Consumer behaviour and attitudes towards healthy food products: organic and functional foods

Over the last decade the health consciousness of consumers has become an important factor driving the agri-food market. Healthier food products have entered the global markets with force in the past years and rapidly gained market share. The food industry has reacted to this trend by developing a growing variety of new products with health-related claims and images, including organic and functional foods that are selected by consumers for their health-promoting properties. Currently, the healthy food and drinks market is performing well, in terms of innovation and market penetration; healthy foods in Europe have a turnover of 5.7 billion. Various studies have concluded that better understanding of consumer perception of healthy foods and its determinants are key success factors for market orientation and development and for successfully negotiating market opportunities. During our research we surveyed 300 Italian consumers in order to understand attitudes towards healthy foods, with particular reference to organic and functional products, through the implementation of cluster analysis in order to derive indications that may contribute to better strategic and tactical marketing decisions and also may be of use to government bodies interested in designing public health programmes. The survey results reveal a positive outlook for growth of both organic and functional foods which are gaining, even if at a different pace, more and more space in Italians household food consumption. In the same time respondents complain about a certain difficulty in distinguishing between organic and functional and conventional foods and express a negative opinion towards the current level of information available on the market.