Browsing by Author "Kissiedu, Kwame Okraku"

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    Consumers’ Attitude towards Foreign and Domestic Chocolates
    (2012) Kissiedu, Kwame Okraku
    Globalization has exposed consumers in Ghana to a wide range of foreign chocolates on the market than ever before and these are competing with the domestic brands. The main purpose of the study was to investigate the Ghanaian consumers’ attitude towards foreign and domestic chocolates and make recommendations for enhancing patronage of the domestic chocolates. A non-probability, convenience sampling technique was employed to gather the data through a structured questionnaire from 226 participants in the Greater Accra Region. The Fishbein attitude model and Consumer Ethnocentrism Tendencies Scale (CETSCALE) were used to measure the consumer attitudes and ethnocentrism respectively. The importance of country of origin of chocolates was also determined on a seven point likert scale. The relative importance of some attributes: brand name, price, packaging and the type of chocolate were determined using the conjoint analysis. The studies revealed that majority of the consumers had a positive attitude towards foreign chocolates (mean=164.03) than domestic chocolates (mean=153.97). Consumers however, showed ethnocentric tendencies (mean=5.8, on a scale of 1 to 7) towards the Made-in-Ghana chocolates. Chocolates from Ghana were also more important to the consumer than chocolates from the United Kingdom or Switzerland. These tendencies seem to be rooted more in morality, rather than it transcending economic and functional considerations. Brand name was the most important attributes of chocolate (38.10%). The best cue combination that affect the purchasing decision of the consumer was a Goldentree milk chocolate packaged in laminated flow wrap that sells below GH¢ 5.00 per the 100g bar. It can be concluded that consumers have greater attitudes towards foreign chocolates than domestic chocolates. It is recommended that the manufacturer of the domestic chocolate finds more effective ways to reduce their cost of production in order to reduce the prices of their chocolates to levels competitive with those coming from abroad. The domestic brand should also be rebranded for it to be competitive. Government on their part should provide conducive environment for the local manufacturers to thrive.
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    Optimization of Sensory Acceptability of Milk Chocolate Containing Okra Pectin as Emulsifier
    (June, 2017) Kissiedu, Kwame Okraku
    In the preparation of chocolate in Ghana, the only ingredient obtained locally is cocoa. A preliminary study showed the potential of okra pectin as emulsifier in milk chocolate. The present study aims to investigate and optimize the sensory acceptability of milk chocolate when local okra pectin extract is used as an emulsifier or lecithin substitute. A four-component constrained mixture design (Simplex lattice) was used for the recipe formulations using MINITAB (version 17) Statistical Package. The components were sugar, milk, cocoa butter, and cocoa liquor. The lower and upper constraints of the component variables were determined from an existing milk chocolate recipe from the Cocoa Processing Company Limited, Tema, Ghana. The emulsifier, Okra pectin (0.145%) was held constant in all the formulations. The formulated products were evaluated by trained judges for its sensory characteristics such as mouthfeel, aftertaste, flavour, taste, appearance and overall acceptability on a nine-point Hedonic scale. At okra pectin level of 0.145%, the optimal proportion of the ingredients in the milk chocolate based on sensory characteristics were found to be 36.08% sugar, 25.92% milk, 20.00% butter and 18.00% liquor. At these levels, the chocolate samples were either liked moderately or very much, which suggests high overall acceptability (about 90%).