Worlds apart. Consumer acceptance of functional foods and beverages in Germany and China

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Research report

Worlds apart. Consumer acceptance of functional foods and beverages in Germany and China Q1 Michael Siegrist *, Jing Shi, Alice Giusto, Christina Hartmann Institute for Environmental Decisions (IED), Consumer Behavior, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

A R T I C L E

I N F O

Article history: Received 26 January 2015 Received in revised form 24 April 2015 Accepted 15 May 2015 Available online Keywords: Functional foods Food neophobia Trust Health motivation China Germany

A B S T R A C T

This study examined consumers’ willingness to buy functional foods. Data were collected from an Internet survey in Germany (n = 502) and China (n = 443). The results showed that consumers in China were much more willing to buy functional foods, compared with their German counterparts. A substantial segment of the German consumers indicated lower willingness to buy functional foods, compared with the same foods without additional health benefits. The findings further showed that in both countries, the participants with higher health motivation and more trust in the food industry reported higher willingness to buy functional foods than the participants with lower health motivation and less trust in the industry. Food neophobia had a negative impact on acceptance of functional foods in the Chinese sample. No such association was observed for the German sample. The results suggest that cultural factors play a significant role in the acceptance of functional foods; therefore, caution should be exercised in generalizing research findings from Western countries to others. © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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Introduction Food products that promise consumers improvements in targeted physiological functions are known as functional foods (Diplock et al., 1999). The functional food market is growing worldwide, and new products are continuously launched (Bigliardi & Galati, 2013). Various drivers such as increased life expectancy and rising costs of healthcare are likely to contribute to the future growth in this product segment. Therefore, it is not surprising that the food industry (Khan, Grigor, Winger, & Win, 2013) and researchers (Betoret, Betoret, Vidal, & Fito, 2011) invest substantial resources in the development of new functional food products and technologies for designing such foods. However, these novel food products will only be viable if consumers are willing to accept them as part of their daily diet. A better understanding of how consumers perceive health claims in food products and what factors determine the purchase of such food products is therefore important (see Lahteenmaki, 2013 for a review of this research). Functional foods are found under many food categories and offered by numerous food companies (Siro, Kapolna, Kapolna, & Lugasi, 2008). The majority of functional food and beverage products fail in the marketplace, however (Mellentin, 2014). Given that even well-known companies have not succeeded in launching functional foods, it is essential to gain a better understanding of the drivers for people’s willingness to buy such items. It is therefore

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* Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Siegrist).

crucial to determine, at an early stage of product development, the product concepts that are promising (Moskowitz & Gofman, 2007). This knowledge allows a company to invest its resources in the products that will most likely be successful in a given market. Past research suggested that not all combinations of carriers and health benefits would work equally well (Ares & Gámbaro, 2007; Grunert, 2010; Siegrist, Stampfli, & Kastenholz, 2008; van Kleef, van Trijp, & Luning, 2005). Healthier carriers and combinations that seemed more natural were more acceptable (Grunert, 2010). Health claims were more positively evaluated when attached to a product with a positive health image, compared with a hedonic food product (Siegrist et al., 2008). Therefore, yogurt seemed to be a much more promising carrier for a functional food product, compared with ice cream, for example (Hailu, Boecker, Henson, & Cranfield, 2009). Furthermore, physiological health claims were perceived as more attractive than psychological ones (Siegrist et al., 2008; van Kleef et al., 2005). Few studies examined the relative importance of functional benefits, compared with other attributes of food products. In a study testing consumers’ intention to purchase functional milk desserts (Ares, Besio, Gimenez, & Deliza, 2010), consumers valued the functional aspect of the food (i.e., enrichment of the dessert with antioxidants) much less compared with a picture on the label (compared with no picture) or a brown (compared to a black) colored package. The taste of functional foods is also important because many consumers may be hesitant to compromise on taste for health benefits (Verbeke, 2006). The product’s price is also crucial, of course. Consumers are prepared to pay higher prices for food items with proven health benefits; however, the premium they are willing to

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2015.05.017 0195-6663/© 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Please cite this article in press as: Michael Siegrist, Jing Shi, Alice Giusto, Christina Hartmann, Worlds apart. Consumer acceptance of functional foods and beverages in Germany and China, Appetite (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2015.05.017

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pay may be lower than expected by the industry (Bower, Saadat, & Whitten, 2003). Past research unveiled several factors influencing people’s willingness to buy functional food products. Functional foods promise improved health, better well-being, or enhanced functioning of physiological processes. The importance placed on one’s health is correlated with the intention to purchase functional foods (Tudoran, Olsen, & Dopico, 2009). Consumers’ beliefs in the health benefits of functional foods constitute an important factor affecting acceptance of these products (Verbeke, 2005). Therefore, people concerned about their health should be more interested in functional foods (Goetzke, Nitzko, & Spiller, 2014). Confidence in the product and trust in the food industry seem to be other vital criteria for acceptance of functional foods because health benefits may not be directly experienced by consumers. A study among Swedish consumers showed that only 25% of those who had eaten functional food perceived its effect (Landström, Koivisto Hursti, Becker, & Magnusson, 2007). The potential benefits of such foods or beverages should be communicated to consumers, who have to believe that the promised health benefits are delivered. This line of reasoning is supported by the findings that Canadian consumers seem to place a high premium on government-verified health claims (Hailu et al., 2009) and that trust is an important factor in the perception of functional food benefits (Urala, Arvola, & Lähteenmäki, 2003). Another study showed that consumers who trusted the food industry had higher intentions to buy functional foods, compared with those who distrusted it (Siegrist et al., 2008). Humans differ considerably in their willingness to eat novel foods. The concept of food neophobia has been introduced to explain individual differences in accepting unfamiliar and novel foods (Pliner & Hobden, 1992). The results of several studies suggest a moderate correlation between food neophobia and willingness to consume or buy functional foods (Siegrist et al., 2008; Urala & Lähteenmäki, 2007). Participants with higher levels of food neophobia are less likely to accept functional foods than those with lower levels of food neophobia. It has been argued that culture is the single most important determinant of food choices because substantial differences in food preferences are observed across countries and cultures (Rozin, 2007). Dairy products constitute a major part of the diet in the Western world, but they are not part of the traditional Chinese cuisine, for example (Rozin, 2007). The issue of which animal species are perceived to be edible is also strongly influenced by cultural factors (Harris, 1998). Factors such as the geographic, historical, and economic contexts of a country or culture significantly affect people’s food preferences (Wright, Nancarrow, & Kwok, 2001). Studies examining acceptance of functional foods also found relevant differences across countries (Siro et al., 2008). The European market for functional foods is less developed, compared with Japan or the US (Bech-Larsen & Scholderer, 2007). Western countries also vary regarding the evaluation of functional foods. For example, Finnish consumers had more positive attitudes toward functional foods than those in Denmark or the US (Bech-Larsen & Grunert, 2003). Another study, which examined the perceptions of benefits of functional grain products in four European countries (Dean et al., 2007), indicated that consumers in Germany and Finland perceived significantly lower benefits, compared with their UK and Italian counterparts. Most of the existing research has been conducted in Europe, more specifically, in northern European countries. It is remarkable that to our best knowledge, consumers’ attitudes toward and willingness to buy functional foods have not been examined in Asian countries, for example, where the idea that foods can also have medicinal properties may be more prevalent than in Western countries. For instance, Chinese people strongly believe in the health effects of the human diet, which is also reflected in their

persistent tradition of nutritional medicine (Anderson, 1988). Thus, it is reasonable to assume that the idea that foods can offer medicinal benefits is much more prevalent in China, compared with Western countries, and that Chinese consumers are more willing to buy functional foods. One goal of our study was to examine consumers’ willingness to buy functional foods in Germany and China. We investigated the acceptance of different combinations of carriers and health benefits. Possible health benefits of foods and beverages seem more important for people in China, compared with those in Western countries. Despite much anecdotal evidence for such an expectation, it has little or no empirical support. Therefore, we hypothesized that regardless of carriers and health benefits, functional foods would be more acceptable for Chinese consumers than German consumers. A second goal was to examine possible factors that would influence consumers’ willingness to buy functional foods and beverages. We hypothesized that consumers who trust the food industry and have a low level of food neophobia and a high motivation for healthy nutrition should be more likely to buy functional foods than consumers with the opposite three attitudes. We did not specify any hypothesis regarding country-specific differences in the importance of the drivers for the willingness to buy functional foods. Nevertheless, we examined possible differences between the two countries and investigated the existence of interaction effects per country and the various drivers for the willingness to buy functional foods. Methods Data collection and participants An online survey was conducted in Germany and China. Internet panels from commercial companies were used for recruiting the study participants (Germany: Respondi AG, China: InterfaceAsia Holden). The participants received a small financial compensation for filling out the whole questionnaire. We excluded the respondents who did not complete the survey and whose total survey duration was less than half the median of the total survey duration, which indicated an indifferent answering of the questions (nChina = 94, nGermany = 27). A quota sample was used with the variables gender and age. The two samples did not significantly differ regarding these two variables after the exclusion of some participants, as explained above. The German and the Chinese samples consisted of 502 and 443 respondents, respectively. Table 1 shows the socio-demographic characteristics of the two samples. Age and gender distributions were very similar between the two samples. The level of formal education seemed higher in the Chinese than in the German sample. Furthermore, the Chinese participants lived mainly in large cities, with slightly over half (53.7%) residing in Shanghai, Beijing (Peking),

67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119

Table 1 Socio-demographics of the German and the Chinese sample.

Males Age Education Primary and lower secondary school Secondary, vocational, and senior high school Vocational academy, college, undergraduate and above Residential area Cities Suburbs Rural areas

German (n = 502)

Chinese (n = 443)

120 121

48% 44.3(14.2)

49% 44.2 (13.1)

7.6% 60.4% 31.9%

2.9% 14.7% 82.4%

67.5% 6.5% 25.9%

94.1% 4.7% 1.1%

122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132

Please cite this article in press as: Michael Siegrist, Jing Shi, Alice Giusto, Christina Hartmann, Worlds apart. Consumer acceptance of functional foods and beverages in Germany and China, Appetite (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2015.05.017

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Guangdong, or Shandong. The other half of the sample was distributed among the other provinces,1 autonomous regions,2 and directly controlled municipalities. In the German sample, the percentage of respondents living in rural areas was much higher compared with the Chinese sample. However, it should be emphasized that cities in China tend to be much larger than cities in Germany. Furthermore, rural areas in China can be much more remote places compared with Germany. Material and procedure For most of the items used in the survey, English and German versions were available. Since the items were unavailable in Chinese, the English version was translated into Chinese by the third coauthor. The second author back-translated the items from Chinese into English. The two co-authors worked independently from each other. The few differences between the back-translation and the original wording were discussed by the authors until they agreed that the Chinese version had the same meaning as the English one. Similar to previous studies (Siegrist et al., 2008; van Kleef et al., 2005), the foods were described as concepts consisting of two dimensions: carrier and benefit. Based on a survey of the literature, four carriers (yogurt, nonalcoholic beverages, soup, and chocolate) and four benefits (reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases, strengthens the immune system, reduces lack of concentration, and reduces stress) were selected. In order to have a baseline for the respondents’ willingness to buy a carrier, we also measured the willingness to buy a carrier without additional health benefits. The respondents were asked to assess their willingness to buy on a scale from 1 (certainly not) to 10 (absolutely certain). The other response categories were only numerically anchored. Health motivation was measured by using the short version of the health subscale from the recently proposed Eating Motivation Survey (Renner, Sproesser, Strohbach, & Schupp, 2012). This subscale consists of three items (I eat what I eat to maintain a balanced diet, . . . because it is healthy, and . . . because it keeps me in shape [e.g., energetic, motivated]). A 7-point response scale was used; the possible responses ranged from 1 (never applies) to 7 (always applies). The other response categories were only numerically anchored. The attitude toward new food was measured by using the foodneophobia scale (Pliner & Hobden, 1992). We used a version that has been validated for the German language (Siegrist, Hartmann, & Keller, 2013). In the German version of the scale, some items had to be slightly changed to retain the meaning of the original item. Some minor changes were also necessary for the Chinese version so that its meaning would be as close as possible to that of the original version. The participants were asked to express their agreement with various statements (e.g., I do not trust new foods). A 7-point response scale was used; the possible responses ranged from −3 (do not agree at all) to 3 (fully agree). The other response categories were only numerically anchored. Social trust was measured as trust in various institutions in the food industry (Siegrist, 2000). The question asked was “How much trust do you have in the following institutions?” (food industry, food scientists, and pharmaceutical industry). A 6-point response scale was used, with the possible responses ranging from 1 (no trust at all) to 6 (very high trust). The other response categories were only numerically anchored. Additionally, standard sociodemographic questions were included in the survey. The participants also answered questions about a topic unrelated to the results presented in this paper.

1 2

Except for Qinghai, Hainan. Except for Ningxia, Tibet.

Data analysis

3

67 68 The internal consistency of the scales was assessed by Cronbach’s 69 alpha. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the impacts 70 of benefit claims, carriers, and country on the willingness to buy 71 various functional food concepts. Confidence intervals of the means 72 were computed to examine the differences across countries. Chi73 square (χ2) tests were used to check whether the levels of willingness 74 to buy functional food products compared with items without ad75 ditional health benefits were different across the two countries. The 76 measure of association γ was applied to quantify the size of the as77 sociation. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to 78 determine whether the functional food concepts could be com79 bined into a small number of scales. Multiple linear regression 80 analysis with forced entry of the independent variables was uti81 lized to examine the predictors for the participants’ willingness to 82 buy functional foods. The first model investigated the influence of 83 main effects only. The second model included (in addition to the 84 main effects) interaction effects with the variable country. Country 85 (0 = Germany, 1 = China) and gender (0 = male, 1 = female) were 86 coded as dummy variables. For food neophobia, trust, and health 87 motivation, the mean centered values were used. 88 89 Results 90 91 First, we examined whether the scales had acceptable psycho92 metric properties. Cronbach’s alpha suggested that the three items 93 measuring health motivation formed a good scale in both the German 94 (α = 0.87; M = 4.77, SD = 1.34) and Chinese samples (α = 0.81; M = 5.71, 95 SD = 0.88). The item analysis of the food-neophobia scale indi96 cated that three of the original items should be excluded to have 97 acceptable correlations (>0.30) between each item and the total scale 98 without this item. The seven remaining items formed a good scale 99 in both the German (α = 0.78; M = −0.98, SD = 1.03) and Chinese 100 samples (α = 0.73; M = −0.83, SD = 0.87). The three items used to 101 measure trust formed a good scale in both the German (α = 0.80; 102 M = 3.12, SD = 1.03) and Chinese samples (α = 0.85; M = 4.03, 103 SD = 1.05). 104 We examined the impact of health claims, carriers, and country 105 on willingness to buy. Therefore, willingness to buy products without 106 additional health benefits was not taken into account in this anal107 ysis. The ANOVA revealed significant main effects for country, F(1, 108 943) = 392.87, p < .001; carrier, F(3, 2829) = 19.90, p < .001; and Q2 109 health claims, F(3, 2829) = 56.45, p < .001. All two-way interac110 tions were significant: country × carrier, F(3, 2829) = 16.99, p < .001; 111 country × health claims, F(3, 2829) = 32.77, p < .001; and 112 carrier × health claims, F(9, 8487) = 21.27, p < .001. The three-way 113 interaction of country × carrier × health claims was also signifi114 cant, F(9, 8487) = 6.02, p < .001. Means and standard deviations are 115 shown in Table 2. 116 Table 2 presents not only the mean values for willingness to buy 117 various functional foods, but also the participants’ willingness to 118 buy the four carriers without any additional benefits. A closer review 119 reveals consistent differences between Germany and China. The con120 fidence intervals suggest a much higher level of willingness to buy 121 the 16 functional foods and beverages in the China sample than in 122 the German counterpart. For some of the products without addi123 tional health benefits, the willingness-to-buy values were also 124 significantly higher for the Chinese sample than the German one; 125 however, these differences were much smaller than for the func126 tional food concepts. Furthermore, in the German sample, the mean 127 value for the products without additional health benefits was higher, 128 compared with the functional food concepts. In other words, pro129 viding some additional health benefits resulted in a less attractive 130 food product. The opposite effect was observed for the Chinese 131 sample. Adding some health benefits to a food product resulted in 132

Please cite this article in press as: Michael Siegrist, Jing Shi, Alice Giusto, Christina Hartmann, Worlds apart. Consumer acceptance of functional foods and beverages in Germany and China, Appetite (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2015.05.017

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Table 2 Mean values, standard deviations, and 95% confidence intervals for willingness to buy, using various functional food concepts, among the German and Chinese samples.

4

Country

5

Germany (N = 502)

China (N = 443)

6

M (SD) [95% CI]

M (SD) [95% CI]

4.92 (2.93) [4.67, 5.18] 5.76 (2.86) [5.51,6.01] 5.27 (2.94) [5.01,5.52] 5.04 (3.04) [4.78,5.31] 6.21 (2.75) [5.97,6.45]

8.26 (1.58) [8.11, 8.41] 8.47 (1.54) [8.32,8.61] 7.70 (1.83) [7.53, 7.88] 7.94 (1.68) [7.79, 8.10] 6.51 (2.34) [6.29,6.73]

5.01 (3.10) [4.74,5.29] 5.59 (3.02) [5.33,5.86] 5.32 (3.04) [5.05,5.59] 5.12 (3.04) [4.85,5.38] 5.95 (2.92) [5.70,6.21]

7.92 (1.78) [7.75, 8.08] 8.04 (1.77) [7.87, 8.20] 7.40 (2.05) [7.21, 7.60] 7.65 (1.89) [7.47, 7.82] 6.54 (2.15) [6.33,6.74]

4.58 (3.05) [4.32,4.85] 5.07 (2.99) [4.81,5.33] 4.69 (3.00) [4.42,4.95] 4.61 (2.98) [4.35,4.87] 5.58 (2.94) [5.32,5.84]

8.12 (1.71) [7.96, 8.28] 8.26 (1.69) [8.10, 8.41] 7.67 (1.87) [7.50, 7.85] 7.76 (1.80) [7.59, 7.93] 6.76 (2.19) [6.55 6.96]

4.80 (3.28) [4.51,5.09] 4.91 (3.29) [4.62,5.20] 5.05 (3.27) [4.77,5.34] 5.11 (3.27) [4.82,5.40] 6.03 (3.16) [5.76,6.31]

7.74 (1.84) [7.57, 7.91] 7.77 (1.86) [7.59, 7.94] 7.46 (1.93) [7.28, 7.64] 7.59 (1.87) [7.41, 7.76] 6.52 (2.16) [6.32,6.72]

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Yogurt that Reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases Strengthens the immune system Reduces lack of concentration Reduces stress Has no additional benefits Nonalcoholic beverages that Reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases Strengthen the immune system Reduce lack of concentration Reduce stress Have no additional benefits Soup that Reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases Strengthens the immune system Reduces lack of concentration Reduces stress Has no additional benefits Chocolate that Reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases Strengthens the immune system Reduces lack of concentration Reduces stress Has no additional benefits

31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68

substantially higher willingness to buy it. The findings of previous studies that a carrier for a functional food product with a healthy image (e.g., yogurt) resulted in a higher level of willingness to buy, compared with a carrier with a hedonic image (e.g., chocolate), were also observed in both countries. In the next step, we examined whether the additional health benefits of functional foods resulted in a higher, the same, or a lower degree of willingness to buy the product, compared with the food product without additional health benefits. The results (Table 3) suggest not only significant, but also large differences between China and Germany. For the German sample, the highest positive impact of the health claim was observed for the yogurt that would strengthen the immune system. However, even for this product, only a minority of the participants (28.5%) showed a higher level of willingness to buy, compared with the normal yogurt. It is noteworthy that for a substantial segment of the German sample, additional health benefits of the food products even reduced the willingness to buy them. The health claims were much more attractive for the Chinese participants. For many functional food concepts, a majority of the Chinese participants showed higher willingness to buy, compared with the products without additional health benefits. The participants’ willingness-to-buy responses for the 16 functional food concepts were submitted to a PCA. Results showed that only one component had an eigenvalue larger than 1. This factor explained 78% of the variance. Therefore, a summative index of the willingness-to-buy responses for the 16 functional food concepts was calculated. It had a high internal consistency in both the German (Cronbach’s α = .98) and Chinese samples (Cronbach’s α = .96). In order to determine the predictors of willingness to buy functional foods, a multiple linear regression analysis was conducted, with willingness to buy functional foods as the dependent variable. Country, gender, age, and the mean centered values of food neophobia, trust, and health motivation were the predictors. The results are shown in Table 4. This model explained 43% of the variance (F(6,938) = 118.76, p < .001). The country variable had a significant and large effect on willingness to buy functional foods. The respondents from China had much higher values for willing-

ness to buy such products, compared with those from Germany. Trust and health motivation were also significant predictors. The participants with more trust in the actors in the food/pharmaceuticals domain had higher values for willingness to buy, compared with the less trusting respondents. Health motivation also had a significant positive effect on the participants’ willingness to buy functional foods. No significant effect was observed for food neophobia. In a second step, interaction effects were tested. It seemed worth evaluating whether the food neophobia, trust, and health motivation variables would have different impacts on German or Chinese consumers’ willingness to buy functional foods. Therefore, a second regression model was tested, which included three interaction terms related to the country dummy variable and food neophobia, trust, and health motivation. For the interaction terms, the dummy variable was multiplied by the mean centered value of the second variable. This second model resulted in a significantly better model fit (ΔF(3,935) = 11.61, p < .001) and explained 45% of the variance in willingness to buy functional foods. The parameter estimates for this model are shown in the second column of Table 4. The inclusion of the three interaction terms did not change the main effects. Country, trust, and health motivation were still significant; food neophobia was insignificant. Two interaction terms were significant, suggesting different effects of trust and food neophobia on willingness to buy functional foods in Germany and China. The insignificant main effect of food neophobia and the significant interaction term, country × food neophobia, showed food neophobia as a factor that reduced the respondents’ willingness to buy functional foods in the Chinese sample. In the German sample, however, food neophobia did not influence willingness to buy. In both samples, trust was a predictor for willingness to buy functional foods. Nonetheless, the significant interaction effect indicated that trust was more important in the German sample than in the Chinese one. Discussion Consumer acceptance of functional food products has been examined in various studies (Siro et al., 2008), although only a few

Please cite this article in press as: Michael Siegrist, Jing Shi, Alice Giusto, Christina Hartmann, Worlds apart. Consumer acceptance of functional foods and beverages in Germany and China, Appetite (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2015.05.017

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Table 3 The percentages of consumers with lower, equal or higher willingness to buy (WTB) functional food (FF) products compared with regular products in Germany (n = 502) and China (n = 433). Row percentages are shown.

5 6 7

WTB FF products, compared with products without additional health benefits

8 9

Lower %

The same %

Higher %

42.2 14.4

39.2 29.6

18.5 56.0

.62*

31.5 14.4

40.0 20.5

28.5 65.0

.54*

35.5 21.4

43.2 29.1

21.3 49.4

.42*

39.6 18.7

41.4 25.1

18.9 56.2

.55*

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67

Yogurt that Reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases Germany China Strengthens the immune system Germany China Reduces lack of concentration Germany China Reduces stress Germany China Nonalcoholic beverages that Reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases Germany China Strengthen the immune system Germany China Reduce lack of concentration Germany China Reduce stress Germany China Soup that Reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases Germany China Strengthens the immune system Germany China Reduces lack of concentration Germany China Reduces stress Germany China Chocolate that Reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases Germany China Strengthens the immune system Germany China Reduces lack of concentration Germany China Reduces stress Germany China

43.2 32.3

20.3 54.0

.56*

27.7 12.6

46.4 28.2

25.9 59.1

.52*

29.5 19.9

49.2 32.1

21.3 48.1

.39*

31.5 17.2

49.2 30.9

19.3 51.9

.49*

33.9 14.7

48.4 31.4

17.7 54.0

.57*

26.9 15.3

48.8 26.9

24.3 57.8

.48*

29.7 20.3

52.0 34.5

18.3 45.1

.39*

31.9 16.0

52.4 36.1

15.7 47.9

.52*

34.7 14.9

49.0 33.2

16.3 51.9

.57*

33.5 15.6

49.0 27.3

17.5 57.1

.58*

30.9 17.2

52.8 33.9

16.3 49.0

.50*

29.9 14.4

51.2 35.2

18.9 50.3

.51*

Note: *p < .001. γ = measure of association.

68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75

Table 4 Results of linear regression analyses, with willingness to buy functional foods as the dependent variable. Variable

γ

36.5 13.8

have investigated the issue outside Europe or the US (e.g., Ares et al., 2010; Ares, Giménez, & Gambaro, 2008). Some cross-cultural studies have examined the perception or acceptance of functional foods in different countries (Bech-Larsen & Grunert, 2003; Dean et al., 2007; Zezelj, Milosevic, Stojanovic, & Ognjanov, 2012). To our best knowledge, a comparison of Western and Asian countries has not been conducted, however. Thus, one goal of our study was to examine

5

Constant Country Gender Age Food neophobia Trust Health motivation Country × food neophobia Country × trust Country × health motivation

Model 1

79

Model 2

B

SE B

5.91** 1.77** −0.11 −0.01 −0.07 0.65** 0.48**

0.25 0.15 0.13 0.01 0.07 0.06 0.06

β .34 −.02 −.04 −.03 .29 .23

76 77 Q4 78

B

SE B

β

80

5.96** 1.77** −0.02 −0.01 0.13 0.88** 0.43** −0.51** −0.56** 0.24

0.24 0.15 0.13 0.01 0.09 0.08 0.07 0.14 0.13 0.13

.34 −.01 −.04 .05 .39 .21 −.12 −.16 .06

81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90

Note: *p < .01, **p < .001. The country (0 = Germany, 1 = China) and gender (0 = male, 1 = female) variables were dummy coded. Model 1: R2 = .43, Model 2: R2 = .45.

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consumers’ willingness to buy functional foods and beverages in a European country (i.e., Germany) and an Asian country (i.e., China). The results of this study suggested very large differences regarding the acceptance of functional foods in Germany and China. For all 16 functional food concepts, Chinese consumers showed significantly and substantially higher values for willingness to buy, compared with German consumers. The acceptance of the functional food products was also influenced by the proposed carrier or the promised health benefits. However, these effects were much smaller, compared with the impact of the participants’ respective countries. The results support the notion that in some countries (i.e., China), the idea that food provides some specific health benefits is much more prevalent than in other countries (i.e., Germany). Manufacturers of functional foods assume that the added health benefits increase consumers’ willingness to buy the products and that a premium can be charged for these items. Most studies did not include baseline measures of the food products. Therefore, the additional health benefits’ effect on consumers’ willingness to buy these products remains unclear (Dean et al., 2007; Hailu et al., 2009; Siegrist et al., 2008; Verbeke, Scholderer, & Lahteenmaki, 2009). These studies possibly overestimated the acceptance of functional foods because acceptance of the carrier was mixed with acceptance of the functional properties. In our study, the participants received information about the health benefits of the functional food products in understandable, laypeople’s terms. Furthermore, consumers’ willingness to buy functional foods without additional health benefits was also measured. For German consumers, many functional benefits resulted in reduced willingness to buy the products. For example, about 42% of the German respondents indicated lower willingness to buy yogurt that would reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, compared with yogurt without additional health benefits. The foods’ functional properties increased the willingness to buy the products among only a small segment of German consumers (between 16.3% and 28.9%). These results suggest the difficulty to launch functional food products for the mass market in Germany. Possible reasons for the reduced willingness to buy the products could be that German consumers assumed that the health benefits would result in less tasty foods or that they did not believe that the products would deliver the promised health benefits. Completely different results were found for Chinese consumers. A majority (up to 65%) of the participants showed higher willingness to buy functional food products, compared with the food products that did not deliver any additional health benefits. The outcomes indicate that marketing strategies for functional foods should be different in the two countries. In Germany, consumers have to be convinced of the need for functional food

Please cite this article in press as: Michael Siegrist, Jing Shi, Alice Giusto, Christina Hartmann, Worlds apart. Consumer acceptance of functional foods and beverages in Germany and China, Appetite (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2015.05.017

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products. This is not necessary in China, where consumers are already interested in food products that provide specific health effects. Another aim of our study was to unveil factors that were not directly related to the products but could possibly influence acceptance of functional foods. The results suggest that food neophobia, trust, and health motivation are drivers that affect people’s willingness to buy functional foods. However, it should be emphasized that we observed substantial differences between the German and Chinese samples. Nonetheless, health motivation was a significant predictor in both countries. In other words, people who considered health aspects important in food selection had higher willingness to buy functional foods, compared with people for whom health aspects were not essential. For trust, a significant main effect and a significant interaction term, trust × country, were observed. These results indicated that consumers with a high level of trust showed higher willingness to buy functional food products, compared with consumers with a low level of trust. However, the impact of trust was a significantly more important predictor for German than Chinese consumers, suggesting that the German food industry would have to ensure that the promised health benefits would be perceived as credible. Trust may be less important in China, due to its people’s prevalent idea that foods provide health benefits. For food neophobia, the main effect was insignificant, but the interaction term, food neophobia × country, was significant. These results showed that food neophobia was a significant predictor for the Chinese sample, but not for the German sample. In other words, the results observed in European countries that consumers with higher scores on the food neophobia scale are less willing to buy functional foods, compared with lower-scoring consumers (Siegrist et al., 2008; Urala & Lähteenmäki, 2007), have been successfully replicated in China, but not in Germany. Some of the carriers, such as chocolate or yogurt, may be less familiar to Chinese consumers; therefore, food neophobia may have been more important, compared to German consumers. This study’s results suggest caution in generalizing the outcomes observed in Western countries to non-Western countries. The same functional food concepts that are attractive to only a niche market in Germany have potential appeal to a mass market in China. The findings presented in this paper emphasize the importance of further research in Asian countries because cultural factors and traditions are crucial in the food domain and may strongly influence consumers’ reactions to new food products. Researchers in the food and consumer behavior domain should pay more attention to possible differences across cultures (Wang, De Steur, Gellynck, & Verbeke, 2015). Some limitations of our study need to be addressed. It is unknown how recent food scandals in China influenced the results of the present study. Furthermore, in line with many past studies, we examined the willingness to buy hypothetical, new food products, not the actual behavior. Our research participants assessed their willingness to buy functional foods, described as concepts with health claims. We were interested to test which product concepts would be the most promising ones. Future studies should also investigate the impacts of nonsensory aspects, such as brand, price, and packaging, on the willingness to buy functional foods that promise certain health effects. The impacts of sensory aspects, such as taste or texture, also need to be studied because consumers may be reluctant to compromise hedonic pleasure for health benefits (Verbeke, 2006). The benefits of functional foods should be communicated to consumers. However, given the present nutrition and health claim regulations in the European Union (Gilsenan, 2011), some health claims tested in our research will probably not be approved in Europe in the near future. If food companies are not allowed to emphasize the health benefits of functional foods, consumers may not understand why they should pay a premium for food products with

certain ingredients. Consumers are disinclined to pay high prices for certain ingredients but are willing to pay a premium for health benefits. Therefore, food companies may be hesitant to work on such products because it may not be feasible to market these items to consumers in a way that they understand the claimed health benefits. Instead of developing functional foods with health benefits, companies may focus on the development of food products that provide additional gains, such as naturalness, that are easier to market to consumers. Another limitation of the study involves the mode of data collection. Quota samples were used, and data were gathered from an Internet survey. As a result, the smaller percentage of people from rural areas in the Chinese sample than in the German one is a possible source of bias. Another difference between the samples is related to the level of education. Even though quota samples can be viewed as a limitation, they also have clear advantages. The sociodemographic variables between the two countries are more similar compared with random samples. Therefore, we can be more confident that the observed differences between Germany and China are caused by cultural diversity and not by discrepancies in sociodemographic variables. Based on the findings of this study, future research seems promising. The underlying reasons for the higher acceptance of functional foods in China, compared to Germany, should be examined in some detail. It would also be of interest to determine whether the results in China could be generalized to other Asian countries. Finally, this study used relatively abstract, functional food concepts. It would be worthwhile to investigate whether studies with more realistic product descriptions, including various product attributes (Ares et al., 2010), would replicate the finding that in Asian countries, health benefits associated with foods receive much higher utilities than in Western countries.

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