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Adults’ attitudes toward and purchasing intentions for child‐friendly shaped healthy fruit and vegetable snacks (1019.23)
Author(s) -
Baker Selena,
McCabe Sean,
Swithers Susan,
Payne Collin,
Kranz Sibylle
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.28.1_supplement.1019.23
Subject(s) - taste , purchasing , test (biology) , product (mathematics) , psychology , medicine , environmental health , food science , advertising , marketing , biology , business , mathematics , paleontology , geometry
Fruit and vegetable intake in children falls short of meeting national recommendations. Children’s liking of fruits and vegetables (FV) and availability and accessibility are important determinants of intake. We hypothesized that parents/caregivers would recognize fun‐shaped FV as being child‐friendly (CF) and would be willing to pay slightly more for CF‐shaped FV. A convenience sample of adults was recruited for a consumer survey and optional taste‐test of regular‐shaped (chunks/slices) or CF‐shaped (butterfly, chick, flower, teddy bear) FV. Participants (n=298) were 34% more likely to select CF vs. regular‐shaped FV for taste‐test (p=0.033). The majority of adults (68 ‐ 96.3%) reported high sensory ratings (蠅6 on a 7‐point scale) for both CF‐ and regular‐shaped FV, and 100% of parents/caregivers recognized the shaped FV as CF. Only 33.3% who tasted the CF FV reported high willingness to “pay a little extra” for the product. Therefore, while participants recognized the shaped FV as child‐friendly and were more likely to taste‐test them, product price appears to play an important role in adults' decision to purchase FV, impacting availability of FV for child consumption.