Acceptance Of Functional Foods Research Articles

Quantifying Consumers’ Acceptance of Functional Foods in Powdered Form: A Study of Olivetin

Quantifying Consumers’ Acceptance of Functional Foods in Powdered Form: A Study of Olivetin

The Impact of Socio-Demographic Profile and Product Identity on Functional Food Acceptance: A Review

There is a big demand for healthy food products by the consumer due to the increasing number of non-communicable diseases such as cancer, heart diseases, diabetes, etc. Those kinds of diseases are usually caused by bad nutrition habits. that’s why functional food products which consider healthy food became one of the main research interests in both the health and food industries. In this article, we reviewed secondary data collected from journals and other relevant literature trying to find the influencing factors in the acceptance of functional food based on product identity and consumer demographic. Our findings reveil that the functional food novel is still well-unknown in the market and among customers, that’s why the influencing factor of acceptance of functional food is still not well determined. In addition, the acceptance of functional food seems to be conditional on educational level, gender, price, ingredients, brand, test, and health information. Our recommendation is, that functional food developmental research and manufacturing companies’ research and development departments, as well as their marketing experts, dedicate their resources to developing and communicating to attract customers who have not yet accepted functional foods as a part of their daily diet.

Investigating the Effect of Consumers' Knowledge on Their Acceptance of Functional Foods: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Inconsistent results published in previous studies make it difficult to determine the precise effect of consumer knowledge on their acceptance of functional foods. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis by identifying and collecting relevant literature from three databases. Of the 1050 studies reviewed, we included 40 in the systematic review and 18 in the meta-analysis. Based on the focus of each included study, we operationally defined knowledge as knowledge of the functional food concept, nutritional-related knowledge, and knowledge of specific functional products. Results from the systematic review indicate that most participants from the included studies had low knowledge, especially nutrition-related knowledge associated with consuming functional foods, and were generally not familiar with the concept of functional foods. Results from the meta-analysis generated a summary effect size (r = 0.14, 95% CI [0.05; 0.23]), measured by the correlation coefficient r, which indicates a small positive relationship exists between consumers’ level of knowledge and their acceptance of functional foods. Results from our study demonstrate the importance of increasing consumers’ functional foods knowledge to improve their acceptance of such products. Agricultural and health communicators, educators, and functional foods industry professionals should prioritize increasing consumers’ knowledge through their communications, marketing, and programmatic efforts.

Consumer Acceptance toward Functional Foods: A Scoping Review.

Chronic diseases (e.g., heart disease, cancer, diabetes) are of major public concern. Such chronic diseases are often caused by a dietary pattern characterized as relatively high in fat, refined sugar, salt, and cholesterol. Societal interest in consuming healthy foods and the demand for healthy food products have increased significantly. As a result, functional foods have gained significant research attention in the food health and technology innovations field. To date, many studies have investigated the factors that may predict consumer acceptance of functional foods, and a wide range of influential factors have been reported. However, studies conducted in different contexts pose challenges to gaining a clear understanding of the factors influencing consumer acceptance. Therefore, the purpose of our scoping review was to synthesize the possible determinants of consumer acceptance toward functional foods and provide a resource that describes global trends regarding consumers’ functional foods behavior. We identified 75 articles published with varying populations around the globe that empirically investigated consumers’ acceptance of functional foods. We identified and categorized a wide range of determinants related to consumer acceptance of different types of functional foods. The five categories of determinants were product characteristics, socio-demographic characteristics, psychological characteristics, behavioral characteristics, and physical characteristics. Each of the determinants were more fully described by sub-determinants in our scoping review. These determinants should be considered and used by leaders and scientists in product development to aid decision making and, ultimately, the successful launch of novel functional foods.

Making context matter: unraveling functional foods’ constructions by Tunisian consumers

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the socio-cultural meanings of functional foods for Tunisian consumers and to understand how these meanings shape their preferences and practices in the particular context of a Middle-East and North African (MENA) region.Design/methodology/approachA constructivist perspective based on multi-qualitative methods was designed allowing data collection in a natural setting through focus groups interviews, individual in-depth interviews and projective techniques among Tunisian consumers.FindingsFindings show the complexity and importance of conscious and unconscious non-health-related socio-cultural factors in the construction and acceptance of functional foods by the Tunisian consumer. Common sense knowledge, social environment and tradition shape the constructions and practices of functional foods. These factors may act as a shortcut to compensate for unhealthy behaviour and as a social marker to reflect trendiness and identity.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are specific to the Tunisian setting and may be not transferable to other settings.Practical implicationsThe role of information is central in functional food acceptance. Communication on health effects should consider not only the formal nutritional health benefit but also lay knowledge.Social implicationsThe findings of this research contribute in the government’s understanding of Tunisian’s constructions of health and well-being by suggesting that besides health motives, non-health-related factors such as lay knowledge, social influences and conspicuous consumption play an important role in functional foods choice.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to extend functional foods literature by exploring the complex interconnected conscious and unconscious socio-cultural constructions behind functional food choice. It contributes also to the understanding of the food consumer behaviour in the specific cultural context of the Arab-Muslim MENA region, an under investigated setting.

Choosing Suitable Food Vehicles for Functional Food Products

Globally, there is a growing demand for functional foods that provide health benefits without changing current dietary habits. However, the world is made up of diverse societies that consist of a wide range of individuals from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds associated with different food choices and preferences. Functional foods resemble traditional foods but have been designed and tailored to confer physiological and health benefits that go beyond their nutritional function. Of the seven-step cycle involved in functional food production, choosing a suitable food vehicle as a carrier of the bioactive components is essential. Therefore, this review explored the importance of food vehicles and how they can influence the acceptance of functional foods. Relevant scientific literature was electronically sourced from Google Scholar, Google, PubMed, databases of the Journals of Functional Foods in Health and Disease (JFFHD) and Bioactive Compounds in Health and Disease (BCHD) based on their mention or discussion of food choice and preference and food vehicles for food fortification or functional food production. These studies revealed that although functional foods are found virtually in all food categories, they are not homogeneously scattered over all segments of the growing market. Consumer demands and acceptance in terms of consumption patterns, ethnicity, culture, religion, and allergy, amongst others, need to be taken into consideration when choosing appropriate vehicles for functional food development.Keywords: food vehicles, functional foods, food fortification, food choice, food preference, fortification, phytonutrients, bioactive compounds

Functional Meat Products: The New Consumer's Demand

In recent years, special attention of consumers to health and nutrition has led to the development of “functional foods” which is a new approach to accomplish a healthier status, therefore, reducing the risk of diseases. Changing consumer demand has influenced meat products as an important functional food. Several approaches have been proposed to produce functional meat products through reduce/deletion of some component such as fat and sodium or adding a component such as probiotics or fortification. Manufacturing low-fat meat products is achievable through replacement of fat with carbohydrate or protein-based replacers, water and vegetable oils. It is also possible to reduce sodium chloride in meat products by reducing the size of crystals and full or partial replacement of sodium chloride with other chloride salts. Among various strains of probiotic to incorporate in meat products, spore former probiotics such as Bacillus spp. is the most reasonable choice due to their stability during processing. Despite the desirable elevation of the nutritional value of food, it should be taken into consideration that manipulation of the formulation can cause many technological difficulties or/and may negatively impact sensory properties of food due to unacceptable and undesirable changes. The empiric evidences represented that taste, as a major factor in sensory features, is dramatically fundamental for functional food acceptance by consumers. In this review, the major aspects that should be considered in the context to retain sensory and textural attributes of meat-based functional foods are discussed.

Who Chooses Functional Food?: Socio-Demographic Effects and Food Category Difference Estimated from Scanner-Panel Data

Functional foods have continuously spread in many countries. Japan is one of the largest functional food market in the world and the government approves them by scientific evidences. The country has managed functional food policies for around 30 years so that consumers in Japan are familiar with them. However, there is no research about the functional products in Japan using real purchasing log data from both marketing and policy viewpoints. This study is the first to reveal socio-demographic effects when consumers purchase functional foodstuff with a large amount of purchasing log data covering many different food categories. In addition, the differences among carriers were found and cluster analysis was conducted to clarify their differences. While previous studies using questionnaire-survey data report that socio- demographic characteristics have only minor impact on the acceptance of functional foods, it is found that socio-demographic factors affect the purchase of functional products in a real market environment. These results are useful and practical in consumer marketing and policy discussions.

Cooperation between Lactococcus lactis NRRL B-50571 and NRRL B-50572 for Aroma Formation in Fermented Milk.

The aim of the present study was to characterize the aroma and volatile profiles of milk fermented by wild Lactococcus lactis NRRL B-50571 (FM-571) and NRRL B-50572 (FM-572) and co-fermented with both strains (co-FM). Milks fermented by these strains have been reported to have an antihypertensive effect, yet their sensory characteristics, which are of great importance for consumer acceptance of functional foods, have not been studied. In the study, volatiles were determined using solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS) and aroma was determined by quantitative descriptive sensory analysis (QDA). Volatile compounds identified in FM-571, FM-572, and co-FM were mainly acids, alcohols, aldehydes, and ketones. FM-571 showed higher total relative volatile abundance than FM-572 or co-FM. Furthermore, the concentrations of specific amino acids (aa) were lower in FM-571 and co-FM than in FM-572. Thus, these results suggested that FM-571 or co-FM are more efficient in transforming specific aa into the corresponding volatiles than FM-572. Indeed, several alcohols and aldehydes, associated with the catabolism of these aa, were found in FM-571 and co-FM, but not in FM-572. Additionally, QDA showed that FM-571 and co-FM presented higher yeasty and cheesy aroma descriptors than FM-572. Also, total aroma intensity scores for FM-571 were higher than those for co-FM or FM-572. Thus, results suggested that the combination of these two specific wild L. lactis strains may complement amino acid catabolic routes that resulted in the enhancement or attenuation of aroma production of single strains, presenting new possibilities for the preparation of custom-made starter cultures.

Perceived Correspondence of Health Effects as a New Determinant Influencing Purchase Intention for Functional Food.

This study has revealed the role of a new factor, perceived correspondence of health effects, in consumer acceptance of functional foods. Using a web survey of 1016 people, we hypothesized and verified the following: when an ingredient does not occur naturally in the carrier but the consumer assigns the same health effect to it as to the carrier, the product’s acceptance will be more positive than it would be if an identical health effect was not associated with the carrier and the functional ingredient. Factors influencing consumer acceptance were examined via binary logistic regression models. According to the results, if a functional food developer fortifies the carrier with an ingredient that does not occur naturally in the carrier, the product can expect higher acceptance if the health effects perceived by consumers are properly matched. In general, it has been found that expected taste and awareness of the product were decisive in all demographic and income groups, whereas perceived correspondence of health effects had a lesser, but still positive influence on acceptance.

Consumer knowledge and attitudes toward functional foods in Lebanon

PurposeThe development and commerce of functional foods (FF) is complex, expensive and risky. Besides technological obstacles and legislative aspects, consumer demands also need to be considered. The purpose of this study is to assess the Lebanese consumer’s knowledge, attitudes and acceptance of FF and functional ingredients.Design/methodology/approachA cross-sectional study recruited a convenience sample of adults living in Mount Lebanon in 2015. An interviewer-based questionnaire assessed socio-demographic factors, medical status, consumption and knowledge of FF and FI ingredients. The data were analyzed using statistical package for social sciences.FindingsOut of 251 respondents, 40.6 and 32.0 per cent were knowledgeable about FF and FI, respectively, and 67.3 per cent consumed them. Calcium (48.0 per cent) and omega-3 (38.6 per cent) were identified as the most important FI. The consumption of FF was mainly owing to their nutritional benefits beyond basic nutrition (44.2 per cent); however, fearing artificial additives and their side effects (33.4 per cent) were reasons for rejecting them. FF knowledge was higher among young (p = 0.005) and single individuals (p = 0.002) and those going to the gym (p = 0.001), whereas willingness to learn about them was only associated with higher education (p < 0.001). Prebiotic yogurt consumption was higher among gym visitors (p = 0.017) and knowers of FF (p < 0.001). The consumption of protein bars and shakes was higher among males and those going to the gym (p < 0.001). The consumption of cereal bars was higher among young individuals, single, with high income, going to the gym and knowledgeable about FF (p < 0.05).Originality/valueThe findings are useful for market orientation, development and successfully negotiating new market opportunities of FF for both food industries and policymakers.

Consumer’s Attitude Regarding Soluble Coffee Enriched with Antioxidants

Brazil is the second largest coffee consumer in the world. The development of new products related to healthy eating is one of the demands to maintain this scenario. This research aimed to investigate the role of socio-demographic, cognitive and behavioral characteristics on the acceptance of functional foods by coffee consumers. A questionnaire developed and applied in Belgium was previously translated and validated for application with Brazilian consumers. The habits of coffee consumption, knowledge and interest were investigated regarding functional soluble coffee enriched with antioxidants. The self-administered study was performed with 270 consumers. Acceptance was measured by two items: “Functional foods are all right for me as long as they taste good” and “Functional foods are all right for me even if they taste worse than their conventional counterpart foods”, obtaining a mean score of 4.03 and 2.79 (scale 1: totally disagree and 5: totally agree), respectively. The acceptance of functional foods increased with age, schooling, income, belief in the health benefits and knowledge about functional foods for both items. There was no significant correlation between price and acceptance. With regards to a functional soluble coffee product, the sensory quality was more determinant for its acceptance than price.

Probiotics: A Way of Value Addition in Functional Food

An intense acceptance of functional foods due to consumer’s demand, social attitudes, scientific evidence of the human health benefits of a particular ingredient coupled with commercially driven interest to add value to existing foods have projected probiotics as a new way in the current era of self-care and complementary medicine. Diverse functional properties of probiotics led their incorporation into conventional, dietary supplements and medicinal foods and must be ingested in sufficient quantities to exert health benefits but are often present at lower levels as per the label claims. Worldwide regulations related to probiotics are incoherent and adoption of assay techniques are inconsistent, therefore establishment and reinforcement of a quality assurance program to ensure “Standard of Identity” for adopting the label “Probiotic” is emerging. *Corresponding Author: S. Sarkar Department of Quality Assurance Metro Dairy Limited Barrackpore-Barasat Link Road Subhasnagar, P.O. Neelgunj BazarKolkata-700121, West Bengal, India. E-mail: drsurajitsarkar@yahoo.co.in Received: February 26, 2016 Accepted: April 20, 2016 Published: April 25, 2016 Citation: S. Sarkar, et al. (2016) Probiotics: A Way of Value Addition in Functional Food. Int J Food Sci Nutr Diet. 5(4), 290-293. Copyright: S. Sarkar*© 2016. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. International Journal of Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics (IJFS) ISSN:2326-3350

The consumer perspective in functional foods research - a categorization scheme regarding consumer and market determinants of functional food acceptance.

Abstract Functional foods are still of increasing interest among the scientific community. Based on the extensive literature about functional foods, four main research areas can be identified: functional food innovation (1); the scientific background of the health benefits of functional foods (2); the regulation of functional foods (3); and consumer acceptance of functional foods (4). These research areas are not detached from each other, and each presents a consumer perspective. Although multifaceted studies focus on consumer acceptance of functional foods, literature regarding a structured framework of the determinants of functional food acceptance is limited. The aim of this review is to provide the reader with an overview of the recent literature on consumer attitudes towards functional foods and with an extensive structured framework of the determinants of functional food acceptance and their intertwined relationships. The scientific literature discusses a plethora of determinants of consumer acceptance of functional foods. These determinants can be categorized into consumer and market attributes, which show interwoven relationships with each other. On the one hand, consumer attributes are widely discussed in the literature, while on the other hand structured analyses of the market perspective are inadequately represented. Additionally, the ongoing development of new scientific findings regarding health benefits of different functional ingredients leads to a large amount of new functional food products in the market. Consequently, the research area of functional foods and in particular consumer acceptance of functional food innovation will remain an important research field in the coming years.

Consumer Acceptance of Functional Foods in Ho Chi Minh City

The aim of this paper is to identify and evaluate the underlying factors affecting consumer acceptance of functional foods. The contribution of this study is to better understand customer willingness to buy such products in Ho Chi Minh City by shedding light on how socio-demographic, cognitive and attitudinal determinants affect consumer's choices of foods. We conducted a survey using 217 respondents from Ho Chi Minh City. Next, we develop a binary-probit model to quantify the impact of each factor on consumer acceptance. The results show that having a sick relative, beliefs in health benefits positively affect acceptance level. Other than that, old people in Ho Chi Minh City tend to reject the use of functional foods. However, when they are provided with enough knowledge, they are the most intensive buyers of these products. Implications and further researches are also discussed.

The effect of perceived carrier-ingredient fit on purchase intention of functional food moderated by nutrition knowledge and health claim

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how the purchase intention of functional food is influenced by the perception of carrier-ingredient fit, that is, to what extent the carrier product and functional ingredient are intuitively perceived to be matched, and how such influence is moderated by consumers’ prior nutrition knowledge and provided health claim. Design/methodology/approach – Through two phases of experimental studies on 30 hypothetical functional foods, this paper analyzed the relationship between perceived carrier-ingredient fit and purchase intention which were reported by participants with different nutrition knowledge levels and in conditions that differed in the content of health claim. Findings – Phase 1 (n=62) found that the positive influence of perceived fit on purchase intention of functional products was moderated by one’s prior nutrition knowledge; compared to those knowledgeable in food/nutrition fields, consumers with less knowledge relied more heavily on the perceived carrier-ingredient fit when making purchase decision. The results of study 2 Phase 2 (n=93) revealed that the perceived fit was more important to predict purchase intention in the condition without health claim. A further analysis revealed that health claim increased the purchase intention particularly for functional foods receiving poor perceived carrier-ingredient fit. Practical implications – For innovative functional foods, the product development and market penetration may be benefit from fine-grained segmentation and positioning strategies that are based on the understanding of interaction between intuitive perception and cognitive knowledge. Originality/value – The present work highlights consumers’ perception of the carrier-perception fit, interacting with nutrition knowledge and health claim, as a critical factor determining the acceptance of functional foods.

Worlds apart. Consumer acceptance of functional foods and beverages in Germany and China

This study examined consumers' willingness to buy functional foods. Data were collected from an Internet survey in Germany (n = 502) and China (n = 443). The results showed that consumers in China were much more willing to buy functional foods, compared with their German counterparts. A substantial segment of the German consumers indicated lower willingness to buy functional foods, compared with the same foods without additional health benefits. The findings further showed that in both countries, the participants with higher health motivation and more trust in the food industry reported higher willingness to buy functional foods than the participants with lower health motivation and less trust in the industry. Food neophobia had a negative impact on acceptance of functional foods in the Chinese sample. No such association was observed for the German sample. The results suggest that cultural factors play a significant role in the acceptance of functional foods; therefore, caution should be exercised in generalizing research findings from Western countries to others.

Functional food awareness and perceptions in relation to information sources in older adults.

BackgroundThe functional food industry has experienced innovative and economic expansion, yet research into consumer perceptions of functional foods and their associated health claims is limited. Among consumers, older adults could benefit from functional foods due to age-related issues pertaining to food and health. The purpose of this research was to identify the need for information related to functional foods among older adults (≥60 years old) and to assess awareness and perceptions of health claims on functional food packages.MethodsCommunity-dwelling older adults (n = 200) completed a researcher administered questionnaire designed to collect information about functional foods including current consumption, motivating factors for consumption, perceived need for information, sources of information for functional foods and awareness of health claims.ResultsPrevalence of functional food consumption among participants was 93.0%. Increased awareness and knowledge was the most commonly reported factor that would promote functional food consumption (85.5%) and 63.5% of participants wanted more information about functional foods with preferred sources being newspapers/magazines/books (68.5%) and food labels (66.1%). Participants were predominately (93.5%) aware of health claims on functional foods and those with more education were more likely to report being aware of health claims (p = 0.045).ConclusionsAlthough functional food consumption among older adults in this sample is high, there is a need for further information regarding functional foods. These results inform stakeholders regarding the potential for information to influence functional food acceptance among older adult consumers.

Agri‐food Innovation and the Functional Food Market in Europe: Concerns and Challenges

summaryAgri‐food Innovation and the Functional Food Market in Europe: Concerns and ChallengesEurope has recently experienced an increase in several chronic diseases linked to dietary and lifestyle habits. As a result, enormous progress has been made to establish the scientific basis for food developments in the areas of health, nutrition and processing. The food industry has rapidly reacted to this trend by developing a growing variety of new products with health‐related claims and images, including functional foods that are selected by consumers for their health‐promoting properties. The European markets for functional foods are less developed in general than those in North America and Japan. This has often been ascribed to an inconsistent legislation and there is a broad consensus that there is a need for a regulatory framework in the European Union to protect consumers, promote fair trade, and encourage product innovation in the food industry. This article reviews the regulatory aspects of functional foods in Europe and offers an overview of the current market situation. Moreover, the main cognitive, motivational and attitudinal determinants of consumer acceptance of functional foods in different European countries are discussed, providing several practical insights. The insights presented could help practitioners make more effective strategic and tactical marketing decisions.

An Insight of the Mauritian Consumers′Awareness, Perceptions and Expectations of Functional Foods

During the past few decades, consumers have switched from an emphasis on satisfying hunger to an emphasis on the promising use of foods to promote well-being and to help reduce the risk of disease. This is particularly the case for the island of Mauritius where a variety of functional food products with different health claims have been observed in major supermarkets around the country. Since acceptance of functional foods depends largely on the awareness and perceptions of Mauritians regarding these foods, consumer research on functional foods remains vital. This study investigated the level of awareness and knowledge of Mauritian adults concerning functional foods and their purported health benefits. In addition, the perceptions of respondents towards health-enhancing foods and their willingness to try functional foods were also studied. Information pertaining to knowledge, awareness, perceptions and interest regarding functional foods as well as so-cio-demographic characteristics were collected from a representative random sample of 384 Mauritian adults aged above 18 years. The survey was conducted in 8 supermarkets and shopping centres of Mauritius. The data indicated that though 85.5% of participants were aware of foods which may help in preventing certain diseases, only 13.8% of the sample population was familiar with the term ‘functional foods’. Pearson Chi-Square test indicated that awareness of functional foods was dependent on gender (p<0.05), age (p<0.01), level of education (p<0.01), monthly household income (p<0.01) and health status of respondent (p<0.01). Besides, perceptions of respondents towards health-enhancing foods were relatively positive and 84.6% of them were willing to try functional foods in the future. The results indicated a relatively low level of awareness and knowledge concerning functional foods in Mauritius but also noted an interest of the consumers for these products.