Functional Food: Drivers and Repulses of Consumers’ Preferences and Choices – Implemented

Project is supported by Lithuanian Research Council under the Lithuanian-Japanese Program for joint projects’ promotion.

Project Goal

Functional foods promise consumers improvements in targeted physiological functions, and have become a staple of the modern diet. We seek to contribute to further development of functional food research nomological network and delineate important characteristics and mechanisms determining acceptance of functional food. An investigation of these issues is important for marketers as it reveals additional factors that explain consumer behavior and assists in deciding on changes in general business strategy, marketing or production. Understanding functional food related behavior may provide insights for policy makers and advance regulatory requirements at the EU or national levels.

The aim of the project is to develop an understanding what drives the consumers’ preferences in regard to functional food. More specific research objectives are to test the cognitive mechanisms behind preferences for functional food and relation of these mechanisms to health concerns; also delineate boundary conditions, for example, by exploring the licensing or halo effects in functional and regular food preferences.

Project is implemented in collaboration with researchers from Chiba University and University of Tokyo (Japan).