European Journal of Nutrition & Food Safety

Background: In recent years there has been a marked growth in the market of functional foods, promising consumers a wide range of benefits [1]. However research seeking to assess levels of consumer understanding has produced mixed results and is quickly outdated [2]. It is particularly important to assess understanding given recent European Union (EU) legislation governing product claims [3] and concerns that consumers can be misled by product marketing. Meanwhile research looking at consumer acceptance is not easily generalizable and limited good quality qualitative research exists. The study aims were to address these gaps by investigating levels of understanding and exploring issues affecting acceptance of functional foods among a group of consumers.
Methods: A focus group methodology was chosen to generate in depth qualitative data and a focus group was conducted with seven employees (aged 40-60, 3 male and 4 female) of a government office in London, recruited via a contact of the researcher. The group was moderated, recorded and transcribed in full by the researcher. Questions covered the group’s understanding of healthy eating and functional foods in general and then moved on to discussion of three specific functional products, selected because they were commonly found in supermarkets (identified from a prior survey). The group was asked whether they would buy them and what affected this decision. Thematic analysis was used to identify common themes and elements of discourse analysis were used to further explore opinions [4].
Results: Awareness of functional foods as a concept was low among the group but knowledge and practice of healthy eating was relatively high. The group understood the purpose of the cholesterol lowering product and the probiotic product but was less clear as to the purpose of omega 3 enriched eggs and found the concept novel and disturbing. Overall, acceptance was very low, regardless of interest in healthy eating or personal relevance due to health conditions. Reasons given could be grouped into themes including: scepticism or fear that the products would not work; were a marketing tool for food companies; were artificial and therefore not beneficial or even harmful; factors such as price, taste and personal habits being more important.
Discussion: Consumers have a relatively good understanding of functional food claims but are highly sceptical in their acceptance of them. The study should be expanded upon in order to assess the views of other groups and to further probe reasons for the scepticism expressed but findings did not dramatically differ to those of others, including Wills et al. [5], indicating the results should not be dismissed. Dietitians and public health nutritionists are well placed to dispel negativity and ensure consumers benefit from relevant products while avoiding those which are not relevant.
Conclusion: Participants had a good understanding of health messages and functional claims but were discouraged from purchasing functional products due to scepticism, fear and lack of trust in the food industry, factors which must be tackled in order to increase acceptance.