WILLINGNESS-TO-PAY FOR A NUTRACEUTICAL-RICH JUICE BLEND LYDIA J.R. LAWLESS 1,2 , RODOLFO M. NAYGA Jr 3 , FAICAL AKAICHI 3 , JEAN-FRANÇOIS MEULLENET 1 , RENEE T. THRELFALL 4,5 and LUKE R. HOWARD 1 1 Department of Food Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 2 Sensory Spectrum, Inc., New Providence, NJ 3 Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 4 Institute of Food Science and Technology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 5 Corresponding author. TEL: (479)-575-4677; FAX: (479)-575-2165; EMAIL: rthrelf@uark.edu Accepted for Publication August 16, 2012 doi:10.1111/joss.12002 ABSTRACT As human life expectancy increases, the potential for nutraceutical products expands. Economic theory and sensory science were integrated to determine (1) consumer acceptance of potential health statements about a juice blend and (2) the relative satisfaction consumers derived from sensory and nutraceutical charac- teristics of a juice blend. Four nonhypothetical experimental auction sessions with 11–12 consumers/session were held (n = 47) to elicit willingness-to-pay (WTP) for an optimized juice blend (87% Concord grape and 13% blackberry). Participants in two sessions tasted the product first and then received a potential health state- ment about the juice blend regarding positive benefits of anthocyanins before the third round (vice versa for the other two sessions). The WTP for the juice blend was higher when subjects tasted the product first and then received the potential health statement, which indicated a contrast effect caused by treatment order. Agreement with the potential health statement was not correlated to WTP. Nutra- ceutical product launch should be accompanied with in-store taste sessions to introduce consumers to product sensory properties. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Consumers’ willingness-to-pay for nutraceuticals can be assessed through nonhy- pothetical experimental auctions. Nonhypothetical value elicitation methods use real money and products to advantageously eliminate hypothetical bias. Experi- mental auctions allow product attributes such as nutraceutical status to be assessed along with sensory characteristics; hence, auctions can more easily capture all product aspects that contribute to consumer liking. Understanding how consumers value all attributes can provide crucial information about a prod- uct’s marketplace sustainability. INTRODUCTION In typical sensory testing with consumers, panelists are instructed to evaluate their acceptance of a product based on sensory properties. However, products often possess nonsensorial attributes from which consumers also derive utility. Utilizing experimental auctions to measure willingness-to-pay (WTP) can determine how consumers value the sensorial and nonsensorial attributes of products. Experimental auctions and choice experi- ments have been used to determine the premium consum- ers are willing to pay for improved animal welfare, increased microbiological protection and value-added nutraceutical characteristics (e.g., resveratrol-enhanced wine, conjugated-linoleic-acid-enhanced milk; Maynard and Franklin 2003; Brown et al. 2005; Nayga et al. 2006; Barreiro-Hurle et al. 2008; Napolitano et al. 2008). Examples of experimental auctions applied to sensory queries include comparing WTP and overall liking for champagne and determining the effects of sensory attributes on WTP for grass-fed beef (Lange et al. 2002; Xue et al. 2010). Journal of Sensory Studies ISSN 0887-8250 375 Journal of Sensory Studies 27 (2012) 375–383 © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.