Functional foods: Behavior of Chilean consumer

Abstract

It is relevant for the industry to know the consumer's attitude about functional foods and its behavior in front of the products offered. The theory of Fishbein and Ajzen was applied in order to know the consumer's beliefs, attitudes, intentions and behaviors. This theory explains that the individual intention is a good estimator of the consumer's behavior, based on the attitude and subjective norms. A 33- question survey was applied to 697 adults, distributed as 3 of attitude, 7 of beliefs, 7 of beliefs evaluation, 2 of perceived control, 1 of subjective norm, 4 of normative beliefs, 4 of evaluation of the normative beliefs, 2 of behavior, 2 of behavior intention and 1 of difficulty of the test. The segmentation variables were: residence region, age, sex, level of studies and difficulty of the test. It was found that the Region has no influence in the components of the pattern, sex influences in the intention of the behavior. Regarding the beliefs, neither the age nor the Region affects them. The importance of fiber is perceived in a different way according to the sex, women presenting a positive connotation to its effect on health. It was observed that individuals with superior studies have a more positive attitude toward functional foods (p < 0.05). The pattern presented a good predictor capacity (intention of the behavior: R 2= 0,52). © 2006 Sociedad Chilena de Nutrición, Bromatología y Toxicología.