Applying mealtime functionality to tailor protein-enriched meals to older consumer segments

The older adults group is highly heterogeneous, and its members do not always meet their recommended protein intake. We explored mealtime functionality as a basis for tailoring protein-enriched (PE) meal concepts to two senior consumer segments: 1) cosy socialisers, who eat mainly for cosiness and social interaction, and 2) physical nutritioners, who eat mainly for nutrients and physical needs. We hypothesised an increased ‘product–cluster fit’ when the functional meal associations are congruent to the clusters’ functional mealtime expectations. In a home-use test, participants (N = 91, mean age 68.1 (y) ± 5.3 (SD), 42 cosy socialisers) prepared and consumed three kale mash meal concepts once over three weeks: (1) a basic meal concept (without PE/tailoring), (2) a cosy meal concept (PE/tailored to mealtime expectations of cosy socialisers), and (3) a physical meal concept (PE/tailored to mealtime expectations of physical nutritioners). The participants reported their expectations and experiences with the recipes and dishes (e.g. expected liking; attractiveness recipe; actual liking; taste; smell; satisfaction). The results showed that the cosy meal concept was experienced as ‘traditional’ (p