14. Analytical Study of Factors Influencing Consumer Choice Heterogeneity for the Acceptance of Functional Foods (Foods with Health Claims) in India

The “Food-Nutrition-Health-Wellbeing” paradigm has significantly changed in the last two decades. A complex interplay of demographic, psychographic and socio-economic factors such as rising incomes, consumer wellness trends, affluent lifestyles and desire for an improved quality of life with higher life expectancy has influenced this paradigm. This has led to the emergence of “Functional Foods”—foods with nutritional and health enhancing claims which claim to be the panacea for consumers looking for nutrition and health without compromising on taste as well as convenience. The consumer acceptance of functional foods, however, is not unconditional and is determined by a complex interplay of a host of factors such as consumer demographics and psychographics, their lifestyles, the health claims and health communication used. These factors play a very critical role in the consumer acceptance of functional foods therefore generalization of consumer characteristics is not valid. This paper aims to bridge this research gap in the context of emerging market like India for these foods. The paper aims to study how the abovementioned consumer characteristics interplay with each other and explain/determine the heterogeneity in the consumer preference/acceptance of functional foods across different Indian consumer segments.