Are healthiness and pleasure dimensions perceived similarly by people with food addiction in Brazil? A case study using holistic sensory methodologies

The relationship between the consumption of hyper-palatable ultra-processed foods and the process of addiction gains notoriety due to its relationship with obesity. Food addiction is a complex phenomenon intrinsically related to the individual's behavioral, emotional, and subjective aspects. Therefore, using classical approaches to sensory science may be insufficient to understand better the individual's sensory experience with hyper-palatable foods. In this context, sensory and consumer science techniques with holistic approaches have been aimed at accessing more subjective consumer perceptions. This study used the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS 2.0) to investigate the prevalence of food addiction and the Structured Projective Mapping (S-MP) and Sorting techniques to verify how individuals with and without food addiction perceive and understand different types of food. The prevalence of food addiction was 21.77% (n = 59 out of 271) and was associated with a higher BMI but not with sociodemographic aspects. Projective Mapping (RV = 0.937) and Sorting (RV = 0.934) indicated that perception in relation to attributes such as health and pleasure was similar for all investigated foods in individuals with or without food addiction. The presence of addictive eating behavior does not seem to be related to the way individuals perceive foods from different categories, for example, minimally or highly processed and hyper-palatable foods.