An examination of the relationship between consumers' cultural values and their functional food perception

An examination of the relationship between consumers' cultural values and their functional food perception

There is rising concern regarding the increase in occurrences of chronic health problems attributed to unhealthy food choices. Although functional foods are being recommended as one of the ways to prevent such health problems, the reports produced by the Department of Health, Australia, show that Australians are not consuming functional foods as recommended. Some of the reasons for non-compliance with the recommended functional food guidelines could be linked to the multicultural population of Australia. Consumers from different cultures have shared knowledge or understanding and views about food that might determine how they perceive functional foods. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships between consumers’ cultural values and their functional food perception. The research is driven by the pragmatic philosophical orientation and uses the exploratory sequential research strategy that employs a mix of qualitative and quantitative research. The qualitative stage involves the Grounded theory method and the quantitative stage involves Exploratory Factors Analysis (EFA) followed by correlation analysis and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The samples for the study consisted of consumers from three major ethnic groups in Australia: Anglo-Australian, Chinese and Indian. The findings of the study revealed that the following cultural values; self-directed learning, consistency, stimulation, conformity and consumer motives influence consumers’ functional food perception. A theoretical framework of functional food perception has been constructed through this research. The cultural values driven framework can be of help to functional food marketers and health policy makers in profiling consumers and developing strategies leading towards functional food consumption.