Abstract
The aim of this study was to find out consumers' views of product
development when the target is to improve the healthiness of grain products.
The data were collected with four focus groups (N=31) in Finland. The themes
for discussion were the role of grain products at different meals, use of
plant breeding or processing to improve the product’s healthiness and what
makes some grain products healthier than the others. The discussions were
dominated by doubts about developing functional or otherwise healthier grain
products. These doubts were based on questioning the necessity of improving
the health value of grain products, general reservations about technology
combined with idealisation of natural and traditional methods of preparing
foods, ethical concerns, fear of increased price and the possibility of
unforeseen health risks. Several advantages were also discussed. These
included the utilisation of best scientific knowledge and regarding moderate
development as basically acceptable. The predominance of doubts tends to occur
in this method because it focuses participants' attention on the possible
problems, instead of trying to find consensus on factors that they agree upon
or are not concerned about. Although focus group discussion is a good method
for pointing to potential problems, these doubts should be considered, not as
barriers directly, but as points that need to be addressed when new products
are developed.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 258 |
Journal | Appetite |
Volume | 47 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2006 |
MoE publication type | A4 Article in a conference publication |
Event | 30th Annual Meeting of the British Feeding and Drinking Group: 2006 Food Choice Conference - Birmingham, United Kingdom Duration: 19 Apr 2006 → 21 Apr 2006 |
Keywords
- grain products
- consumers
- consumer attitudes
- consumer expectations
- health