Australian consumer attitudes to health claim - food product compatibility for functional foods

Authors

P. G. Williams, University of WollongongFollow
L. Ridges, University of WollongongFollow
M. Batterham, University of WollongongFollow
B. Ripper, University of Wollongong
M. C. Hung, University of Wollongong

RIS ID

24443

Publication Details

This article was originally published as Williams, P, Ridges, L, Batterham, M, Ripper, B, Hung and MC, Australian consumer attitudes to health claim - food product compatibility for functional foods, Food Policy, 33(6), 640-643, 2008. Copyright Elsevier 2008. Original journal article available here

Abstract

This study with Australian consumers investigated how appealing different health claims combined with particular food carriers were to Australian consumers, and compared the results of a similar study with Dutch consumers. 149 shoppers considered up to 30 different food concepts, rating how ‘attractive’, ‘believable’, and ‘new and different’ they found each concept and their ‘intention to try’. Each variable was significantly related to intention to try (p<0.001) and together explained 56% of the intention score. Claims and carriers independently had a significant effect on ratings of attractiveness and intention to try but, unlike the Dutch study, the carrier was a more important predictor of intention to purchase than the claim. Implications for regulation of health claims for food are discussed.