engleski

Crotian consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions towards functional cookies

Cookies are widespread confectionary cereal based product. Recently it was recognised that cookies can be easily transformed into nutritionally valuable functional product, while retaining the taste. However, this type of functional product can live on the market only if consumers adopt it. Therefore we investigated purchase habits of Croatian consumers towards cookies, and their willingness to buy cookies enriched with omega-3 fatty acids and lignans. - compounds which are in western diets present in insufficient amounts. Online survey was used to collect data among 1035 consumers, of which 73 % were women, and 97 % in the age range 15 - 65 years. Most participants had job, higher education degree (65 % ) and 60 % of them lived in urban areas. Survey included questions about consumption and purchase of cereal products, cookies and flaxseed ; importance of knowing nutritional value of cook ies and interest for buying enriched cookies. Nutritional knowledge and awareness were also investigated. Results show that 93 % of subjects consume cookies, while 61 % do not eat flaxseed at all or eat it less than once a month. Among subjects intereste d in purchasing enriched cookies (82 % ), the most interested groups are women, the elderly, and people with higher nutrition awareness and higher level of nutrition knowledge.

consumer attitudes; purchase intentions; functional cookies; flaxseed; lignans

This scientific work was supported by the Croatian Science Foundation project VH/VT Hrana (Vacuum cooling in prolonged shelf life food production ; project number 09.01/279).