The perceived healthiness of functional foods: A conjoint study of Danish, Finnish and American consumers' perception of functional foods

Functional foods presumably enable the consumer to lead a healthier life without changing eating habits. Whether consumers accept this proposition or not is potentially influenced by their perceptions of the healthiness of the processing methods, enrichment components, food-types, and health claims...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Appetite 2003-02, Vol.40 (1), p.9-14
Main Authors: Bech-Larsen, Tino, Grunert, Klaus G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Base-products
Biological and medical sciences
consumer acceptance
Consumer Behavior
Cross-Cultural Comparison
cultural values
Denmark
eating habits
economics
Finland
Food Technology
Food Technology - economics
Food, Fortified
Food, Genetically Modified
Food, Organic
Functional foods
Harmony
health claims
Health Food
Humans
Mastery
Medical sciences
Miscellaneous
Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
Perception
processing technology
Public Health
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
United States
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Summary:Functional foods presumably enable the consumer to lead a healthier life without changing eating habits. Whether consumers accept this proposition or not is potentially influenced by their perceptions of the healthiness of the processing methods, enrichment components, food-types, and health claims used in the production and marketing of functional foods. Because consumers may perceive functional enrichment as interfering with nature, cultural values pertaining to man's manipulation of nature may also influence consumer acceptance of functional foods. The purpose of the study described here is to clarify to which extent Danish, Finnish and American consumers' perceptions of the healthiness of functional foods are explained by the factors mentioned above. The general results indicate that values pertaining to man's manipulation of nature is only modestly related to the acceptance of functional foods, whereas the use of different health claims, processing methods, enrichments, product types, and especially the interactions between the two latter, are important determinants of consumers' perceptions of the healthiness of functional foods.
ISSN:0195-6663
1095-8304
DOI:10.1016/S0195-6663(02)00171-X