title: European consumers' acceptance of functional foods.
abstract: Consumer acceptance of functional foods is analyzed from the perspective of consumer quality perception of food products. Four major dimensions of food quality are identified: taste and other sensory characteristics, healthiness, convenience, and naturalness. Functional foods provide, from the consumer perspective, synergies between healthiness and convenience, but may, in the consumer mind, lead to trade-offs between healthiness on the one side and taste and naturalness on the other side. This may explain the reluctance of European consumers to accept functional food products.
authors.affiliation: MAPP Centre for Research on Customer Relations in the Food Sector, Aarhus University, Aarhus V, Denmark. klg@asb.dk
authors.forename: Klaus G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Grunert
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D005060:Europe; D055951:Functional Food; D006801:Humans; D010465:Perception