The Negative Impact of Food Neophobia on the People Ofchandigarh Tri-City, India

Abstract

Food Neophobia (FN) is related to individual’s fear to go for new variety of food. There may be multiple reasons for people to act as Food Neophobic and not trying something new such as ,taste, low level of knowledge etc.but it is found that Food Neophobia is directly related to low quality of diet.Social or demographical factors also plays a vital role in people liking or disliking towards food. Sometimes a bad experience also restrict people to try out new dishes. Because of all this factors generally individual restrict themselves to a particular type of food which leads to in some cases malnutrition.The aim of the study was to access the relationship between Food Neophobia with education and demographic factors in adults living in rural versus urban areas. The research carried out in Chandigarh Tri City,Punjab India.Data was collected from 441 respondents, out of which 246 respondents are females and 195 respondents were males from urban and rural classes. We found that Food Neophobia strongly influence the eating habits and directly responsible for lesser nutrition in individuals specially having high degree of Food Neophobia.