CONSUMERS’ ATTITUDE AND PREFERENCES OF FUNCTIONAL FOOD: A QUALITATIVECASE STUDY

Abstract

The present qualitative study is based on 50 participants responsible of household food shopping. Theirin-depth interviews were conducted with the consumers from the four superstores located in Faisalabad to explore consumers’ views, preferences, attitude, acceptance of functional food (FF) and evaluation of different attributeslikeorganoleptic, label, functionalityalong with health claim, price and brand. The analysis of qualitative data demonstrates that consumers had the concept ofFF alongwithinformation and knowledge about different attributes of FF. All the attributes are important but the most importantly health claim attribute was the most valuable. Desire for seeking more information by the participants about FFalso emerged in the study. The customers also attached significance to price in relation to purchase of FFparticularly branded. Participants criticism on different conventional foods like fruit juices, milk and biscuits and bread (Chapati) available in the market about the poor quality andtheir recommendations of FFs to the other people create more space of marketing for this food that can be exploited by the FFindustry. It is recommended that peoples should be madeaware about the perceived benefits and threats of FFs and these foods may carry seal approved by regulatory body for ensuring quality and safety.