Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Consumers’ Interests in Sweets with Health-Promoting Properties and Their Selected Determinants

Consumers’ Interests in Sweets with Health-Promoting Properties and Their Selected Determinants Pol. J. Food Nutr. Sci., 2013, Vol. 63, No. 1, pp. 43-48 DOI: 10.2478/v10222­012­0062­8 http://journal.pan.olsztyn.pl Original paper Section: Nutritional Research Consumers' Interests in Sweets with Health-Promoting Properties and Their Selected Determinants Marzena Jeewska-Zychowicz*, Maria Jeznach, Malgorzata Kosicka-Gbska Department of Organization and Consumption Economics, Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW), ul. Nowoursynowska 159c, 02­787 Warsaw, Poland Key words: attitude, sweets preferences, functional food, health-promoting properties of food The aim of the study was to examine to what degree the consumers' attitudes towards food and health influence their interest in sweets with special health-promoting properties, and to evaluate the effect of age, gender, education and family income on the interest in this kind of sweets. The research was carried out on a representative sample of 1000 adult Polish consumers. The survey instrument consisted of questions assessing consumers' interest in sweets, their preferences and attitudes towards sweets, paying attention to sweets labeled as having specific nutritional properties, and acceptance of additional ingredients aimed at improving health properties of sweets. The research revealed that over half of the population declared no interest in new chocolate-coated products with special health properties. Moreover, almost 4/5 of respondents did not pay attention to or buy any sweets labeled as having specific nutritional properties. The most accepted components improving health properties of sweets were vitamins, then fibre and minerals. The declared sweetness preferences did not show any statistically significant correlation with the consumers' interest in sweets with health-promoting properties. Significantly higher number of respondents who did not use food as a reward and who could not formulate their opinions on health effect of sweets, declared attention paid to sweets labeled as having health-promoting properties or purchase of these products. INTRODUCTION Functional food, according to the definition worked out within the FuFoSE project, is a food which together with the basic nutritional impact has beneficial effects on one or more functions of the human organism thus either improving the general and physical conditions or/and decreasing the risk of the development of diseases. Such food should look like conventional food and should have a favourable effect in the amount expected to be normally consumed with the diet [Diplock et al., 1999]. Functional food differs from conventional food but it is also viewed as being member of the particular category to which it belongs, rather than being considered as a homogenous group of products. Although the sweets with the increased health-promoting value do not have to be categorised as functional food, they can be viewed by consumers as such food. Moreover, they arouse a lot of controversy mostly because of many negative consequences to health caused by the consumption of conventional sweets. The food advertisement in mass-media, i.e. presenting candies with added vitamins, is also one of the important reasons of this controversy, especially when they are directed to the children [Halford et al., 2004]. * Corresponding Author: Tel.: +4822 59 37 131; Fax +4822 5937147 E-mail: marzena_jezewska_zychowicz@sggw.pl (Dr. M. Jeewska-Zychowicz) The Polish market of functional food products is growing constantly and the future of this type of food looks quite optimistic. The most dynamic development is observed in the group of soft drinks, cereal and milk products, fats and food for children. The development of the functional food market is caused by the growing health awareness, and the changes in consumer's attitudes towards food and health [Jeewska-Zychowicz & Pilska, 2007; Thomson et al., 2010]. The consumers' beliefs and preferences influence the declared willingness to buy healthy products and the purchasing behaviours [Bäckström et al., 2004; Cox et al., 2004; Urala & Lähteenmäki, 2007; Ares et al., 2010]. The benefits which a person connects with the consumption of food usually accompany more positive feelings and vice versa. A person may at the same time represent both positive and negative opinions and preferences towards the food product [Conner & Sparks, 2002], which also takes place in the case of chocolate and other sweets [Wansink et al., 2003; Rodriguez et al., 2005; Macht & Dettmer, 2006; Macht & Mueller, 2007]. Moreover, negative beliefs may be accompanied by positive emotions and vice versa [Conner & Sparks, 2002; Berndsen & Van Der Pligt, 2004; Fletcher et al., 2007]. The aim of this research was to assess to what degree the consumers' attitudes towards food and health relationship influence their interest in sweets with special health-promoting properties. The attitudes were represented by consumers' beliefs on the effect of sweets on health (cognitive component), and by the emotional component of at- © Copyright by Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences titude created by the sweet preferences and the use of food as a reward. The effect of age, gender, education and family income on consumers' interests in "healthy" sweets was taken into account as well. MATERIALS AND METHODS The questionnaire survey was carried out in the autumn of 2010 within the randomised group of 1000 adult Polish consumers. The survey instrument consisted of questions that assessed paying attention to or buying sweets labeled as having specific nutritional properties, and consumers' attitudes toward sweets, including their sweet preferences, their beliefs on the impact of eating sweets on the health and using food as a reward. The emotional component of the attitude towards food and health was evaluated by taking into account the use of food as a reward and the declared sweet preferences. The six statements selected from the scales of Roininen et al. [1999] describing the use of food as a reward were evaluated on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = completely disagree, 7 = completely agree). These statements were as follows: "I reward myself by buying something really tasty", "When I am feeling down I want to treat myself with something really delicious", "I avoid rewarding myself with food" (these negative statement was recoded for the final score), "I believe that food should always be source of pleasure", "When I eat, I concentrate on enjoying taste of food", and "An essential part of my weekend is eating delicious food". The use of food as a reward was determined as the sum of ranks from the 7-point scale for the 6 statements (from 6 to 42 points), then the point intervals were determined based on the quartile analysis (20, 24 and 27 points). The first quartile was represented by people who did not use food as a reward (29.1%) ­ the sum of ranks was small, which can be interpreted as a relatively high level of disagreement with the statements, the second and third quartiles were represented by people using food as a reward but to some extent (43.4%), and the fourth group included people who often used food as a reward (27.5%) ­ the sum of ranks was high, which can be interpreted as a relatively high level of agreement with the statements. Five-point scales were used for the assessment of consumers' preferences, (1 = I do not like; 5 = I like it very much) M. Jeewska-Zychowicz et al. in relation to 10 sweet assortments: chocolate bars; cream-filled chocolate; plain chocolate; milk chocolate without any additions or with the addition of fruit filling or filling other than fruit; toffi sweets; caramel drops or similar ones; cookies and wafers. Factor analysis was used for grouping the preferences. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and Bartlett's tests were used for testing suitability of the correlation matrix for factor analysis. Two factors explained 61.8% of the total variance. The first factor was represented by preferences towards cream-filled chocolate (correlation coefficient 0.832), milk chocolate with additions (0.765), chocolate-coated sweets with fruit filling (0.799) or other filling (0.801); while the other factor included preferences regarding cookies (0.884) and wafers (0.891). An agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis based on these factors was carried out to identify segments of consumers with different preferences. Three homogenous clusters were identified, cluster 1 was described as "liking sweets" (48.0% of population), cluster 2 as "neutral" (36.4%), and cluster 3 as "disliking sweets" (15.6%) (Table 1). The cognitive component of attitude towards sweets was evaluated using a question about the effect of consuming chocolate-coated products on the health. The answers were as follows: positive effect, no effect, negative effect, I do not know. Statistical package SPSS 14 PL for Windows was used for the analyses including frequency analyses, cross tables, factor analyses and cluster analyses. Pearson's chi-square association test was used to confirm differences between variables at 0.05 probability level. One Way ANOVA and Tukey's test were used to confirm differences between variables measured as mean values. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION As shown in Table 2, clusters significantly differed in their age, education and family income distribution. The homogenous clusters created according to the declared preferences of sweets distinguished themselves by the socio-demographic characteristics. Only gender showed no statistically significant correlation with sweet preferences. In other surveys a relationship between sweet preferences and gender was demonstrated, namely: women like chocolate more than men do [Wansink et al., 2003; Osman & Sobal, 2006], and women more TABLE 1. Respondents' preferences towards selected types of sweets according to their affiliation to the clusters (mean value of consumers' preferences calculated on the base of ranks from the 5-point scale (1 ­ I don't like, 2 ­ I rather don't like, 3 ­ neither like nor dislike, 4 ­ I rather like, 5 ­ I like very much) ± standard deviation). Cluster "liking sweets" n=480 4.32a±0.57 4.25a±0.64 4.12a±0.66 4.18 ±0.59 Types of sweets Cream-filled chocolate (IS)* Milk chocolate with additional ingredients (IS) Chocolate-coated sweets with fruit filling (IS) Chocolate-coated sweets with non-fruit filling (IS) Cookies (IS) Wafers (IS) Total n=1000 3.42±1.27 3.50±1.21 3.17±1.26 3.37±1.19 3.74±1.06 3.64±1.11 "neutral" n=364 3.05b±1.00 3.28b±0.95 2.64b±0.90 3.08 ±0.89 "disliking sweets" n=156 1.56c±0.87 1.68c±0.91 1.52c±0.90 1.56c±0.89 2.54c±1.38 2.42c±1.36 4.20a±0.66 4.15 ±0.70 3.66b±0.89 3.52 ±0.97 *(IS) means with different superscripts differ significantly according to Tukey's test at p<0.001. Consumers' Interests in Sweets with Health-Promoting Properties TABLE 2. Components of the attitude toward sweets according to socio-demographic characteristics of the population (% of respondents). Sweet preferences ­ emotional component of attitude 1S Gender (F, H)* Age (S, F) Women Men 18­24 years 25­34 years 35­44 years 45­54 years 55 years and over Education (S) Lower than secondary Secondary Higher than secondary Opinions on family income (S) Allows to fulfill basic needs or is insufficient Allows to fulfill some but not all needs Enough for all needs and some for saving Socio-demographic features Total Food as reward ­ emotional component of attitude 1F 57.4 42.6 20.6 17.5 18.9 20.6 22.3 22.7 43.6 33.7 25.1 53.6 21.3 2 47.5 52.5 20.7 15.7 19.6 20.3 23.7 27.0 46.3 26.7 21.8 53.8 24.4 3 57.1 42.9 27.3 16.7 25.1 17.1 13.8 25.1 45.5 29.4 21.1 52.4 26.5 Opinion on health effect of chocolate coated products ­ cognitive component of attitude 1H 62.4 37.6 20.9 17.5 20.6 20.9 20.1 23.8 45.0 31.2 21.3 54.5 24.2 2 47.4 52.6 23.0 15.2 22.2 28.5 21.1 25.9 45.2 28.9 23.0 54.8 22.2 3 47.8 52.2 25.0 19.1 16.2 16.2 23.5 25.0 40.4 34.6 23.0 54.8 22.2 4 46.8 53.2 23.1 14.8 22.7 20.4 19.0 26.9 49.0 24.1 24.1 48.6 27.3 1 ­ "liking sweets"; 2 ­ "neutral"; 3 ­ "disliking sweets"; F 1 ­ use of food as a reward; 2 ­ seldom use of food as a reward; 3 ­ no use of food as a reward; H 1 ­ beneficial health effect; 2 ­ no health effect; 3 ­ negative health effect; 4 ­ I do not know. *statistically significant differences at p<0.05 (Chi2 test) after considering: (S) sweet preferences; (F) use of food as a reward; (H) opinion on the health effect of consuming chocolate coated products. often feel discomfort connected with having the sense of guilt after consuming it [Cartwright & Stritzke, 2008]. The cluster named "liking sweets" was represented by significantly more consumers aged 18­44 years, especially those of the youngest age group. Similar results were observed elsewhere [Wansink et al., 2003; Cartwright et al., 2007]. A higher number of respondents aged 45 years and more, as compared to others, represented the cluster described as "disliking sweets" and respondents from the oldest age group constituted nearly 1/3 of that cluster (Table 2). A higher number of the surveyed with lower than secondary education represented the cluster "disliking sweets" and the remaining clusters were represented by a higher number of respondents with secondary education. Respondents with higher education less numerously represented clusters of "liking" and "disliking sweets" as compared with cluster 2 represented by the surveyed who were "neutral towards sweets". Those liking sweets constituted the highest percentage of respondents declaring that "they can afford some but not all expenses". The respondents who most positively assessed their family income constituted relatively the highest percentage in the cluster 2 (Table 2). Opinions concerning rewarding with food significantly differed after taking the gender and age of respondents into account. Among consumers who declared the use of food as a reward, there were more women (57.4%) than men (42.6%), which confirms findings of other researchers [Kampov-Polevoy et al., 2006] and more consumers aged 55 and over as compared with the remaining groups. More women than men, and more respondents at the youngest age and these aged 35­44 years than other consumers did not use food as reward. The gender was the only factor significantly differ- entiating consumers' beliefs on the effect of chocolate-coated products on human health. More women than men indicated the benefits from consuming such products (Table 2). Over half of the population declared no interest in new chocolate-coated products with special health-promoting properties. Only 13.4% of the respondents stated explicitly the interest in those products. The interest was expressed by a statistically higher number of respondents using food as a reward and positively assessing the effect of sweets on health. Well-known traditional sweet products were preferred by consumers who did not like sweets, those who used food as a reward and those who did not know how to express their opinions on the effect of these products on health (the answer "I do not know") ­ Table 3. According to the respondents' opinions, the most accepted component improving the health-promoting properties of sweets were vitamins, which were mentioned by over 70% of the population. Over 2/5 of the investigated group represented the opinion that fibre and minerals could be added in order to improve the health-promoting properties of sweets and less than one fourth of the respondents accepted organic ingredients in sweets. Fibre and vitamins were perceived as additional health-benefiting components in the case of other products, i.e. yoghurts [Kozlowska et al., 2007]. Pro-biotic bacteria were accepted by only about 28% of the respondents. There are investigations confirming the lack of the positive effect of such bacteria added to the chocolate mousse on the consumers' acceptance of such product as compared with its conventional equivalent [Aragon-Alegro et al., 2007]. Respondents' opinions did not differ in a statistically significant way after considering the component of the attitude towards food and health, with the exception of the use of fibre. The acceptance of fibre as an addition to sweets was declared by a statistically higher number of respondents liking sweets, both confirming and not confirming the use of food as a reward, by consumers indicating a positive effect of sweets on health. In the case of pro-biotic bacteria and organic ingredients used as additives in the production of sweets, statistically significant correlations were achieved in the case of the opinions on the effect of the chocolate-coated products on health. More respondents showing a positive effect accepted those ingredients. Also among those who did not know how to assess these effects the percentage of respondents accepting organic ingredients in the production of sweets was relatively high (Table 3). The low interest in sweets with an increased nutritional value was confirmed by the declaration concerning respondents' behaviours on the market during the last month, which included buying or only paying attention to sweets with special health-promoting properties declared by the producer. About 4/5 of the population did not exhibit any interest in these products in the form of behaviours. The declared sweet preferences did not show any statistically significant correlation with the interest in sweets with special health-promoting properties. Significantly more consumers who did use food as a reward and those who indicated negative impact of eating conventional sweets on health declared paying attention or buying sweets with the increased health-promoting properties. Investigations by Urala & Lähteenmäki [2007] indicate that noticing the reward as the effect of consuming functional food is an essential factor facilitating the willingness to buy such food. M. Jeewska-Zychowicz et al. On the other hand, the views concerning benefits from consuming functional food comprise an important factor determining its acceptance [Verbeke, 2005; Devcich et al., 2007]. CONCLUSIONS This study showed that Polish consumers of sweets belonged to the traditionalists. Only to a small degree were they interested in sweets with special health-promoting properties, that are introduced by producers on the Polish market. Only the use of vitamins was accepted by the majority of consumers as desirable ingredients in such type of products. Consumers' interest in sweets with special health-promoting properties showed the statistically significant correlations with using food as a reward and their beliefs on the health effect of consuming chocolate-coated product. More respondents using food as a reward and negatively assessing the effect of conventional sweets on human health were active on the market because they were paying attention to or buying sweets with labels "having special health-promoting properties" last month. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The research was carried out within the project EUREKA E!4449 AKTINIDIA "Consumers' behaviours on the market of innovative chocolate products" financed by National Centre of Research and Development in 2009­2011. The project manager ­ Maria Jeznach, PhD. TABLE 3. Consumers' opinions on new chocolate-coated products considering the cognitive and emotional components of the attitude toward sweets (% of respondents). Sweet preferences ­ emotional component of attitude 1S I pay attention to new chocolate coated products labeled as having specific nutritional properties (S, F, H)* In order to improve the health properties of sweets the following may be added: Yes, I am interested Yes, but only from time to time No, I prefer well known products Fibre (S, F, H) Minerals Vitamins Probiotic bacteria (H) Organic raw materials (H) Last month I paid attention to or bought sweets labeled as having specific nutritional properties (F, H) No I didn't Yes, but only chocolate products Yes, but only cookies and wafers Yes, I bought such products Socio-demographic features Total Food as reward ­ emotional component of attitude 1F 18.2 29.6 52.2 51.2 68.7 39.9 30.6 24.4 77.7 5.2 8.2 8.9 2 9.4 37.3 53.2 38.5 74.0 45.4 27.2 21.4 78.1 9.4 8.5 3.9 3 14.5 36.4 49.1 50.2 70.5 41.8 26.9 24.7 82.2 6.2 5.1 6.5 Opinion on health effect of chocolate coated products ­ cognitive component of attitude 1H 15.9 35.2 48.9 59.3 71.7 43.4 32.8 27.8 78.6 7.1 6.1 8.2 2 13.3 31.9 54.8 43.0 71.5 43.0 28.9 19.3 78.5 6.7 9.3 5.6 3 9.6 46.3 44.1 33.1 66.2 46.3 21.3 16.9 69.9 14.7 11.0 4.4 4 11.6 30.6 57.9 31.9 74.5 39.4 23.1 24.1 86.6 3.7 5.6 4.1 1 ­ "liking sweets"; 2 ­ "neutral"; 3 ­ "disliking sweets"; F 1 ­ use of food as a reward; 2 ­ seldom use of food as a reward; 3 ­ no use of food as a reward; H 1 ­ beneficial health effect; 2 ­ no health effect; 3 ­ negative health effect; 4 ­ I do not know. *statistically significant differences at p<0.05 (Chi2 test) after considering: (S) sweet preferences; (F) use of food as a reward; (H) opinion on the health effect of consuming chocolate coated products. Consumers' Interests in Sweets with Health-Promoting Properties 12. Halford J.C.G., Gillespie J., Brown V., Pontin E.E., Dovey T.M., Effect of television advertisements for foods on food consumption in children. Appetite, 2004, 42, 221­225. 13. Jeewska-Zychowicz M., Pilska M., Attitudes towards food and nutrition. Selected theoretical and methodological aspects. 2007, Wydawnictwo SGGW, Warszawa, pp. 152 (in Polish). 14. Kampov-Polevoy A.B., Alterman A., Khalitov E., Garbutt J.C., Sweet preference predicts mood altering effect of and impaired control over eating sweet foods. Eat. Behav., 2006, 7, 181­187. 15. Kozlowska K., Szczeciska A., Roszkowski w., Brzozowska A., Raats M., Lumbers M., Factors influencing the choice and perceptions of yoghurts among old people living in Warsaw. Pol. J. Food Nutr. Sci., 2007, 57, 1, 115­124. 16. Macht M., Dettmer D., Everyday mood and emotions after eating a chocolate bar or an apple. Appetite, 2006, 46, 332­336. 17. Macht M., Mueller J., Immediate effects of chocolate on experimentally induced mood states. Appetite, 2007, 49, 667­674. 18. Osman J.L., Sobal J., Chocolate cravings in American and Spanish individuals: Biological and cultural influences. Appetite, 2006, 47, 290­301. 19. Rodriguez S., Fernandez M. C., Cepeda-Benito A., Vila J., Subjective and physiological reactivity to chocolate images in high and low chocolate cravers. Biol. Physiol., 2005, 70, 9­18. 20. Roininen K., Lähteenmäki L., Tuorila H., Quantification of consumer attitudes to health and hedonic characteristics of foods. Appetite, 1999, 33, 71­88. 21. Thomson D.M.H., Crocker C., Marketo C.G., Linking sensory characteristics to emotions: An example using dark chocolate. Food Qual. Pref., 2010, 21, SI, 1117­1125. 22. Urala N., Lähteenmäki L., Consumers' changing attitudes towards functional foods. Food Qual. Pref., 2007, 18, 1­12. 23. Verbeke W., Consumer acceptance of functional foods: Socio-demographic, cognitive and attitudinal determinants. Food Qual. Pref., 2005, 16, 45­57. 24. Wansink B., Cheney M.M., Chan N., Exploring comfort food preferences across age and gender. Physiol. Behav., 2003, 79, 739­747. Submitted: 13 October 2011. Revised: 5 and 12 March 2012. Accepted: 12 March 2012. Published on-line: 16 November 2012. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Polish Journal of Food and Nutrition Sciences de Gruyter

Consumers’ Interests in Sweets with Health-Promoting Properties and Their Selected Determinants

Loading next page...
 
/lp/de-gruyter/consumers-interests-in-sweets-with-health-promoting-properties-and-mu6SW6tkn2

References (33)

Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by the
ISSN
1230-0322
eISSN
2083-6007
DOI
10.2478/v10222-012-0062-8
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Pol. J. Food Nutr. Sci., 2013, Vol. 63, No. 1, pp. 43-48 DOI: 10.2478/v10222­012­0062­8 http://journal.pan.olsztyn.pl Original paper Section: Nutritional Research Consumers' Interests in Sweets with Health-Promoting Properties and Their Selected Determinants Marzena Jeewska-Zychowicz*, Maria Jeznach, Malgorzata Kosicka-Gbska Department of Organization and Consumption Economics, Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW), ul. Nowoursynowska 159c, 02­787 Warsaw, Poland Key words: attitude, sweets preferences, functional food, health-promoting properties of food The aim of the study was to examine to what degree the consumers' attitudes towards food and health influence their interest in sweets with special health-promoting properties, and to evaluate the effect of age, gender, education and family income on the interest in this kind of sweets. The research was carried out on a representative sample of 1000 adult Polish consumers. The survey instrument consisted of questions assessing consumers' interest in sweets, their preferences and attitudes towards sweets, paying attention to sweets labeled as having specific nutritional properties, and acceptance of additional ingredients aimed at improving health properties of sweets. The research revealed that over half of the population declared no interest in new chocolate-coated products with special health properties. Moreover, almost 4/5 of respondents did not pay attention to or buy any sweets labeled as having specific nutritional properties. The most accepted components improving health properties of sweets were vitamins, then fibre and minerals. The declared sweetness preferences did not show any statistically significant correlation with the consumers' interest in sweets with health-promoting properties. Significantly higher number of respondents who did not use food as a reward and who could not formulate their opinions on health effect of sweets, declared attention paid to sweets labeled as having health-promoting properties or purchase of these products. INTRODUCTION Functional food, according to the definition worked out within the FuFoSE project, is a food which together with the basic nutritional impact has beneficial effects on one or more functions of the human organism thus either improving the general and physical conditions or/and decreasing the risk of the development of diseases. Such food should look like conventional food and should have a favourable effect in the amount expected to be normally consumed with the diet [Diplock et al., 1999]. Functional food differs from conventional food but it is also viewed as being member of the particular category to which it belongs, rather than being considered as a homogenous group of products. Although the sweets with the increased health-promoting value do not have to be categorised as functional food, they can be viewed by consumers as such food. Moreover, they arouse a lot of controversy mostly because of many negative consequences to health caused by the consumption of conventional sweets. The food advertisement in mass-media, i.e. presenting candies with added vitamins, is also one of the important reasons of this controversy, especially when they are directed to the children [Halford et al., 2004]. * Corresponding Author: Tel.: +4822 59 37 131; Fax +4822 5937147 E-mail: marzena_jezewska_zychowicz@sggw.pl (Dr. M. Jeewska-Zychowicz) The Polish market of functional food products is growing constantly and the future of this type of food looks quite optimistic. The most dynamic development is observed in the group of soft drinks, cereal and milk products, fats and food for children. The development of the functional food market is caused by the growing health awareness, and the changes in consumer's attitudes towards food and health [Jeewska-Zychowicz & Pilska, 2007; Thomson et al., 2010]. The consumers' beliefs and preferences influence the declared willingness to buy healthy products and the purchasing behaviours [Bäckström et al., 2004; Cox et al., 2004; Urala & Lähteenmäki, 2007; Ares et al., 2010]. The benefits which a person connects with the consumption of food usually accompany more positive feelings and vice versa. A person may at the same time represent both positive and negative opinions and preferences towards the food product [Conner & Sparks, 2002], which also takes place in the case of chocolate and other sweets [Wansink et al., 2003; Rodriguez et al., 2005; Macht & Dettmer, 2006; Macht & Mueller, 2007]. Moreover, negative beliefs may be accompanied by positive emotions and vice versa [Conner & Sparks, 2002; Berndsen & Van Der Pligt, 2004; Fletcher et al., 2007]. The aim of this research was to assess to what degree the consumers' attitudes towards food and health relationship influence their interest in sweets with special health-promoting properties. The attitudes were represented by consumers' beliefs on the effect of sweets on health (cognitive component), and by the emotional component of at- © Copyright by Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences titude created by the sweet preferences and the use of food as a reward. The effect of age, gender, education and family income on consumers' interests in "healthy" sweets was taken into account as well. MATERIALS AND METHODS The questionnaire survey was carried out in the autumn of 2010 within the randomised group of 1000 adult Polish consumers. The survey instrument consisted of questions that assessed paying attention to or buying sweets labeled as having specific nutritional properties, and consumers' attitudes toward sweets, including their sweet preferences, their beliefs on the impact of eating sweets on the health and using food as a reward. The emotional component of the attitude towards food and health was evaluated by taking into account the use of food as a reward and the declared sweet preferences. The six statements selected from the scales of Roininen et al. [1999] describing the use of food as a reward were evaluated on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = completely disagree, 7 = completely agree). These statements were as follows: "I reward myself by buying something really tasty", "When I am feeling down I want to treat myself with something really delicious", "I avoid rewarding myself with food" (these negative statement was recoded for the final score), "I believe that food should always be source of pleasure", "When I eat, I concentrate on enjoying taste of food", and "An essential part of my weekend is eating delicious food". The use of food as a reward was determined as the sum of ranks from the 7-point scale for the 6 statements (from 6 to 42 points), then the point intervals were determined based on the quartile analysis (20, 24 and 27 points). The first quartile was represented by people who did not use food as a reward (29.1%) ­ the sum of ranks was small, which can be interpreted as a relatively high level of disagreement with the statements, the second and third quartiles were represented by people using food as a reward but to some extent (43.4%), and the fourth group included people who often used food as a reward (27.5%) ­ the sum of ranks was high, which can be interpreted as a relatively high level of agreement with the statements. Five-point scales were used for the assessment of consumers' preferences, (1 = I do not like; 5 = I like it very much) M. Jeewska-Zychowicz et al. in relation to 10 sweet assortments: chocolate bars; cream-filled chocolate; plain chocolate; milk chocolate without any additions or with the addition of fruit filling or filling other than fruit; toffi sweets; caramel drops or similar ones; cookies and wafers. Factor analysis was used for grouping the preferences. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and Bartlett's tests were used for testing suitability of the correlation matrix for factor analysis. Two factors explained 61.8% of the total variance. The first factor was represented by preferences towards cream-filled chocolate (correlation coefficient 0.832), milk chocolate with additions (0.765), chocolate-coated sweets with fruit filling (0.799) or other filling (0.801); while the other factor included preferences regarding cookies (0.884) and wafers (0.891). An agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis based on these factors was carried out to identify segments of consumers with different preferences. Three homogenous clusters were identified, cluster 1 was described as "liking sweets" (48.0% of population), cluster 2 as "neutral" (36.4%), and cluster 3 as "disliking sweets" (15.6%) (Table 1). The cognitive component of attitude towards sweets was evaluated using a question about the effect of consuming chocolate-coated products on the health. The answers were as follows: positive effect, no effect, negative effect, I do not know. Statistical package SPSS 14 PL for Windows was used for the analyses including frequency analyses, cross tables, factor analyses and cluster analyses. Pearson's chi-square association test was used to confirm differences between variables at 0.05 probability level. One Way ANOVA and Tukey's test were used to confirm differences between variables measured as mean values. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION As shown in Table 2, clusters significantly differed in their age, education and family income distribution. The homogenous clusters created according to the declared preferences of sweets distinguished themselves by the socio-demographic characteristics. Only gender showed no statistically significant correlation with sweet preferences. In other surveys a relationship between sweet preferences and gender was demonstrated, namely: women like chocolate more than men do [Wansink et al., 2003; Osman & Sobal, 2006], and women more TABLE 1. Respondents' preferences towards selected types of sweets according to their affiliation to the clusters (mean value of consumers' preferences calculated on the base of ranks from the 5-point scale (1 ­ I don't like, 2 ­ I rather don't like, 3 ­ neither like nor dislike, 4 ­ I rather like, 5 ­ I like very much) ± standard deviation). Cluster "liking sweets" n=480 4.32a±0.57 4.25a±0.64 4.12a±0.66 4.18 ±0.59 Types of sweets Cream-filled chocolate (IS)* Milk chocolate with additional ingredients (IS) Chocolate-coated sweets with fruit filling (IS) Chocolate-coated sweets with non-fruit filling (IS) Cookies (IS) Wafers (IS) Total n=1000 3.42±1.27 3.50±1.21 3.17±1.26 3.37±1.19 3.74±1.06 3.64±1.11 "neutral" n=364 3.05b±1.00 3.28b±0.95 2.64b±0.90 3.08 ±0.89 "disliking sweets" n=156 1.56c±0.87 1.68c±0.91 1.52c±0.90 1.56c±0.89 2.54c±1.38 2.42c±1.36 4.20a±0.66 4.15 ±0.70 3.66b±0.89 3.52 ±0.97 *(IS) means with different superscripts differ significantly according to Tukey's test at p<0.001. Consumers' Interests in Sweets with Health-Promoting Properties TABLE 2. Components of the attitude toward sweets according to socio-demographic characteristics of the population (% of respondents). Sweet preferences ­ emotional component of attitude 1S Gender (F, H)* Age (S, F) Women Men 18­24 years 25­34 years 35­44 years 45­54 years 55 years and over Education (S) Lower than secondary Secondary Higher than secondary Opinions on family income (S) Allows to fulfill basic needs or is insufficient Allows to fulfill some but not all needs Enough for all needs and some for saving Socio-demographic features Total Food as reward ­ emotional component of attitude 1F 57.4 42.6 20.6 17.5 18.9 20.6 22.3 22.7 43.6 33.7 25.1 53.6 21.3 2 47.5 52.5 20.7 15.7 19.6 20.3 23.7 27.0 46.3 26.7 21.8 53.8 24.4 3 57.1 42.9 27.3 16.7 25.1 17.1 13.8 25.1 45.5 29.4 21.1 52.4 26.5 Opinion on health effect of chocolate coated products ­ cognitive component of attitude 1H 62.4 37.6 20.9 17.5 20.6 20.9 20.1 23.8 45.0 31.2 21.3 54.5 24.2 2 47.4 52.6 23.0 15.2 22.2 28.5 21.1 25.9 45.2 28.9 23.0 54.8 22.2 3 47.8 52.2 25.0 19.1 16.2 16.2 23.5 25.0 40.4 34.6 23.0 54.8 22.2 4 46.8 53.2 23.1 14.8 22.7 20.4 19.0 26.9 49.0 24.1 24.1 48.6 27.3 1 ­ "liking sweets"; 2 ­ "neutral"; 3 ­ "disliking sweets"; F 1 ­ use of food as a reward; 2 ­ seldom use of food as a reward; 3 ­ no use of food as a reward; H 1 ­ beneficial health effect; 2 ­ no health effect; 3 ­ negative health effect; 4 ­ I do not know. *statistically significant differences at p<0.05 (Chi2 test) after considering: (S) sweet preferences; (F) use of food as a reward; (H) opinion on the health effect of consuming chocolate coated products. often feel discomfort connected with having the sense of guilt after consuming it [Cartwright & Stritzke, 2008]. The cluster named "liking sweets" was represented by significantly more consumers aged 18­44 years, especially those of the youngest age group. Similar results were observed elsewhere [Wansink et al., 2003; Cartwright et al., 2007]. A higher number of respondents aged 45 years and more, as compared to others, represented the cluster described as "disliking sweets" and respondents from the oldest age group constituted nearly 1/3 of that cluster (Table 2). A higher number of the surveyed with lower than secondary education represented the cluster "disliking sweets" and the remaining clusters were represented by a higher number of respondents with secondary education. Respondents with higher education less numerously represented clusters of "liking" and "disliking sweets" as compared with cluster 2 represented by the surveyed who were "neutral towards sweets". Those liking sweets constituted the highest percentage of respondents declaring that "they can afford some but not all expenses". The respondents who most positively assessed their family income constituted relatively the highest percentage in the cluster 2 (Table 2). Opinions concerning rewarding with food significantly differed after taking the gender and age of respondents into account. Among consumers who declared the use of food as a reward, there were more women (57.4%) than men (42.6%), which confirms findings of other researchers [Kampov-Polevoy et al., 2006] and more consumers aged 55 and over as compared with the remaining groups. More women than men, and more respondents at the youngest age and these aged 35­44 years than other consumers did not use food as reward. The gender was the only factor significantly differ- entiating consumers' beliefs on the effect of chocolate-coated products on human health. More women than men indicated the benefits from consuming such products (Table 2). Over half of the population declared no interest in new chocolate-coated products with special health-promoting properties. Only 13.4% of the respondents stated explicitly the interest in those products. The interest was expressed by a statistically higher number of respondents using food as a reward and positively assessing the effect of sweets on health. Well-known traditional sweet products were preferred by consumers who did not like sweets, those who used food as a reward and those who did not know how to express their opinions on the effect of these products on health (the answer "I do not know") ­ Table 3. According to the respondents' opinions, the most accepted component improving the health-promoting properties of sweets were vitamins, which were mentioned by over 70% of the population. Over 2/5 of the investigated group represented the opinion that fibre and minerals could be added in order to improve the health-promoting properties of sweets and less than one fourth of the respondents accepted organic ingredients in sweets. Fibre and vitamins were perceived as additional health-benefiting components in the case of other products, i.e. yoghurts [Kozlowska et al., 2007]. Pro-biotic bacteria were accepted by only about 28% of the respondents. There are investigations confirming the lack of the positive effect of such bacteria added to the chocolate mousse on the consumers' acceptance of such product as compared with its conventional equivalent [Aragon-Alegro et al., 2007]. Respondents' opinions did not differ in a statistically significant way after considering the component of the attitude towards food and health, with the exception of the use of fibre. The acceptance of fibre as an addition to sweets was declared by a statistically higher number of respondents liking sweets, both confirming and not confirming the use of food as a reward, by consumers indicating a positive effect of sweets on health. In the case of pro-biotic bacteria and organic ingredients used as additives in the production of sweets, statistically significant correlations were achieved in the case of the opinions on the effect of the chocolate-coated products on health. More respondents showing a positive effect accepted those ingredients. Also among those who did not know how to assess these effects the percentage of respondents accepting organic ingredients in the production of sweets was relatively high (Table 3). The low interest in sweets with an increased nutritional value was confirmed by the declaration concerning respondents' behaviours on the market during the last month, which included buying or only paying attention to sweets with special health-promoting properties declared by the producer. About 4/5 of the population did not exhibit any interest in these products in the form of behaviours. The declared sweet preferences did not show any statistically significant correlation with the interest in sweets with special health-promoting properties. Significantly more consumers who did use food as a reward and those who indicated negative impact of eating conventional sweets on health declared paying attention or buying sweets with the increased health-promoting properties. Investigations by Urala & Lähteenmäki [2007] indicate that noticing the reward as the effect of consuming functional food is an essential factor facilitating the willingness to buy such food. M. Jeewska-Zychowicz et al. On the other hand, the views concerning benefits from consuming functional food comprise an important factor determining its acceptance [Verbeke, 2005; Devcich et al., 2007]. CONCLUSIONS This study showed that Polish consumers of sweets belonged to the traditionalists. Only to a small degree were they interested in sweets with special health-promoting properties, that are introduced by producers on the Polish market. Only the use of vitamins was accepted by the majority of consumers as desirable ingredients in such type of products. Consumers' interest in sweets with special health-promoting properties showed the statistically significant correlations with using food as a reward and their beliefs on the health effect of consuming chocolate-coated product. More respondents using food as a reward and negatively assessing the effect of conventional sweets on human health were active on the market because they were paying attention to or buying sweets with labels "having special health-promoting properties" last month. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The research was carried out within the project EUREKA E!4449 AKTINIDIA "Consumers' behaviours on the market of innovative chocolate products" financed by National Centre of Research and Development in 2009­2011. The project manager ­ Maria Jeznach, PhD. TABLE 3. Consumers' opinions on new chocolate-coated products considering the cognitive and emotional components of the attitude toward sweets (% of respondents). Sweet preferences ­ emotional component of attitude 1S I pay attention to new chocolate coated products labeled as having specific nutritional properties (S, F, H)* In order to improve the health properties of sweets the following may be added: Yes, I am interested Yes, but only from time to time No, I prefer well known products Fibre (S, F, H) Minerals Vitamins Probiotic bacteria (H) Organic raw materials (H) Last month I paid attention to or bought sweets labeled as having specific nutritional properties (F, H) No I didn't Yes, but only chocolate products Yes, but only cookies and wafers Yes, I bought such products Socio-demographic features Total Food as reward ­ emotional component of attitude 1F 18.2 29.6 52.2 51.2 68.7 39.9 30.6 24.4 77.7 5.2 8.2 8.9 2 9.4 37.3 53.2 38.5 74.0 45.4 27.2 21.4 78.1 9.4 8.5 3.9 3 14.5 36.4 49.1 50.2 70.5 41.8 26.9 24.7 82.2 6.2 5.1 6.5 Opinion on health effect of chocolate coated products ­ cognitive component of attitude 1H 15.9 35.2 48.9 59.3 71.7 43.4 32.8 27.8 78.6 7.1 6.1 8.2 2 13.3 31.9 54.8 43.0 71.5 43.0 28.9 19.3 78.5 6.7 9.3 5.6 3 9.6 46.3 44.1 33.1 66.2 46.3 21.3 16.9 69.9 14.7 11.0 4.4 4 11.6 30.6 57.9 31.9 74.5 39.4 23.1 24.1 86.6 3.7 5.6 4.1 1 ­ "liking sweets"; 2 ­ "neutral"; 3 ­ "disliking sweets"; F 1 ­ use of food as a reward; 2 ­ seldom use of food as a reward; 3 ­ no use of food as a reward; H 1 ­ beneficial health effect; 2 ­ no health effect; 3 ­ negative health effect; 4 ­ I do not know. *statistically significant differences at p<0.05 (Chi2 test) after considering: (S) sweet preferences; (F) use of food as a reward; (H) opinion on the health effect of consuming chocolate coated products. Consumers' Interests in Sweets with Health-Promoting Properties 12. Halford J.C.G., Gillespie J., Brown V., Pontin E.E., Dovey T.M., Effect of television advertisements for foods on food consumption in children. Appetite, 2004, 42, 221­225. 13. Jeewska-Zychowicz M., Pilska M., Attitudes towards food and nutrition. Selected theoretical and methodological aspects. 2007, Wydawnictwo SGGW, Warszawa, pp. 152 (in Polish). 14. Kampov-Polevoy A.B., Alterman A., Khalitov E., Garbutt J.C., Sweet preference predicts mood altering effect of and impaired control over eating sweet foods. Eat. Behav., 2006, 7, 181­187. 15. Kozlowska K., Szczeciska A., Roszkowski w., Brzozowska A., Raats M., Lumbers M., Factors influencing the choice and perceptions of yoghurts among old people living in Warsaw. Pol. J. Food Nutr. Sci., 2007, 57, 1, 115­124. 16. Macht M., Dettmer D., Everyday mood and emotions after eating a chocolate bar or an apple. Appetite, 2006, 46, 332­336. 17. Macht M., Mueller J., Immediate effects of chocolate on experimentally induced mood states. Appetite, 2007, 49, 667­674. 18. Osman J.L., Sobal J., Chocolate cravings in American and Spanish individuals: Biological and cultural influences. Appetite, 2006, 47, 290­301. 19. Rodriguez S., Fernandez M. C., Cepeda-Benito A., Vila J., Subjective and physiological reactivity to chocolate images in high and low chocolate cravers. Biol. Physiol., 2005, 70, 9­18. 20. Roininen K., Lähteenmäki L., Tuorila H., Quantification of consumer attitudes to health and hedonic characteristics of foods. Appetite, 1999, 33, 71­88. 21. Thomson D.M.H., Crocker C., Marketo C.G., Linking sensory characteristics to emotions: An example using dark chocolate. Food Qual. Pref., 2010, 21, SI, 1117­1125. 22. Urala N., Lähteenmäki L., Consumers' changing attitudes towards functional foods. Food Qual. Pref., 2007, 18, 1­12. 23. Verbeke W., Consumer acceptance of functional foods: Socio-demographic, cognitive and attitudinal determinants. Food Qual. Pref., 2005, 16, 45­57. 24. Wansink B., Cheney M.M., Chan N., Exploring comfort food preferences across age and gender. Physiol. Behav., 2003, 79, 739­747. Submitted: 13 October 2011. Revised: 5 and 12 March 2012. Accepted: 12 March 2012. Published on-line: 16 November 2012.

Journal

Polish Journal of Food and Nutrition Sciencesde Gruyter

Published: Mar 1, 2013

There are no references for this article.