Perceived health and taste ambivalence in food consumption

Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to explore how certain consumer characteristics (dieting status, health motives and food values) together with products carrying ambivalent health and taste cues (light foods, convenience foods, “functional candies”) shape whether and why health and taste attributes are perceived as inclusive (“healthy is tasty” and “unhealthy is untasty”) or exclusive (“healthy is untasty” and “unhealthy is tasty”). Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative methodology not yet applied in examining consumers’ healthiness and tastiness perceptions of food was employed. It included gathering three separate data sets through both personal and group interviews (N = 40). Findings – Consumers’ dieting status, health motives and food values shape the perception of inclusivity and exclusivity of health and taste of light, convenience and candy products. Second, there are multiple sources for these perceptions including product type, ingredients, level of processing and marketing cues. These factors interact to produce a unique consumer understanding of the relationship between health and taste for each single food product. Practical implications – To ensure optimal consumer response, food companies and health educators need to understand how different target groups form their inclusive/exclusive perceptions of health and taste for various foods. Originality/value – The majority of pre-existing food consumption research supports imply that a good taste and a high degree of healthiness are incompatible with each other. The findings challenge this view. It appears that it is the “unhealthy is untasty” and “healthy is tasty” perceptions that predominate in certain consumer groups. A novel conceptual framework for understanding the ambivalence of health and taste perceptions in food consumption is offered.

Fast‐food addiction and anti‐consumption behaviour: The moderating role of consumer social responsibility

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“…On the one hand, research findings indicated that consumers follow an unhealthy = tasty intuition, that is, they believe unhealthy food to taste better than healthy food (Liem, Toraman Aydin, & Zandstra, ; Raghunathan, Naylor, & Hoyer, ). In contrast, more recent findings indicated an opposing healthy = tasty view in consumers (Haasova & Florack, ; Landry et al, ; Luomala et al, ; Werle, Trendel, & Ardito, ). We believe that the healthy = tasty view is predominant in consumers because we think that the same cues on product packages can indicate health and taste to consumers.…”

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