PurposeThe goal of this paper is to explore the Croatian young consumers' perception of functional food, to investigate underlying attitudes and their willingness to buy functional food in the future.Design/methodology/approachConsumer survey was conducted using a self‐administered questionnaire on a sample of 1,035 young consumers aged between 14 and 30 years. Research questions focused on knowledge about functional food, attitudes and buying behaviour regarding functional food. Data were analysed using univariate statistics, bivariate correlations and factor analysis.FindingsAbout 40 per cent of young consumers are familiar with the concept of functional food, and 27 per cent of them are regular buyers. The usual place where functional food is acquired is supermarkets and most commonly bought are functional dairy products. The most important functional food attributes are taste and price/quality ratio. Consumers are satisfied with functional food health enhancing characteristics and less satisfied with its appearance and durability. Three factors that explain young consumers' attitudes towards functional food are health awareness and confidence, lack of trust for functional food and its price and quality. More than half of respondents are willing to buy functional food in the future (51.8 per cent). Female consumers aged between 19 and 30, living in smaller households with higher income are more likely to be functional food consumers in the future.Research limitations/implicationsA limitation of this study is the sample including only young consumers. Further research is needed to analyse other consumer groups, and to determine which segments are most appropriate for functional food products marketing.Practical implicationsResearch results indicate a need to increase consumer familiarity with functional food and improvements in some of its characteristics. Overall positive attitudes toward functional food should be reinforced and young consumers can be influenced through targeted advertising.Originality/valueThis paper gives the first account of young consumers' perception of functional food in Croatia. The results of this research can be used to plan further marketing activities.

Purpose – In recent years, consumers have developed an interest in the type and the quality of food they eat. As consumers’ opinion is very important in identifying development strategy for food industry it seems justified finding out if geographical region had an influence on consumers’ opinion. Furthermore, this is the topic that is still under researched. The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers’ perception of functional food (FF) relative to geographical region. Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaire based survey was conducted on a representative national sample with participants aged 18 and older (n=687). Participants were divided according to their place of residence taking into account difference in dietary habits, which created two geographical sets: Coastal (Adriatic) Croatia and Continental Croatia. Data were analyzed using univariate statistics and multivariate analysis as exploratory factor analysis, cluster analysis and principal component analysis. Findings – The results indicate that Croatian consumers are familiar with the term “FF” and that there are significant differences between two geographical sets of respondents (Coastal Croatia and Continental Croatia) in their willingness to pay for FF. Furthermore, research showed that there is a general lack of confidence in the information provided on the product labels especially in the continental region. The results have shown that “taste” and “price quality ratio” are the most important features in choosing the FF and are equally important to the consumers’ in both geographical region. Practical implications – Research results indicate a need for development of consumers’ confidence and need to focus mainly on educating consumers in label comprehension. This is particularly true for the Continental Croatia. Targeted advertising should take into account consumers’ preferences, confidence and label comprehension according to their geographical regions. Originality/value – The case study represents consumers’ opinion coming from different geographical regions (Coastal Croatia and Continental Croatia) regarding FF. In this research the most important attributes in choosing the FF were extracted.

During the ageing period wine spirits are changing their color, chemical composition and sensory characteristics. These changes should be simply monitored. The aim of this study was to develop partial least squares regression (PLS) models for higher alcohols and phenols in wine spirits as well as to show the feasibility of the NIR spectroscopy combined with chemometric tools to distinguish wine spirits and brandies with different ageing degree. To get the reference values, the usual methods for the analysis of spirits drinks were used. Ethanol, esters, acids, methanol and higher alcohols were studied. Wine spirits and brandies phenol composition was determined by liquid chromatography. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to classify the wine spirits and brandies according to their phenolic and higher alcohols composition. Moreover, the Partial least squares regression (PLS regression) was used to calibrate and predict expected contents of higher alcohols and phenols in the wine spirits. Success of the classification of samples by ageing based on individual alcohols was 93.8 %, while success of the classification based on individual phenols raised to 100 %. This efficiency of the prediction was evaluated by use of linear discriminator analysis (LDA).

PurposeQuality and top quality wines (wines with geographical indication (GI)) have a larger share (59 per cent) on the Croatian market and this was one of the reasons for defining the subject of the research. Although there are a few market research studies, none of them is completely oriented on the role and market significance of GI of wine. There is an evident lack of information in this field. This paper aims to address these issues.Design/methodology/approachThe population of the basic group is a high‐qualified population for reviewing different aspects of wine as a complex product. Stratification of the units from the sample has been made on the sample (n=200). Data were analysed using univariate statistics, bivariate correlations and multiple factor analysis.FindingsResults have shown a high correlation degree between the higher socioeconomic status of examinees and preferences for wine with GI. It might be concluded that examinees with a higher level of education are more familiar with wine with GI and also have a higher culture of wine consumption.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample, including only expert groups from institutions, could be understood to be a limitation of this study although they are a highly‐qualified population for reviewing different aspects of wine as a complex product. Further research is needed to analyse other consumer groups and to determine possible differences in attitudes.Practical implicationsResearch results indicate a need to increase consumers' familiarity with GI wine. Overall positive attitudes towards wine with GI should be reinforced and consumers could be influenced through targeted advertising.Originality/valueThe paper presents some Croatian consumers' opinions about the importance of GI of consumed wine. Extracted are the main impact factors regarding the wine selection.

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