Study of Consumer Acceptance by Means of Questionnaire Survey Towards Newly Developed Yogurts with Functional Ingredients

Abstract

Background: Presently, consumers are becoming very much aware of the benefits of allying the concepts of pleasant food with health promoting properties. Hence, the market for healthier foods, functional foods or even nutraceuticals has risen in the past decades. Objective: This work was designed to assess the consumers’ possible acceptance of newly developed yogurts with functional ingredients. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was undertaken on a non-probabilistic sample of 347 participants. The data were collected from October to December 2015 in the Central Region of Portugal. The questionnaires were applied by direct interview after verbally informed consent only to participants aged 18 or over. Results: The results obtained showed that more than 90% of the participants liked yogurts and consumed yogurts regularly (∼73%), either in the solid or liquid forms. The participants consumed functional yogurts, specifically for regulation of intestinal transit (∼46%) and for weight control (∼44%). When asked about the new yogurts with functional and detox properties, the participants indicated that they might be potential consumers of yogurts with the ability to eliminate toxins from the body (∼69%). In spite of recognizing the importance of adding ingredients with certain functionalities, like parsley, watercress or celery, the consumers manifested some doubts that those ingredients might combine well in yogurts. A regression model was deduced relating the possible consumption of detox yogurts with some behavioural aspects like physical exercise, consumption of functional foods and detox products. Conclusion: This work showed that selling yogurts with detox properties might be a good strategy because there might be a market for that type of product. However, without trying the samples and verifying the real taste of the products, the possible consumers have some doubts about the incorporation of certain ingredients, even though recognizing their roles as important.