ABSTRACT SCHIANO, ANGELINA NICOLE. Consumer Perception of Dairy Foods: Sustainability and Processing Methods (Under the direction of Dr. MaryAnne Drake). Changing consumer desires have led the growth of new dairy products and plant-based dairy alternatives to better meet these needs. The objective of this dissertation was to better understand changing consumer needs for and perception of dairy products. Four different studies were conducted. In the first study, consumer perception of the sustainability of milk and dried dairy ingredients and their respective plant-based alternatives were characterized using focus groups and two online surveys with dairy product consumers. Focus groups and survey maximum difference scaling results identified 5 key attributes for sustainability: minimal carbon footprint/greenhouse gas emissions, few/no preservatives, animal happiness and welfare, and simple/minimal ingredients. Plant-based dairy alternatives were considered more sustainable than dairy products, but package type and organic status also played a role in consumer sustainability perception. There was cognitive overlap among the terms sustainable, natural, healthy, ethical, and trustworthy as they relate to dairy products, but consumers used the terms distinctly. Consumers perceived differences in these terms between general categories of dairy as well as among products in a specific dairy category. In the second study, an online survey with three MaxDiff exercises was conducted to determine the importance of 63 label claims to consumer definitions of the terms sustainable, natural, and healthy. Claims related to animal welfare and happiness or simple, minimal ingredients and processing were considered by consumers to be important for all three terms. Priming consumers with information did not impact consumer definitions of any of these terms. For each of these terms, there was a cluster of consumers who defined the term primarily by simple ingredients and minimal processing, and another cluster who defined the term primarily by happy cows and conscious farming practices. The terms sustainable and healthy each had a third, unique consumer cluster. Age and to a lesser extent, gender, impacted importance placed on these three terms and also impacted definition of the term. Understanding these consumer definitions provides insight on how to formulate marketing and educational messaging to speak to each consumer segment. In the third study, parents’ implicit and explicit attitudes towards dairy milk and plant- based alternatives were assessed. An online survey including an Implicit Association Test (IAT) was conducted, followed by in-depth one-on-one qualitative interviews. Implicit bias impacted purchase likelihood for both dairy milk and plant-based alternatives. The majority of parents were biased in favor of dairy milk over plant-based alternatives, and no matter their bias, parents are more likely to purchase dairy milk than alternatives. However, the majority of parents now take a neutral stance towards encouraging their children to drink milk despite remembering encouragement from their own parents to drink milk during their childhood. These results suggest that the dairy industry should focus on developing and widely distributing marketing messaging educating parents about the benefits of dairy milk. In the fourth study, consumer understanding of milk processing and constituents were assessed using one-to-one qualitative interviews and a follow-up online survey. Survey responses paralleled those from one-on-one interviews. The average dairy product consumer could recall key words related to dairy processing, composition, nutrients, and ingredients, but was largely unfamiliar with these subjects. For the majority of consumers, purchase intent for fluid milk and cultured dairy products was not impacted when non-conventional processing terms such as ultrafiltered or microfiltered were included in the ingredients statement. This impact was consistent for fluid milk and Cheddar cheeses but not for cottage cheese, suggesting the possibility of product specific effects. Providing respondents with a definition of filtration increased consumer understanding of, positive beliefs about, and purchase intent for fluid filtered milk and cheese made with filtered milk. Educating consumers through on-package labeling and other marketing messaging should be investigated for dairy products incorporating processes such as ultrapasteurization or filtration. © Copyright 2021 by Angelina Schiano All Rights Reserved Consumer Perception of Dairy Foods: Sustainability and Processing Methods by Angelina Nicole Schiano A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Food Science Raleigh, North Carolina 2021 APPROVED BY: _______________________________ _______________________________ Dr. MaryAnne Drake Dr. April Fogleman Committee Chair _______________________________ _______________________________ Dr. Clint Stevenson Dr. Deepti Salvi _______________________________ Dr. Daniel Poole BIOGRAPHY Angelina became interested in consumer perception while attending the College of William and Mary, where she majored in neuroscience. After graduating, she completed her Master’s degree in Food Science with a focus on sensory science under the direction of Dr. MaryAnne Drake and stayed in the program to pursue her PhD. While working on her PhD, she completed a Graduate Certificate in Marketing from NC State. Away from the lab, Angelina enjoys dance, crafting, sewing, overanalyzing marketing trends, and spending time with her oversized, slightly overweight, extra-fluffy orange cat, Oliver Fluffytail. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In my experience, there’s only two types of people who read dissertation acknowledgements. Either you’re here out of genuine support for me; or it’s years in the future and you’re desperately searching for a highly specific piece of information for your own work. If you’re the second: put this down and go read the published versions of these studies. They’re all in the Journal of Dairy Science (same titles). You’re welcome. But if you fall into the first category, please accept my sincere gratitude and thanks from the bottom of my heart. Dr. Drake has a saying that it takes a village to raise a graduate student – this PhD has certainly driven that home. I cannot even begin to express how fortunate I feel to have been surrounded with so much support and encouragement during this process. Dr. Drake: thank you for your infinite guidance and patience. Your genuine care for all your graduate students is unmatched. To my committee members: thank you for taking the time to provide your guidance on this work. To my parents and sisters: thank you for your love, support, and for putting up with me ranting about milk for hours on end. Ian: if there was a medal for handling stressed out PhD students, you’d win hands down. I am incredibly lucky to have you in my life. And finally: it takes a special kind of intensity to make research happen during a global pandemic, so I would like to personally thank every MAD lab student who was here during this time. You all deserve a lot more than this generic message at the bottom of a dissertation that will be in all likelihood forgotten by time. I appreciate you nonetheless. In particular, I’d like to acknowledge by name my co-authors on my papers submitted for publication: Will Harwood, Clara Racette, and Sara Nishku. This has been quite the experience, folks. I can only hope that I’m leaving this lab a better place than I when I entered it. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ iv LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER 1: SUSTAINABILITY: DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES, INHERENT CONFLICT ................................................................................................................................... 1 ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 DIMENSIONS AND DEFINITIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY ........................................ 4 INDUSTRY AND ACADEMIC DEFINITIONS OF DAIRY SUSTAINABILITY ......... 5 CONSUMER TRENDS AND DESIRES FOR SUSTAINABILILITY ............................ 7 Consumer Perception, Understanding, and Definitions of Sustainability .............. 7 Consumer Desire and Willingness to Pay for Sustainable Dairy ........................... 9 The Push for Plant ................................................................................................. 10 DAIRY FOODS FACTORS ............................................................................................. 11 Packaging Material and Design ............................................................................ 11 Labeling ................................................................................................................ 13 Animal Welfare ..................................................................................................... 16 Organic .................................................................................................................. 17 Grass-fed/Pasture-raised.