Microgreens are an emerging functional food crop with promise for sustainably diversifying global food systems, facilitating adaptations to urbanization and global climate change, and promoting human health. Previous work suggests microgreens have high nutritional quality, low environmental impacts, and broad consumer acceptance. For better reception into the global food system and increased per capita consumption, research is needed to elucidate consumer acceptance of various microgreens species, including factors contributing to their acceptance or lack thereof. Using a consumer panel (n = 99), this study evaluated consumer sensory perception and acceptability of six microgreens species (arugula, broccoli, bull's blood beet, red cabbage, red garnet amaranth, and tendril pea), and potential drivers and barriers to consumer acceptance. All microgreens species received high mean liking scores for acceptability by consumers (means ranged from highly acceptable to slightly acceptable), with more distinct differences across microgreens species for flavor and overall acceptability, which appeared to be driven by specific sensory properties. Data from principal component analysis demonstrated that high acceptability scores were associated with higher intent to purchase microgreens and negatively associated with food neophobia. Participants indicated that factors such as knowledge and familiarity of microgreens, cost, access/availability, freshness/shelf life, among other factors, influence their intention to purchase microgreens. These findings suggest that further integration of microgreens into the global food system will be met with high consumer acceptability, but needs to be aligned with enhanced consumer education regarding microgreens, as well as considerations of cost, availability/access, and freshness/shelf life. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Researchers investigated consumer sensory perception and acceptability of six microgreens species (arugula, broccoli, bull's blood beet, red cabbage, red garnet amaranth, and tendril pea), and potential drivers and barriers to consumer acceptance. All microgreens tested had high consumer acceptability, but certain factors such as sensory perception and food neophobia impacted their acceptability. Additionally, participants indicated that factors such as knowledge, access and availability, cost, freshness, and shelf life may impact the purchasing of microgreens and thus are important factors to consider for further integration of this emerging functional food crop into the global food system.

中文翻译：

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Microgreens：消费者对新兴功能性粮食作物的感官感知和接受

微型蔬菜是一种新兴的功能性粮食作物，有望实现全球粮食系统的可持续多样化，促进对城市化和全球气候变化的适应，并促进人类健康。以前的工作表明微型蔬菜具有高营养质量、低环境影响和广泛的消费者接受度。为了更好地接受全球粮食系统和增加人均消费，需要进行研究以阐明消费者对各种微型蔬菜物种的接受程度，包括导致接受或缺乏接受程度的因素。本研究使用消费者小组（n = 99）评估了消费者对六种微型蔬菜（芝麻菜、西兰花、牛血甜菜、红卷心菜、红石榴苋和卷须豌豆）的感官感知和可接受性，以及消费者的潜在驱动因素和障碍验收。所有微型蔬菜品种在消费者可接受性方面的平均喜好分数都很高（平均值范围从高度可接受到略微可接受），微型蔬菜品种之间在风味和整体可接受性方面存在更明显的差异，这似乎是由特定的感官特性驱动的。来自主成分分析的数据表明，高可接受性分数与更高的购买微型蔬菜的意愿相关，并与食物新恐惧症呈负相关。参与者表示，诸如微型蔬菜的知识和熟悉程度、成本、获取/可用性、新鲜度/保质期等因素会影响他们购买微型蔬菜的意图。这些发现表明，将微型蔬菜进一步整合到全球食品系统中将得到消费者的高度认可，但需要与加强消费者关于微型蔬菜的教育以及成本、可用性/获取和新鲜度/保质期的考虑保持一致。实际应用：研究人员调查了消费者对六种微型蔬菜（芝麻菜、西兰花、牛血甜菜、红甘蓝、红石榴苋和卷须豌豆）的感官感知和接受度，以及消费者接受的潜在驱动因素和障碍。所有测试的微型蔬菜都具有很高的消费者接受度，但某些因素如感官知觉和食物新恐惧症影响了它们的接受度。此外，参与者表示，诸如知识、获取和可用性、成本、新鲜度、