Cultural values affect functional food perception

Introduction

Functional foods provide essential nutrients, prevent nutrition-related diseases (Liisa et al., 2006) and enhance the mental and physical wellness of consumers (Menrad, 2003). Due to the complex nature of functional food, there are differences in the understanding of, and the definitions of, functional foods. Functional food in this study means foods that naturally contain some active components or that have been fortified, enhanced or enriched with physiologically active ingredients by any method, and that when consumed regularly, enhance health and well-being and reduce disease. The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend that Australians need to eat a reasonable amount of functional foods like whole grain food products, legumes/lentils and non-starchy vegetables to reduce the risk of chronic health problems like diabetes, obesity, hypertension and cancer. Being a multicultural country, one of the underlying reasons for such non-compliance could be the diverse cultural background of people living in Australia (National Health and Medical Research Council, 2013). Australia is a hugely diverse country with people from 200 different countries, more than 300 languages spoken, more than 100 religions and more than 300 different ancestries (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016). There are a few studies focusing on the relationships of consumers’ culture and their perception of functional food products and most of the studies are either exploratory in nature or were studied under different cultural contexts than Australia. This study aims to investigate the relationship between consumers’ cultural values and their functional food perception and construct a theoretical framework of functional food perception. The general focus research question is: RQ1.

What is the relationship between consumers’ cultural values and their functional food perception?

The following are the sub-research questions developed for answering the general research question: RQ1a.

Does culture affect consumer perceptions of functional food?

RQ1b.

What cultural values affect consumers’ perceptions of functional food?

RQ1c.

How do these cultural values affect consumers’ functional food perception?

Functional food perception

Food habits and taste preferences are believed to be inherited from tradition and family culture or parents (Wright et al., 2001). Cultural beliefs, values, customs and norms are embedded in an individual’s mind and play a significant role in their perception of food (Tan et al., 2015, 2016). Most of the earlier studies on functional food perceptions...