Investigating consumer knowledge and behaviour in the context of functional foods

The future of functional foods will depend on the extent to which they are accepted by consumers. Results are presented from a questionnaire that investigated consumers’ self-reported knowledge, behavioural intentions and purchasing behaviour regarding functional foods. Findings are that two thirds of UK respondents, just less than half of Danish respondents, almost two thirds of Spanish respondents, and 88% of Polish respondents say they buy one or two functional food items per week. Between 30-55% of respondents say they understand functional foods reasonably well (UK 55%; Denmark 30%; Spain 43%; Poland 49%). A number of factors were related to respondents’ stated intention to purchase probiotics. If someone in the household had suffered food poisoning in the previous 12 months or had children living at home, respondents were more likely to consider buying functional foods to help reduce the risk of food poisoning. Respondents who have never had any formal food safety training were more likely to consider buying functional foods. Further, knowledge of the correct food sources for a number of foodborne pathogens also affected the likelihood of respondents considering buying probiotic functional foods. The findings provide up-to-date information about consumers and the developing functional foods market.Consumers, knowledge, behaviour, functional foods, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

System Dynamic Approach to Assessing New Product Introduction: The Case of Functional Foods in the United States

Health care costs particularly those associated with chronic health conditions such as cancer have been significantly increasing for both individuals and governments in the past decades, prompting the demand for preventative medical initiatives, such as functional food, and spawning a new industry in the food sector functional food industry. This article conducts a feasibility study for a firm entering the functional food industry with a specific product, Avert®, CLA-enhanced cheese. It also assesses alternative market conditions under which the firm will be successful. A system dynamics framework is used for the analyses. The results show that a firm can be profitable in the functional food industry provided that it satisfies certain pricing and target market conditions. The results indicate that the extent to which the market differentiates Avert® from commodity cheese, and hence the premium it pays, is a critical success factor for the firm introducing the product.Agribusiness,

Much Ado about Nothing?- The Influence of Functional Food on Profitability of German Food Industry.

Product innovation is a competitive strategy in food industry. Successful product development management is a key determinant of a firm?s performance. In recent years functional foods, which are innovative food products that provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition, have become increasingly important in Germany. Using the structure-conductperformance approach it can be argued that product innovation raises barriers to entry and thus improve profitability. This study examines the effect of functional food innovative activity (compared to overall innovative activity) on the profitability of 23 German food industry sectors from 1995 to 1999. Panel data analysis also includes concentration, firm size, market size and growth, advertising expenditure and capital intensity. While a positive relationship between product introduction and profitability was hypothesized, it is not supported by data. --product innovation,functional food,market structure,profitability,structureconduct-performance approach,food industry,panel data analysis

Assessing the Demand for a Functional Food Product: Is There Cannibalization in the Orange Juice Category?

The demand for functional foods has increased notably in recent years due to growing consumer interest in diet and health issues. Currently, the food industry is introducing many types of new food products with functional attributes. Consequently, cannibalization is a critical issue for firms that offer multiple products within a certain product category. The identification and assessment of cannibalization are integral factors when making strategic decisions about new product introductions. Using scanner data from Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), pertaining to a particular functional food, namely a phytosterol-enriched product for orange juice, we find that no cannibalization effects exist with respect to its introduction. We also provide estimates of own-price and cross-price elasticities of the orange juice category using a synthetic demand system.functional foods, phytosterols, orange juice industry, cannibalization, synthetic demand system, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Marketing,

The acceptance of functional foods in Denmark, Finland and the United States: A study of consumers' conjoint evaluations of the qualities of functional foods and perceptions of general health factors and cultural values.

Functional foods is a relatively new concept covering food products enriched with various kinds of (natural) substances (eg vitamins, minerals or probiotic cultures) or modified so as to provide consumers with an additional physiological benefit presumed to prevent disease or promote health, without them having to change their eating habits fundamentally. 2. Health is one of the most important choice criteria, when consumers purchase food products. The fact that most health consequences of food are long term and therefore inaccessible at the time of purchase, the evaluation has to be based on nutritional information, eg health claims and other more accessible food qualities, eg taste, appearance, and processing method (when disclosed) which consumers may associate with health in one way or another. Consumers’ acceptance of functional foods therefore depends on the health information available as well as on their associations between wholesomeness and other qualities of functional foods. 3. Experience with functional foods introduced so far has disclosed national differences when it comes to consumer acceptance. One explanation may be that legislation on health claims varies across countries; another explanation may be differences in cultural values, which possibly lead to different associations between wholesomeness and other quality aspects, such as taste, convenience and method of processing. 4. Using conjoint analysis and survey questions (n=1500), the aim of the study presented in this paper is to investigate whether there are differences in the acceptance of functional foods in Denmark, Finland and the United States, and to which extent they are related to differences in consumers’ nutritional knowledge, health associations and cultural values. The general results of the study indicate that Finnish consumers accept functional foods more readily than do American and Danish consumers. In all three countries, however, the results also indicate that consumers are more positive towards enrichments with well-known nutritional effects and that the use of health claims, which are restricted by law in all three countries, has a potential, positive effect on the acceptance of functional foods.Consumer behaviour; evaluations; functional food; health factors; cultural values

Revisiting Barriers to Trade: Do Foregone Health Benefits Matter?

This paper examins the question of revisiting the imposition of existing trade barriers in one case of an evolving marketplace – when a traditional food product is altered to provide, or discovered to have, human health benefits that increases their value to consumers. In other words, the food becomes a functional food. A functional food has the potential provide direct benefits to consumers as well as indirect benefits to society in the form of health care cost savings. If the trade barrier was put in place prior to these direct and indirect benefits of the food becoming apparent, then they would not have been considered when the decision to impose the trade barrier was taken. In these circumstances, policy makers may wish to revisit a decision to impose a trade barrier.trade health, Agricultural and Food Policy, Health Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade,

Functional food consumption in Germany: A lifestyle segmentation study

Due to increasing health consciousness among consumers, there is an ever‐growing demand for food and beverages with health‐improving components. Not only ‘light’ and low fat products are in demand, but increasingly so‐called well‐being products and food which can prevent certain diseases. The German market for functional food is still growing. But who are the German functional food consumers? In an online‐survey referring to the Food‐ Related Lifestyle by BRUNSØ and GRUNERT (1995) we tried to identify different groups of functional food buyers in Germany and to answer the following questions: If there are different consumer groups, how do they vary in their functional food consumption, their buying motives for functional food and their lifestyles? In conclusion, we have identified two different groups of functional food consumers in Germany: The “Health oriented functional food buyers” and the “Convenient functional food buyers” and give recommendations for marketing strategies. --functional food, cluster analysis, Food-Related Lifestyle

On the methodology of feeding ecology in fish

Feeding ecology explains predator’s preference to some preys over others in their habitat and their competitions thereof. The subject, as a functional and applied biology, is highly neglected, and in case of fish, a uniform and consistent methodology is absent. The currently practiced methods are largely centred on mathematical indices and highly erroneous because of non-uniform outcomes. Therefore, it requires a relook into the subject to elucidate functional contributions and to make it more comparable and comprehensive science. In this article, approachable methodological strategies have been forwarded in three hierarchical steps, namely, food occurrence, feeding biology and interpretative ecology. All these steps involve wide ranges of techniques, within the scope of ecology but not limited to, and traverse from narrative to functional evolutionary ecology. The first step is an assumption-observation practice to assess food of fish, followed by feeding biology that links morphological, histological, cytological, bacteriological or enzymological correlations to preferred food in the environment. Interpretative ecology is the higher level of analysis in which the outcomes are tested and discussed against evolutionary theories. A description of possible pedagogics on the methods of feeding ecological studies has also been forwarded

Biotechnological applications of functional metagenomics in the food and pharmaceutical industries

peer-reviewedMicroorganisms are found throughout nature, thriving in a vast range of environmental conditions. The majority of them are unculturable or difficult to culture by traditional methods. Metagenomics enables the study of all microorganisms, regardless of whether they can be cultured or not, through the analysis of genomic data obtained directly from an environmental sample, providing knowledge of the species present, and allowing the extraction of information regarding the functionality of microbial communities in their natural habitat. Function-based screenings, following the cloning and expression of metagenomic DNA in a heterologous host, can be applied to the discovery of novel proteins of industrial interest encoded by the genes of previously inaccessible microorganisms. Functional metagenomics has considerable potential in the food and pharmaceutical industries, where it can, for instance, aid (i) the identification of enzymes with desirable technological properties, capable of catalyzing novel reactions or replacing existing chemically synthesized catalysts which may be difficult or expensive to produce, and able to work under a wide range of environmental conditions encountered in food and pharmaceutical processing cycles including extreme conditions of temperature, pH, osmolarity, etc; (ii) the discovery of novel bioactives including antimicrobials active against microorganisms of concern both in food and medical settings; (iii) the investigation of industrial and societal issues such as antibiotic resistance development. This review article summarizes the state-of-the-art functional metagenomic methods available and discusses the potential of functional metagenomic approaches to mine as yet unexplored environments to discover novel genes with biotechnological application in the food and pharmaceutical industries.Science Foundation Ireland(SFI)Grant Number 13/SIRG/215