The effect of sensory experience on expected preferences toward a masking strategy for boar-tainted frankfurter sausages

•Updated knowledge on a new masking strategy for boar meat is investigated.•Real shopping scenario using Non-Hypothetical Discrete Choice Experiments is created.•Hedonic evaluation had a significant impact on expected choice for sausages.•After tasting, positive satisfaction is confirmed for the masking strategy.•The hedonic test decreased the degree of randomness of consumers choice. The potential banning of surgical pig castration in the EU is to be announced by 1 January 2018, which may change stakeholder and consumer preferences. This study analysed consumers’ expected preferences regarding smoking and applying a mixture of spices to high-level boar-taint frankfurter sausages. Consumers’ acceptance through a hedonic evaluation of the masking strategy and its impact on expected preferences were analysed. We carried out two non-hypothetical discrete choice experiments by creating a real shopping scenario before and after a sensory experience test for a sample of 150 consumers from the metropolitan area of Madrid, Spain. The data used in this analysis were obtained from self-completed structured questionnaires following a quota sampling approach. The recently developed generalized multinomial logit model (GMNL) was used for analysis. The results showed the appropriateness of the proposed masking strategy of boar meat for the processed meat industry in Spain. Consumers stated their willingness to pay a premium for this flavour. The sensory experience had an impact on the mean preference and the scale heterogeneity. The degree of randomness and consumer uncertainty decreased significantly after the eating experience of the product.