IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/ijofsd/121853.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Consumer Market for Functional Foods in South Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • de Barcellos, Marcia Dutra
  • Lionello, Rafael Laitano

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the consumer market for functional foods (FF) in Porto Alegre, South Brazil. Functional food is any healthy food claimed to have a health-promoting or disease-preventing property beyond the basic function of supplying nutrients. Health has been named as the most significant trend and innovation driver in the global food and drinks market. Brazil is one of the leading countries in food production and consumption, and the market for functional foods have been growing 10% per year, three times more than the market for conventional foods. Although this food category is considered mature in some developed markets (such as in Japan, in the Nordic countries and in the U.S), it is still unknown for many consumers, especially those located in developing countries. On the other hand, functional foods has been attracting the attention of multinationals and local food industries in Brazil, since innovation can significantly impact on their competitive advantages. Therefore, in this study, first we are going to identify the availability of functional food products in the local retail market, through observation techniques. Our aim is to confront consumers’ needs with local food companies’ market supply. Secondly, we investigate consumers’ motivations, attitudes and intention to buy functional foods, since the market demands a better understanding of this trend. A survey with 450 consumers was conducted and provided quantitative insights. Results indicate that the market for functional foods in Rio Grande do Sul is incipient, but it is developing fast. There are few local functional food products in the market, but those are attractive to consumers and indicate promising opportunities. The survey shows that interviewed consumers presented positive attitudes towards functional foods and enough purchasing power to buy it. Dieticians, nutritionists and other health professionals have high credibility and could help inform consumers about the benefits of particular categories of functional foods. Food industry itself is not regarded as the most trustworthy source, what indicates the need of more attention to this fact from a corporate point of view. Finally, this study shows that the understanding of Brazilian consumers is fundamental to help food companies define their strategies. To map the most accepted categories of functional foods is also important, aiming to avoid the “tentative and error” approach

Suggested Citation

  • de Barcellos, Marcia Dutra & Lionello, Rafael Laitano, 2011. "Consumer Market for Functional Foods in South Brazil," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 2(2), pages 1-19, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:ijofsd:121853
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.121853
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/121853/files/Barcellos-ok.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.121853?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cooke, Philip & Gomez Uranga, Mikel & Etxebarria, Goio, 1997. "Regional innovation systems: Institutional and organisational dimensions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4-5), pages 475-491, December.
    2. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    3. Melissa Williams & Eija Pehu & Catherine Ragasa, 2006. "Functional Foods : Opportunities and Challenges for Developing Countries," World Bank Publications - Reports 9594, The World Bank Group.
    4. Freeman, Chris, 1995. "The 'National System of Innovation' in Historical Perspective," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 19(1), pages 5-24, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Salnikova, Ekaterina & Grunert, Klaus G., 2020. "The role of consumption orientation in consumer food preferences in emerging markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 147-159.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. de Barcellos, Marcia Dutra & Pozzo, Daniele & Ferreira, Gabriela Cardozo & Lionello, Rafael Laitano, 2011. "The Dynamics of the Innovation System for Functional Foods in South Brazil," 2011 International European Forum, February 14-18, 2011, Innsbruck-Igls, Austria 122032, International European Forum on System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks.
    2. Teplykh, Grigorii & Galimardanov, Amal, 2017. "Modeling of innovative investment in Russian regions," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 46, pages 104-125.
    3. Huggins Robert & Thompson Piers, 2012. "Entrepreneurship and Community Culture: A Place-Based Study of Their Interdependency," Entrepreneurship Research Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-36, January.
    4. Ghazinoory, Sepehr & Nasri, Shohreh & Ameri, Fatemeh & Montazer, Gholam Ali & Shayan, Ali, 2020. "Why do we need ‘Problem-oriented Innovation System (PIS)’ for solving macro-level societal problems?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    5. Pauline Debanes, 2018. "Layering the developmental state away?," Working Papers halshs-01800489, HAL.
    6. Yutao Sun & Seamus Grimes, 2016. "The emerging dynamic structure of national innovation studies: a bibliometric analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 106(1), pages 17-40, January.
    7. Arenal, Alberto & Armuña, Cristina & Feijoo, Claudio & Ramos, Sergio & Xu, Zimu & Moreno, Ana, 2020. "Innovation ecosystems theory revisited: The case of artificial intelligence in China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(6).
    8. Nihad Faissal Bassis & Fabiano Armellini, 2018. "Systems of innovation and innovation ecosystems: a literature review in search of complementarities," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 28(5), pages 1053-1080, December.
    9. Romijn, Henny & Albaladejo, Manuel, 2002. "Determinants of innovation capability in small electronics and software firms in southeast England," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 1053-1067, September.
    10. Hamidi, Shima & Zandiatashbar, Ahoura & Bonakdar, Ahmad, 2019. "The relationship between regional compactness and regional innovation capacity (RIC): Empirical evidence from a national study," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 394-402.
    11. Franz Tödtling & Markus Grillitsch, 2015. "Does Combinatorial Knowledge Lead to a Better Innovation Performance of Firms?," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(9), pages 1741-1758, September.
    12. Coad, Alex & Srhoj, Stjepan, 2023. "Entrepreneurial ecosystems and regional persistence of high growth firms: A ‘broken clock’ critique," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(6).
    13. Van Lancker, Jonas & Mondelaers, Koen & Wauters, Erwin & Van Huylenbroeck, Guido, 2016. "The Organizational Innovation System: A systemic framework for radical innovation at the organizational level," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 52, pages 40-50.
    14. Rakas, Marija & Hain, Daniel S., 2019. "The state of innovation system research: What happens beneath the surface?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    15. Diana Suárez & Gabriel Yoguel & Verónica Robert & Florencia Barletta, 2014. "The Argentinean system of innovation: micro determinants and meso–macro disarticulation," Chapters, in: Gabriela Dutrénit & Judith Sutz (ed.), National Innovation Systems, Social Inclusion and Development, chapter 4, pages 102-132, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    16. Ronnie Ramlogan & Andrea Mina & Gindo Tampubolon & J. Stanley Metcalfe, 2007. "Networks of knowledge: The distributed nature of medical innovation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 70(2), pages 459-489, February.
    17. Yipeng Zhang, 2023. "The Sustainability of Regional Innovation in China: Insights from Regional Innovation Values and Their Spatial Distribution," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-42, June.
    18. Helen Lawton Smith & Saverio Romeo, 2016. "Regional Environments and Sector Developments: the Biotech Sector in Oxfordshire," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 7(4), pages 905-919, December.
    19. van Rijnsoever, Frank J. & van den Berg, Jesse & Koch, Joost & Hekkert, Marko P., 2015. "Smart innovation policy: How network position and project composition affect the diversity of an emerging technology," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 1094-1107.
    20. Jorge Niosi, 2010. "Building National and Regional Innovation Systems," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14006.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:ijofsd:121853. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/centmde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.