552 Novel food packaging techniques In order to gain meaningful responses, consumers need to be made more familiar with intelligent packaging. This can be done by explaining what a oncept, whether active packaging or special indicator, means or by showing concrete examples of these active or intelligent package solutions. A simple way to explain to interviewees what the applications are and how they function is a set of photographs that are easy to take to different places. Furthermore, they are the same for all interviewees regardless of the time and location. If real food packages or indicators are used, they have to be replaced at each demonstration This will raise the expenses of the study, not to mention the amount of products that need to be carried to different locations and stored at accurate temperatures Modern technology makes it possible to carry out research by using the internet or computer-aided data collection systems. With these applications it is possible to demonstrate how the indicators work with no need to use actual food packages as samples The most feasible way of demonstrating these package solutions is to show food products with and without the indicators, absorbers or emitters. The responses are then related both to the example food and the packaging technology. This raises the question whether packaging technologies can be studied separately from their applications in consumer studies, as they provide improvements for the quality of food, not improvements for packaging. For consumer acceptance the perceived benefits are important. Consumers will assess the benefits they gain, but they also have concerns about how these benefits have been achieved. Furthermore, any technology that solely provides advantages for the other actors in the food chain are not easily accepted by consumers especially if they raise prices 26.3 Methods for testing consumer responses The central objective in consumer research is to find out whether consumers are willing to accept new packaging technologies, whether there are concerns that may obstruct or delay acceptance and how the benefits provided by the ne technologies are perceived. The methods used can be broadly divided into two categories; qualitative and quantitative approaches With qualitative methods we can get systematic information about how consumers think and formulate their opinions about food and packaging related issues. These techniques are valuable when we want to gather information about the different possible concerns consumers attach to novel technologies or we want to define what the reasoning is behind these concerns. The advantage of qualitative techniques is that consumers can use their own language and expressions to describe their opinions. Often qualitative techniques are used as pilot studies for quantitative approaches, but they are gaining value as independent tools. The most frequently used qualitative methods are focus group discussion and individual interviews Both these types of methods can be applied with different techniques depending on the question on the handIn order to gain meaningful responses, consumers need to be made more familiar with intelligent packaging. This can be done by explaining what a concept, whether active packaging or special indicator, means or by showing concrete examples of these active or intelligent package solutions. A simple way to explain to interviewees what the applications are and how they function is a set of photographs that are easy to take to different places. Furthermore, they are the same for all interviewees regardless of the time and location. If real food packages or indicators are used, they have to be replaced at each demonstration. This will raise the expenses of the study, not to mention the amount of products that need to be carried to different locations and stored at accurate temperatures. Modern technology makes it possible to carry out research by using the internet or computer-aided data collection systems. With these applications it is possible to demonstrate how the indicators work with no need to use actual food packages as samples. The most feasible way of demonstrating these package solutions is to show food products with and without the indicators, absorbers or emitters. The responses are then related both to the example food and the packaging technology. This raises the question whether packaging technologies can be studied separately from their applications in consumer studies, as they provide improvements for the quality of food, not improvements for packaging. For consumer acceptance the perceived benefits are important. Consumers will assess the benefits they gain, but they also have concerns about how these benefits have been achieved. Furthermore, any technology that solely provides advantages for the other actors in the food chain are not easily accepted by consumers especially if they raise prices. 26.3 Methods for testing consumer responses The central objective in consumer research is to find out whether consumers are willing to accept new packaging technologies, whether there are concerns that may obstruct or delay acceptance and how the benefits provided by the new technologies are perceived. The methods used can be broadly divided into two categories; qualitative and quantitative approaches. With qualitative methods we can get systematic information about how consumers think and formulate their opinions about food and packaging related issues. These techniques are valuable when we want to gather information about the different possible concerns consumers attach to novel technologies or we want to define what the reasoning is behind these concerns. The advantage of qualitative techniques is that consumers can use their own language and expressions to describe their opinions. Often qualitative techniques are used as pilot studies for quantitative approaches, but they are gaining value as independent tools. The most frequently used qualitative methods are focus group discussion and individual interviews. Both these types of methods can be applied with different techniques depending on the question on the hand. 552 Novel food packaging techniques