Abstract
Background:Health can be a key factor in the choice of foods. Aligned with health trend, literature concerning the snack bars shows that improvements have been made in the snack foods’ nutritional values by modifying their nutritive composition, making them healthy, natural and safe.Scope and Approach:This pilot study aimed to discuss the trends for snack bars in Brazil, focusing on the insights to improve this food category’s competitiveness.Methods:A self-administered survey was made on different days and times, in the city of Viçosa, Brazil, during the winter of 2016, to assess how 408 consumers perceive snack bars and from this perspective link industry, consumers and other stakeholders, considering their attitudes and health perceptions on these foods.Conclusion:Consumers consider the body concern, health benefits, health concerns, convenience and habits to guide their purchase decisions. Cereal and fruit bars were mentioned as the most consumed, while nut and protein bars should be more affordable, maintaining prices that are more attractive for all. Overall, the results showed that more information on sensory aspects, health and ingredient content leads to higher purchase intentions. However, consumers also demand larger portion size and lower price. The expected results corroborated world consumer trends, proposing more healthy, diverse and accessible snack bars to low-income people. It would be interesting to provide older consumers with the background knowledge needed in order to choose healthier varieties of these foods.
Highlights
The role of the stakeholders who aim to promote health consists to gather the socio-cultural and historical contexts, to know the emerging technologies and their applications and to understand people’s attitudes and acceptance of, mitigating negative consequences of food choice and promoting the successful implementation and commercialization of food [1, 2].There is no consensus among researchers about the factors and motivations that determine the choice of snack bars, but it is known that there is a set of health and non-health factors related to the purchase intention
The results showed that more information on sensory aspects, health and ingredient content leads to higher purchase intentions
After accounting for answers related to the most consumed types of snack bar and the reasons for their consumption, ten main descriptive associations were identified with the seven types of bars established by the researcher: A greater quantity or variety of nutrients Healthier To ally to physical exercise Medical recommendation/nutritionist or diet More affordable price Good to the intestine Loss or maintenance of weight High fiber content Less amount of calories High protein content
Summary
The role of the stakeholders who aim to promote health consists to gather the socio-cultural and historical contexts, to know the emerging technologies and their applications and to understand people’s attitudes and acceptance of, mitigating negative consequences of food choice and promoting the successful implementation and commercialization of food [1, 2].There is no consensus among researchers about the factors and motivations that determine the choice of snack bars, but it is known that there is a set of health and non-health factors related to the purchase intention. From 2013 to 2014, the average growth of the category of cereal bars in Brazil was 7.5% in volume [10]. The segment of healthy foods grew 98% over the last five years in Brazil, surpassing the United Kingdom and Germany, making Brazil the fourth largest market for healthy products since the year of 2014 [12]. Health can be a key factor in the choice of foods. Literature concerning the snack bars shows that improvements have been made in the snack foods’ nutritional values by modifying their nutritive composition, making them healthy, natural and safe. Scope and Approach: This pilot study aimed to discuss the trends for snack bars in Brazil, focusing on the insights to improve this food category’s competitiveness
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