Abstract
Due to the shift in consumer behaviour, the proportion of well informed, conscious consumers has been growing steadily, and functional foods with their capacity to protect health have been gaining more and more ground. To achieve market success in the field of functional foods, producers should be able to communicate information effectively concerning health issues and their newly developed product should indeed meet consumer expectations. The aim of our study was to identify and define the components of the dimensions of consumer attitudes in Hungary together with the barriers and motivators of health behaviour. Our research also examined how these factors influence consumer willingness to consume functional foods. Our surveys were carried out in focus groups of health-conscious (n=8) and not health-conscious (n=8) consumers. Our findings confirmed the adequacy of the international dual model, regarding the attitudes of Hungarian consumers towards functional food. Moreover, we also explored the most popular health food categories and sources of information on nutrition.
Highlights
Due to the shift in consumer behaviour, the proportion of well informed, conscious consumers has been growing steadily, and functional foods with their capacity to protect health have been gaining more and more ground
The main objective of our study was to adapt this complex attitude and health motivational model to Hungarian consumers by conducting focus group surveys, which can provide the basis for the better understanding of motivators and barriers of health behaviour and for exploring consumer attitudes towards functional foods
(2007), and the structure was as follows: (1) Association game; (2) Functional product categories – frequency of consumption; (3) Exploring sources of information related to nutrition; (4) Identifying the components of the Downes – Urala & Lähteenmäki dual model, namely what relationship exists between the attitudes towards functional foods and the barriers and motivators of health behaviour, and (5) Preparing the hierarchical value map of functional foods
Summary
Due to the shift in consumer behaviour, the proportion of well informed, conscious consumers has been growing steadily, and functional foods with their capacity to protect health have been gaining more and more ground. To achieve market success in the field of functional foods, producers should be able to communicate information effectively concerning health issues and their newly developed product should meet consumer expectations. The role of disease prevention has become of strategic importance and an increasingly wider scale of consumer groups has realised that proper nutrition can beneficially influence their quality of life This new trend presents new challenges to the food industry: companies have to develop and market food products which due to their health preservation values are able to prevent the spread of civilization diseases. Based on the internationally accepted definition, foods can be regarded as functional if they can be satisfactorily demonstrated to affect beneficially one or more target functions in the body, beyond adequate nutritional effects, in a way relevant to an improved state of health and well-being and/or reduction of risk of disease Functional foods are divided by the European Commission into the following groups: (I) natural food such as fruit or grain, which may or may not be modified by plant breeding or other technologies; (II) food to which a component was added; (III) food from which a component was removed or reduced; (IV) food in which one or more components were modified, replaced, or enhanced to improve its health properties
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