Abstract

The notion of healthy eating has sparked renewed interest in consuming healthy diet maintain good health. Coupled with gradual entry of functional foods which provides additional benefit beyond normal nutrition in developing market, little is own about consumer acceptance for this novel type of food in Malaysia.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitudinal determinants of functional foods and also the importance of product-specific attributes in consumers’ purchase making. A total of 200 questionnaires were administered for procuring input and data by pursuing convenience sampling and shopping mall intercept method in g Valley, Malaysia.

Descriptive statistics revealed that respondents in general positive attitude towards functional foods but the level of awareness of functional foods on the whole as aggregate is still low at 40%. This study also found knowledge of health-diet relationship is positively correlated with awareness of functional foods and this ‘knowledge also builds a positive attitude functional foods, resulting in higher acceptance.

Awareness of functional food without realisation of healthy eating does not result in any positive attitude. Main product attributes which influence respondents purchase decisions in consumption of functional foods are price, trustworthiness of health claim, nutritional content and taste of functional food, involving both utilitarian and hedonic aspects, consistent with past studies. 

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