is mainly inuenced by age but not by gender,
showing older individuals less performance in verbal uency tasks.
The absence of differences between age groups in the present study
can be explained by the peculiarity of the stimulus word used. Gen-
erally, older people are more concerned about traditions and their
transmission from one generation to another (Laureati, Pagliarini,
Calcinoni, & Bidoglio, 2006). Furthermore, older people might be
more familiar with and knowledgeable about traditional foods.
According to Schwartz and Rubel (2005) age and culture explain
the higher amount of the variance observed in samples from differ-
ent countries for traditional values. These facts may have balanced
the number of elicited words among younger and older consumers.
Regarding countries or regions, no signicant differences (p >
0.05) were observed in the average number of elicited words (rang-
ing from 2.92 valid words/participant in Spain to 2.50 valid words/
participant in Norway) except for Italian consumers, where the aver-
age number of valid elicited words per participant was only 0.92.
This difference was mainly due to the higher number of non-valid
associations (brands, foods and/or dishes) obtained in the Italian
sample.
3.2. Approach by using the raw data
From the total of 1743 words elicited 741 (42.5%) were different
and only 28 (1.6%) words were quoted by at least 10 of the 721
228 L. Guerrero et al. / Food Quality and Preference 21 (2010) 225233

consumers. Some of the most frequent elicited words were Family
(n = 63), Old (n = 49), Habit (n = 45), Christmas (n = 43) and Grand-
mother (n = 31). Frequency of elicitation has been related with
the strength or importance of a concept in the consumers minds
(Guerrero, Colomer, Gurdia, Xicola, & Clotet, 2000). Accordingly,
consumers related the concept of traditional in a food context to
their family and familial situations (Family and Grandmother) and
with repeated practice (Habit), although it was also linked to spe-
cial occasions such as Christmas. Family and traditions are closely
related, given that family is the most natural and common way
of transmitting norms and values from one generation to another
and to build a cultural identity (Abad & Sheldon, 2008). Family tra-
ditions can bring a great sense of belonging by helping link chil-
dren with generations of the past and present and provide
continuity and security, giving all family members a sense of
belonging and commitment (Nelms, 2005). For these reasons it is
not surprising that Family appears as the most frequent association
to traditional in the raw data. According to Nelms (2005) habit is
also an important element of traditions, because it may create
new ones such as bedtime, special foods, different activities or
mealtime routines. The meaning of the word Old is not obvious.
Old may have a neutral, a positive or a negative meaning. Positive
as something authentic, well established and proven to be decent,
that has to be preserved, versus negative as something out-dated,
not very useful nowadays. In order to facilitate the interpretation
of the different associations obtained, Roininen et al. (2006) also
collected an affective rating for each elicited word from very neg-
ative/bad to very positive/good, which has not been done in our
study.
Concerning the comparison between countries or regions, some
similarities and differences were obtained (Fig. 1). Habit was the
most frequent cited word in Belgium and Spain, while Christmas
was the most frequent elicited word in Norway. In all these three
regions traditional was mainly associated with what people
normally eat, although in Norway consumers mainly focused on
what people normally eat in special occasions. The gastronomic
heritage was particularly important in France, where words such
as Cooking or Dish had a noticeable high frequency. For Polish con-
sumers traditional was mostly linked to sensory properties (Tasty)
and Family, while for Italians the most frequent association was

Belgium France
16 18

16
Frecuency of elicitation (n)
Frecuency of elicitation (n)

14
14
12
12
10
10
8
8
6
6
4
4
2 2

0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Italy Norway
9 25

8
Frecuency of elicitation (n)

Frecuency of elicitation (n)

7 20

6
15
5

4
10
3

2
5
1

0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Poland Spain
18 30

16
Frecuency of elicitation (n)

Frecuency of elicitation (n)

25
14

12 20

10
15
8

6 10

4
5
2

0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Fig. 1. Most frequent words (n P 10 for all the participants) elicited in each region in the word association test using the word Traditional as stimulus. 1 = Ancient,
2 = Christmas, 3 = Cooking, 4 = Country, 5 = Culture, 6 = Dinner, 7 = Dish, 8 = Family, 9 = Feast, 10 = Good, 11 = Grandmother, 12 = Habit, 13 = Healthy, 14 = Holidays,
15 = Home, 16 = Home-made, 17 = Kitchen, 18 = Meal, 19 = Natural, 20 = Old, 21 = Old-fashioned, 22 = Quality, 23 = Recipe, 24 = Regional, 25 = Restaurant, 26 = Rural,
27 = Simple, 28 = Tasty.
 L. Guerrero et al. / Food Quality and Preference 21 (2010) 225233 229

Homemade. These results stress the heterogeneity in food culture
within Europe in agreement with Askegaard and Madsen (1998),
who afrmed that Europe cannot be regarded homogeneously as
a unique food culture, since noticeable differences exist not only
at a national level but also from a more regional/local point of view
in food preferences, habits, food-related behaviour and attitudes.
Despite the differences pointed out some similarities between
regions were also observed. In general and from a qualitative point
of view, the perception of the word traditional was quite similar in
all regions. Words such as Family, Good, Grandmother, Healthy, Nat-
ural, Regional, Restaurant or Simple were elicited in all regions.
Fig. 2 shows the result of the simple correspondence analysis
carried out for the words elicited at least by 10 consumers over
the six regions. It is important to note that this statistical technique
highlights the main differences between regions (Greenacre & Bel-
sius, 1994). Again gastronomic associations (Restaurant, Cooking,
Meal, Recipe and Dish) were positioned closer to France (FR); Tasty,
Family and Dinner close to Poland (PL); Old-fashioned, Quality, Res-
taurant and Culture close to Belgium; Home, Good, Habit closer to
Spain (SP); Christmas, Rural, Country and Good close to Norway
(NO); and Home-made, Natural and Old close to Italy (IT).
Several aspects that may inuence the conclusions obtained af-
fect the approach based on the analysis of the most frequent words
in the raw data. When using the most frequent words in the raw
data the existence of synonym words was not considered, e.g.
the word Habit was retained but words such as Daily, Often, Usual,
Regularly, etc. that could probably have a similar meaning were not
taken into account due to their lower frequency of elicitation. In
addition, in cross-cultural studies when analysing the data based
on the frequency of elicited words themselves instead of their
meaning, the translation from the original language to English
may amplify the differences between countries or regions, since
the same original meaning for a certain word could be translated
in two different words depending on the region where it was elic-
ited and depending on the researcher who made the translation.
3.3. Approach by grouping the raw data in different classes
In order to overcome the possible bias mentioned in the previ-
ous approach, the 741 different words obtained were grouped in
classes by triangulation (Modell, 2005; Wadsworth, 2000). Table
2 shows some examples of the words grouped in the same class.
A total of 55 classes were obtained by consensus between the three
independent grouping processes performed (triangulation).
Results of the simple correspondence analysis performed on
this data set with 55 classes are shown in Fig. 3. Southern European
regions (in France, Italy and Spain) were located closer to more
broad classes difcult to interpret such as Heritage, History or Cul-
ture while Central and Northern European regions were closer to
more practical and concrete concepts such as Convenience, Appro-
priateness or Health. The presence or absence of traditional prod-
ucts linked to collective quality labels (PDO, PGI and TSG) in
these countries may explain the distinction between Southern
and Central-Nordic European countries. According to Jordana
(2000) the number of foods traditionally produced in Northern
Table 2
Examples of elicited words grouped in the same class by triangulation.
Class Words
Old Antique, old, not modern, made for a long time, aged,
not new. . .
Celebration Marriage, birthday, feast (party), festive, feast meal, village
festival, church festival, public holiday. . ..
Habitual/typical Daily, often, regular, usual, everyday things of life, routine,
normal, ordinary (common), frequent. . .
Ancestors Grandmother, grandparents, mother, ancestral, roots, parents,
mum, generation. . .
Country/region European, local, Norwegian, Polish, regional, origin, terroir,
country. . .
Culture Culture, folklore, folk, dance, regional culture, food culture. . .
Farm/eld/rural Farm, eld, rustic, rural, agriculture, own kitchen garden,
farming, cows, from the farm, harvest. . .

Feast
Recipe
Dish

Holidays
Meal FR Restaurant
Cooking BE

Regional Old-fashioned
Tasty Quality
PL
F2 (22.95 %)

Dinner Kitchen
Simple Culture
Family Grandmother
Healthy

Natural
IT Habit
Old
Homemade
Rural
Country Home
SP
NO Good
Christmas

Ancient

F1 (26.55 %)

Fig. 2. Simple correspondence analysis of the most frequent elicited words for all the consumers (n P 10). BE: Flanders (Belgium), FR: Burgundy (Dijon, France), IT: Lazio
region (Italy), NO: Akershus and stfold counties (Norway), PL: Mazovia (Warsaw, Poland), SP: Catalonia (Spain).
230 L. Guerrero et al. / Food Quality and Preference 21 (2010) 225233

Holidays
Convenience Shopping Season
Health Appropriateness
Aroma PL
NO
F2 (21.61%)
Taste Farm/field/rural
Natural/fresh BE
Boredom
Laborious
Celebration
FR
IT Good Conservative
Heritage History SP
Culture
Handmade

Distrust/risk Everlasting

F1 (29.02%)

Fig. 3. Simple correspondence analysis of the 55 different classes obtained by triangulation. BE: Flanders (Belgium), FR: Burgundy (Dijon, France), IT: Lazio region (Italy), NO:
Akershus and stfold counties (Norway), PL: Mazovia (Warsaw, Poland), SP: Catalonia (Spain). Only classes having a squared cosine (quality of the projection) higher or equal
to 0.5 in one of the rst two dimensions are shown.

European countries is very narrow compared to Southern European
countries, where this range is rather wide. Consequently, the num-
ber of collective quality labels is also much lower in Northern Eur-
ope (Becker, 2009). The number of EU certication labels per
country in 2007 was 155 in France, 164 in Italy and 111 in Spain
versus 10 in Belgium or 1 in Poland (Rosati, 2007). This fact may
explain why more broad concepts are stronger associated to South-
ern European countries, with a higher experience, knowledge and
culture of traditional food products.
In Fig. 3 Poland was closer to sensory classes (Aroma and Taste)
and Health; Norway was close to Farm/eld/rural, Shopping and
Appropriateness; France and Italy were close to Heritage, Laborious,
Good and History; Spain was close to Culture, History, Celebration,
Conservative and Good; and nally Belgium was close to Natural/
Fresh, Laborious and Celebration. Again, the results point out the
existence of differences in food culture within Europe. Neverthe-
less, it is important to point out that these differences are mainly
quantitative (frequencies of elicitation for the different classes be-
tween regions) since all the regions had a similar perception from
a qualitative perspective (the majority of the classes were present
in all the regions). By grouping the raw data in different classes all
the initial information was taken into account, thus allowing putt-
ing together words expressed differently but having a similar
meaning. The main disadvantage is the existence of a subjective
grouping practice, although the reliability of this process may be
increased when it is made by triangulation (Donoghue, 2000;
Modell, 2005; Wadsworth, 2000) as it was done in the present
study.
3.4. Approach by grouping the different classes in generic dimensions
In order to perform a further reduction of the information facil-
itating the interpretation of the results obtained, the 55 classes cre-
ated in the previous approach were grouped in different
dimensions by triangulation (Modell, 2005; Wadsworth, 2000). A
total of 10 dimensions were obtained by consensus between the
three independent grouping processes performed. These dimen-
sions were Sensory (includes classes such as Tasty, Taste, or Fla-
vour), Health (includes classes such as Healthy, Unhealthy, Heavy/
copious or Nutritious), Elaboration (includes classes such as Hand-
made, Home-made, Elaboration or Laborious), Heritage (includes
classes such as Ancestors, Old, Family, Culture or Everlasting), Variety
(includes classes such as Variety, Boring or Choice), Habit (includes
classes such as Habitual/typical), Origin (includes classes such as
Country/region), Basic/simple, Special occasions (includes classes
such as Celebration, Holidays or Christmas) and Marketing (includes
classes such as Expensive, Store/shop or Distribution).
Fig. 4 shows the frequencies of elicitation for each dimension in
each region. As expected and because of the simplication of the
information the similarities between regions increased in this ap-
proach of data analysis. All the dimensions were present in all
the regions except for Variety in Italy. The differences between re-
gions were quantitative as it is also shown in Fig. 5 obtained after
performing a simple correspondence analysis. Sensory and Health
dimensions were closer to Poland and Italy; Heritage was close to
Spain; Special occasions, Basic/simple and Origin were close to Nor-
way; Elaboration was close to France; and Habit, Marketing and
Variety were closer to Belgium. As noticed previously differences
in food culture across European countries may explain these
results.
This approach was the only one where a signicant difference
between genders (v2 = 39.408, p < 0.001) was observed. Women
were closer to the Heritage, Health, Origin or Sensory dimensions,
while men were closer to Elaboration, Habit, Marketing and Variety.
Differences between genders are quite common in food related as-
pects such as attitudes (Gurdia, Guerrero, Gelabert, Gou, & Arnau,
2006; Kiefer, Rathmanner, & Kunze, 2005; van den Bree, Przybeck,
& Cloninger, 2006), behaviour (Burton, Smit, & Lightowler, 2007;
Otis & Pelletier, 2008) or health concern (Perez-Cueto, Verbeke, La-
chat, & Remaut-De Winter, 2009; Rozin, Bauer, & Catanese, 2003).
The main advantage of this approach is its simplicity, although
the double grouping process (in classes rst and in dimensions sec-
ond) increases the subjectivity of the results obtained. In addition,
some difculties may be observed when trying to obtain a reduced
number of classes because it was not always easy to group the dif-
ferent classes together under a common dimension or concept. It is
also important to notice that using this approach the more subtle
differences between regions may disappear.
3.5. Robustness of the information obtained
In order to check the robustness of the words associated to the
concept of traditional obtained by means of different approaches,
the nal ten dimensions created were compared with the afore-
 L. Guerrero et al. / Food Quality and Preference 21 (2010) 225233 231

Belgium France

60 60

50 50
Frecuency of elicitation (n)

Frecuency of elicitation (n)

40 40

30 30

20 20

10 10

0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Italy Norway

20 60

18
50
16
Frecuency of elicitation (n)

Frecuency of elicitation (n)

14
40
12

10 30

8
20
6

4
10
2

0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Poland Spain

100 100

90 90

80 80
Frecuency of elicitation (n)

Frecuency of elicitation (n)

70 70

60 60

50 50

40 40

30 30

20 20

10 10

0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Fig. 4. Frequency of elicited dimensions in each region in the word association test using the word Traditional as stimulus. 1 = Elaboration, 2 = Heritage, 3 = Origin,
4 = Health, 5 = Special occasions, 6 = Habit, 7 = Sensory, 8 = Marketing, 9 = Basic/simple, 10 = Variety.

mentioned denition of the concept of traditional food obtained in 4. Conclusions

the same six regions (Guerrero et al., 2009). These authors found by
means of focus groups that seven different factors made up the
concept of traditional: Habit, Special occasions, Heritage (transmit-
ted from one generation to another), Made in a specic way (elabo-
ration), Sensory properties, Simplicity and Linked to a certain origin.
Each of these seven factors was observed in the present study as
well. In addition, the word association test provided supplemen-
tary information since three additional dimensions emerged from
this test: Health (positive and negative aspects), Marketing and
Variety. Despite its limitations, the word association technique
proved to be a robust qualitative research technique to identify
various dimensions of traditional food and to broaden the meaning
of the concept of traditional as compared with the results of other
qualitative approaches such as focus groups. Similarly, Rozin et al.
(2002) also concluded that free word association test was a valid
methodology in food related aspects.
In general, the participants in the present study had a clear im-
age formation of the word Traditional despite its abstractness and
independently of their age or gender. Although this image was
quantitatively (frequency of elicitation of each raw word, class or
dimension) different depending on the European region observed,
important qualitative similarities were detected. From a qualita-
tive perspective the concept of Traditional in a food context is
made up of ten main dimensions: sensory, health, elaboration, her-
itage, variety, habit, origin, simplicity, special occasions and mar-
keting. These dimensions conrm a previous denition for the
concept of Traditional food products obtained in the same six re-
gions using focus group discussions and demonstrate the robust-
ness of a free word association test in the food domain as well as
its value as a reliable research tool that even provides additional
information (three new dimensions: Health, Marketing and Variety)
232 L. Guerrero et al. / Food Quality and Preference 21 (2010) 225233
SENSORY IT
Women
PL HEALTH HERITAGE
SP
FR
ELABORATION
Men
F2 (21.12%)
VARIETY
F1 (46.69%)
Fig. 5. Simple correspondence analysis of the 10 different dimensions obtained by triangulation. BE: Flanders (Belgium), FR: Burgundy (Dijon, France), IT: Lazio region (Italy),
NO: Akershus and stfold counties (Norway), PL: Mazovia (Warsaw, Poland), SP: Catalonia (Spain).
as compared to some other qualitative techniques. However, free
word association may reveal different results depending on the
consumer sample selected and the approach used for data analysis.
Consequently, these results need to be conrmed and validated in
a quantitative study involving larger and representative consumer
samples. In any case, the empirical ndings obtained from the free
word association test provide valuable insight for product posi-
tioning, innovation and new developments in the traditional food
market.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the TRUEFOOD Traditional Uni-
ted Europe Food an Integrated Project nanced by the European
Commission under the 6th Framework Programme (Contract No.
FOOD-CT-2006-016264).
The information in this document reects only the authors
views and the European Commission is not liable for any use that
may be made of the information contained therein.
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