Consumers’ Valuation of Functional Properties of Foods: Results from a Canada‐wide Survey

Abstract

Very few economic analyses have been done about functional foods and nutraceuticals. The current paper seeks to characterize Canadian consumers' attitudes, beliefs, knowledge and willingness‐to‐pay for functional foods. In the spring of 2001, a telephone survey of 1008 Canadian household food shoppers was conducted. The questionnaire included stated‐choice experiments to derive distributions of price‐functional property trade‐offs. The majority of respondents appeared willing to purchase and to pay a price premium for functional foods, particularly if the functional property were added to foods derived from plants. Consumers were less receptive to a functional property incorporated in a meat product. A large proportion of respondents negatively perceived genetically modified (GM) and organic foods relative to conventional foods, after controlling for price and the health property. This suggests that there could be a niche market for organic functional foods and that GM functional foods would have to be discounted to attract a wide range of consumers. Peu d'études ont été réalisées sur les aliments fonctionnels et les nutraceutiques. Notre papier a pour but de caractériser les attitudes, les croyances, les connaissances et la volonté des consommateurs canadiens de payer plus cher pour des aliments fonctionnels. Un sondage téléphonique fut administré auprès de 1008 répondants à trovers le Canada. Des expériences amenant les répondants àénoncer leur préférences en faisant des choix de produits ont été réalisées pour générer les distributions des compromis entre les prix et les propriétés fonctionnelles. La majorité des répondants sontprêt á payer des suppléments pour des propriétés fonctionnelles, surtout si celles‐ci sont ajoutées a des produits dérivés des plantes. Les répondants semblent mains réceptifs aux propriétés ajoutées à de la viande. Une proportion élevée de répondants entretiennent des perceptions négatives des aliments GM et organiques, relativement aux produits conventionnels après avoir contrôlé pour les prix et les propriétés fonctionnelles. Ceci suggère qu'il y aurait un marché niche pour les aliments fonctionnels organiques et que les aliments fonctionnels GM devraient être réduits en prix pour attirer une vaste clientele.

The Sustainability of Organic Grain Production on the Canadian Prairies—A Review

“…The same study also found that less than 5% of Canadians were able to correctly answer six knowledge questions about conventional, organic and GM food production practices, which could indicate the preference for conventional food is one based on familiarity. The distribution of consumer valuation of organic foods was broader than for GM foods, consistent with the idea of organic food occupying a niche market in Canada [79]. In an investigation of the role of sensory, health, and environmental information on Canadians' willingness-to-pay for organic wheat bread, Annett et al [80] reported that willingness-to-pay was greater when health information was coupled with sensory evaluation.…”

“…This has been recognized by both organic producers [19][20][21] and market researchers [79]. While there is growing awareness of both health and environmental issues associated with agricultural production, many Canadians are unaware of the differences between different production systems [79], and there is little recognition of the large externalized costs of conventional systems [9].…”

“…This is in contrast to the situation in Europe, where a greater proportion of respondents cited environmental benefits (20%) and animal welfare (12%) as reasons for choosing organic. Interestingly, a Canada-wide survey of consumers' attitudes and willingness-to-pay for foods with enhanced health benefits reported that while a large proportion of Canadians were willing to pay a premium for the health benefit, when controlled for price, most consumers would choose conventional food products over genetically-modified (GM) or organic products [79]. The same study also found that less than 5% of Canadians were able to correctly answer six knowledge questions about conventional, organic and GM food production practices, which could indicate the preference for conventional food is one based on familiarity.…”

Biotech Potatoes in the 21st Century: 20 Years Since the First Biotech Potato

“…In one, 86 % of Canadian consumers said that they would be willing to pay a price premium for Bheart-healthy^biotech potato chips (West et al 2002). Others found that consumers would pay higher prices for potato chips labeled as GM-free (VanWechel et al 2003).…”

Consumer willingness to pay a premium for a functional food in Ghana

“…Given that consumers generally have positive attitudes toward functional foods (West et al, 2002), the understanding of factors which influence consumers' preferences and WTP for functional foods becomes relevant. Amongst these factors, consumer socio-economic characteristics such as age, gender, education, income level, the level of consumer awareness and perceptions, knowledge of the product, as well as product characteristics, including taste, nutrition and health have received attention in the empirical literature.…”