engleski

Changes of young consumers’ perception regarding functional food – case of Croatia

Consumers have developed an interest in the type and the quality of food they eat and the benefits they gain by consuming it. Croatian consumers’ perception of functional food regarding geographical region was not yet investigated and this was reason for defining the objectives of the research. Questionnaire based survey was conducted on a sample with participants aged 18 to 22 (N = 250) during two periods (year 2008 and 2013). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics as analysis of variance and multivariate analysis as exploratory factor analysis, cluster analysis and principal component analysis. The results indicated that young consumers are relatively familiar with the term “functional food”. The most important findings of the study are the significant differences between two subsets of respondents (those interviewed during 2008 and 2013) in their perception of “healthiness” of functional foods. Results indicate a need for the development of consumers’ confidence and need to focus mainly on educating consumers in label comprehension, especially when it comes to the information that deals with the health attributes of food. Extracted were the most important features and definitions of healthiness of functional food and the health motivation seems to have the highest relevance to explain consumer food choices.

Functional food; Young consumer; Perception; Attitude

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