TY - JOUR
T1 - Older consumers' attitudes towards food carriers for protein-enrichment
AU - Song, Xiao
AU - Pérez-Cueto, Federico J. A.
AU - Bølling Laugesen, Susanne M.
AU - van der Zanden, Lotte D. T.
AU - Giacalone, Davide
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Understanding the demands of older consumers is of importance for successful development of functional foods targeted at this segment of the population. This study aimed to examine older adults' attitudes towards food carriers for protein enrichment. In total 182 consumers (mean age: 66.6 ± 6.9) participated in a survey designed to evaluate their willingness to try and purchase 16 target food carriers for protein enrichment. Food carriers were chosen to vary systematically on three fundamental dimensions: healthiness (healthy vs. unhealthy), novelty (traditional vs. novel), and types of meal (meal-component vs. snack). Results showed that among the carrier formats, older consumers were most willing to purchase and try healthy, traditional meal component foods enriched with protein. By segmenting older consumers using a latent class approach, an increase in purchase willingness of protein-enriched foods was found when protein-enriched foods were tailored to particular segments, suggesting that a segmentation-based approach to product development would be beneficial. Future studies may need to explore older consumers' actual purchase intention through the tasting of appealing protein-enriched foods in real life, which might help reduce older consumers’ skepticism towards protein-enriched foods.
AB - Understanding the demands of older consumers is of importance for successful development of functional foods targeted at this segment of the population. This study aimed to examine older adults' attitudes towards food carriers for protein enrichment. In total 182 consumers (mean age: 66.6 ± 6.9) participated in a survey designed to evaluate their willingness to try and purchase 16 target food carriers for protein enrichment. Food carriers were chosen to vary systematically on three fundamental dimensions: healthiness (healthy vs. unhealthy), novelty (traditional vs. novel), and types of meal (meal-component vs. snack). Results showed that among the carrier formats, older consumers were most willing to purchase and try healthy, traditional meal component foods enriched with protein. By segmenting older consumers using a latent class approach, an increase in purchase willingness of protein-enriched foods was found when protein-enriched foods were tailored to particular segments, suggesting that a segmentation-based approach to product development would be beneficial. Future studies may need to explore older consumers' actual purchase intention through the tasting of appealing protein-enriched foods in real life, which might help reduce older consumers’ skepticism towards protein-enriched foods.
KW - Attitudes
KW - Consumer segmentation
KW - Functional foods
KW - Older adults
KW - Protein enrichment
U2 - 10.1016/j.appet.2018.12.033
DO - 10.1016/j.appet.2018.12.033
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 30584897
AN - SCOPUS:85059371358
SN - 0195-6663
VL - 135
SP - 10
EP - 19
JO - Appetite
JF - Appetite
ER -