Brewer’s Spent Grain Used in Fiber-Enriched Burgers—Influence of Sustainability Information on Consumer Responses

Abstract

Brewer’s spent grain (BSG) is the main brewery by-product, whose main use is animal feed but its incorporation into food can improve nutritional quality and sustainability. However, consumers base food preferences on packaging cues that assign meaning to food products. Furthermore, sustainability communication in food is poorly studied. Therefore, the objective of this work was to study the effect of communicating BSG enrichment in beef burgers on consumer responses. Three burger brands were considered and three labels were designed that included information about the addition of fiber. A total of 276 Uruguayans completed an online survey to measure their purchase intention. The way participants were informed about fiber addition did not influence their responses and the brand was the only factor that affected the results. Cluster analysis was applied, identifying four clusters. The brand was always the only significant variable and two of the clusters were highly interested in purchasing the fiber-enriched burgers. The results suggest consumers are interested in the inclusion of BSG in their products and expect information on the origin of the ingredient but not deep communication about the concept of ‘by-products.’