Sensory & Consumer Sciences Effects of Visual Cues on Consumer Expectation, Emotion and Wellness Responses, and Purchase Intent of Red Chili Powders Phurit Ngoenchai, Jose Ramon Alonso, Thongchai Suwonsichon, Suntaree Suwonsichon, and Witoon Prinyawiwatkul Abstract: The effects of visual cues on familiarity, expected heat intensity, liking of appearance, emotional and wellness responses, and purchase intent (PI) before and after disclosing information associated with red chili powders were determined using a 3-point scale, a 15-cm line scale, a 9-point hedonic scale, a 15-cm line scale, and a binomial scale, respectively. In this study, consumers only visually evaluated red chili powder samples without sniffing nor tasting. Eight chili powders were prepared according to a 2 3 factorial design: roasted (Ro) compared with unroasted (Un); whole pod with seeds (Wh) compared with seedless (Sl); coarsely (Cr) compared with finely ground (Gr). Thai consumers (N = 230) were generally more familiar with samples having coarse particles and more reddish color (lower hue angle and higher a ∗ values) than samples having finely ground particles and less reddish/more yellowish color (higher hue angle and lower a ∗ values). The expected heat intensity and liking scores for appearance were lower for samples with higher hue values, particularly RoWhGr and RoSIGr samples. All scores for emotion/wellness terms, except curious, were generally higher for samples with lower hue angle and higher a ∗ values (redness). The consumer familiarity to the appearance of the samples influenced expected heat intensity, liking of appearance, and emotion/wellness responses. PI increased by >10% after presenting “organic,” “aflatoxin free,” and “organic and aflatoxin free” product statements to consumers. Results showed that familiarity, overall liking of appearance, color liking, fine particles liking, and healthy as well as wild terms were significant predictors for PI (odds ratio = 1.282, 1.519, 1.314, 1.158, 1.056, and 0.939, respectively) of red chili powders. Keywords: chili powder, consumer expectation, emotion, purchase intent, visual cues Practical Application: This study showed that consumer familiarity to the appearance (visual cues) of red chili powder affected expected heat intensity, liking of appearance, and emotion/wellness responses, which, in turn, affected purchase intent (PI). Samples with more reddish color and coarse particles were perceived to be more familiar than those with more yellowish color and finer particles. Familiarity, overall liking of appearance, color liking, fine particles liking, and healthy and wild terms were significant predictors for PI of chili power. The results demonstrated the importance of visual cues on the consumers’ expectation and PI of red chili powder, thus offering valuable information for manufacturers. Introduction Chili pepper is widely cultivated in South America, Asia, and Africa as well as some Mediterranean countries where it is used in hundreds of food recipes and as a condiment either fresh or in processed forms, such as dried chili powder, hot sauce, and pickle. The average chili pepper consumption in some countries is, for example, 20 g/person/day in Mexico, 8 g/person/day in Korea, 5 g/person/day in Thailand, 2.5 g/person/day in India, and 0.05 to 0.50 g/person/day in the United States (Ludy & Mattes, 2012; Othman, Ahmed, Habila, & Ghafar, 2011; Rogers et al., 2018). Thailand has the fifth largest area dedicated to chili pepper production at 92,126 ha, and is the second largest pro- ducer of red and dried chili at 349,397 tons per year, which JFDS-2019-0721 Submitted 5/13/2019, Accepted 8/20/2019. Authors Ngoen- chai, T. Suwonsichon, and S. Suwonsichon are with Faculty of Agro-Industry, Dept. of Product Development, Kasetsart Univ. Sensory and Consumer Research (KUSCR) Center, Kasetsart Univ., Bangkok 10900, Thailand. Authors Alonso and Prinyawi- watkul are with School of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Louisiana State Univ. Agri- cultural Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, U.S.A. Direct inquiries to authors T. Suwonsichon and W. Prinyawiwatkul (E-mails: fagitcs@ku.ac.th; wprinya@lsu.edu). is worth over $3 million in yearly exports (FAO, 2016; MOC, 2018). Chili is used to enhance the color and heat sensation in terms of heat sensation, spiciness, or pungency of food (Dzoyem, McGaw, Kuete, & Bakowsky, 2017). Capsaicinoids are the compounds re- sponsible for the heat sensation of chili peppers, of which capsaicin (trans-8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) and dihydrocapsaicin (8-methyl-N-vanillylnonenamide) constitute between 77% and 89% of the total capsaicinoids in chili peppers (Barbero et al., 2014). The amount of capsaicin varies among chili pepper vari- eties, and so does the perceived heat intensity of chili peppers, which is often expressed in Scoville Heat Units (SHU) by the Scoville organoleptic test. There are five levels of heat intensity measured organoleptically and classified using SHU as follows: nonheat (0 to 700 SHU), mild heat (700 to 3,000 SHU), moder- ate heat (3,000 to 25,000 SHU), high heat (25,000 to 70,000 SHU), and very high heat (˃80,000 SHU; Nwokem, Agbaji, Kagbu, & Ekanem, 2010). This method is based on a subjective measurement. Nowadays, total capsaicinoids (nordihydrocapsaicin, capsaicin, and dihydrocapsaicin) are used for measuring heat sen- sation and analyzed by a liquid chromatographic method (AOAC, C  2019 Institute of Food Technologists R  3018 Journal of Food Science  Vol. 84, Iss. 10, 2019 doi: 10.1111/1750-3841.14808 Further reproduction without permission is prohibited