Italian consumer attitudes toward products for well-being: The functional foods market

The current paper investigates the factors which influence Italian consumers' behaviour towards functional food products and verifies the opportunities for further expansion of these products through a survey with a sample of 340 consumers responsible for family shopping. Findings show that there is a large number of factors that influence consumer purchasing behaviour. The empirical analysis emphasizes that, although Italian consumers are rather confused on the exact meaning of the term functional foods, their high interest on the bond between diet and health can be a potential element for the development of the demand of these food products. The work also provides a segmentation of the sample to verify the existence of homogeneous groups of consumers characterized by a different propensity towards functional foods.