URUGUAYAN CONSUMERS’ PERCEPTION OF

FUNCTIONAL FOODS

GASTÓN ARES1, ANA GIMÉNEZ and ADRIANA GÁMBARO

Sección Evaluación Sensorial

Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología de Alimentos
Facultad de Química
Universidad de la República
Gral Flores 2124, C.P. 11800, Montevideo, Uruguay

Accepted for Publication September 25, 2007

ABSTRACT

As the markets for functional foods increase, studying and understanding

consumers’ perception of functional foods is essential to develop products that
have a good consumer acceptance. The objective of this work was to provide
a first insight into Uruguayan consumers’ perception of functional foods. A
survey with 200 consumers was performed. The participants were not familiar
with the term “functional food,” as only 37% related the term with the real
concept behind it. However, the participants showed a positive attitude toward
the functional foods concept. Preferred areas of action of functional foods at
a generic level were not reflected in the ratings of perceived healthiness and
willingness to try yogurt with different enrichments, probably because they did
not associate the components with their health effect. These results suggest
that the use of health claims would be essential to ensure the success of
functional foods.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Cardiovascular diseases, cancer and the immune system are regarded as

the preferred areas of action of functional foods. Preferred health claims varied
with gender and age. Women seemed to be more concerned than men about gut
health and osteoporosis. Regarding the influence of age, younger people tend
to emphasize disease-preventing claims, while older people tend to give more
importance to short-term effects on health. These results suggest that different
health claims could be attractive to different market segments, and therefore,

1
Corresponding author. TEL: +5982-9245735; FAX: +5982-9241906; EMAIL: gares@fq.edu.uy

Journal of Sensory Studies 23 (2008) 614–630. All Rights Reserved.

614 © 2008 The Author(s)
Journal compilation © 2008, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
 PERCEPTION OF FUNCTIONAL FOODS 615

consumer research is necessary to determine which health claims could be

used according to which segment of the market the product is addressed to.

INTRODUCTION

Functional foods were first launched in Japan in the early 1990s as a food
category called Foods for Specific Health Use (FOSHU) to help overcome the
increasing cost of health care, being the only country that has specific legis-
lation covering functional foods. FOSHU can be regarded as “foods which are,
based on the knowledge concerning the relationship between foods or food
components and health, expected to have certain health benefits, and have been
licensed to bear a label claiming that a person using them for specified health
use may expect to obtain the health use through the consumption.” However,
an official definition of functional foods is lacking both in the U.S.A. (ADA
Reports 2004) and Europe (ILSI Europe 2002). According to a European
Union concerted action project Functional Food Science in Europe coordi-
nated by the International Life Sciences Institute, “a food can be regarded as
functional if it has been satisfactorily demonstrated to affect beneficially one
or more target functions in the body beyond adequate nutritional effects in a
way that is relevant to either an improved state of health and well-being and/or
a reduction of risk of disease.” The lack of official definition has been claimed
as one of the restricting factors in the success of functional foods among
consumers (Lähteenmäki 2003).
The markets for functional foods are increasing. New products are being
launched continuously, and competition is becoming more intense (Menrad
2003). Many functional food products developed from scientific opportunity
meet poor market acceptance (Hilliam 1998; Wennström 2000). Consumers
have more and more choices available to them and thus, a product needs to be
developed in line with what consumers want. There is surprisingly little
scientific research available to support food companies in determining which
functional foods to develop (van Kleef et al. 2005). Toward the end of the
1990s, consumer acceptance was both referred to as the key success factor for
functional foods and the top priority for further research (Childs and Poryzees
1998). For this reason, studying and understanding consumers’ perception of
functional foods is essential to develop products that have a good consumer
acceptance.
Health is one of the factors that influences consumers’ food choices
(Steptoe et al. 1995; Jaeger 2006). In the case of functional foods, consumers’
attitudes toward health are likely to be central in determining their acceptance
(Urala and Lähteenmäki 2003, 2004; Jaeger 2006). Consumers can only be
expected to consider substituting conventional foods with functional foods if
616 G. ARES, A. GIMÉNEZ and A. GÁMBARO

the latter are perceived as comparatively healthy. For this reason, the per-
ception of the relative importance of various health-promoting behaviors
could have potential implications for the acceptance of functional foods
(Bech-Larsen et al. 2001). Understanding issues such as locus of health
control and the importance of diet in general health condition could influence
the acceptance of functional foods (Pachter et al. 2000), as it is the main
motivation for using functional foods.
Information is necessary to decide what functional products consumers
are interested in. Further, consumers’ perceptions of the healthiness of the
products, processes and enrichments involved in the production of functional
foods are crucial in determining consumers’ acceptance of this type of foods
(Bech-Larsen et al. 2001). For this reason, food companies need information
regarding consumers’ healthiness perception and which health claims consum-
ers focus on when developing a new functional food (Verbeke 2005). In this
context, the perceived seriousness of various diseases (Hilliam 1998) is impor-
tant as this could potentially influence the acceptance of functional foods
designed to prevent or cure certain types of illnesses. Consumers will be
willing to consume a particular functional food if they are interested in its
claimed influence on health.
Although the perception of desired health benefits at a generic level might
provide useful information in order to select the most appealing health claims,
it is also important to get insights from an actual product, as interest in health
claims is determined by the healthiness perceptions of the base product as well
as the functional ingredient (Roe et al. 1999; Bech-Larsen and Grunert 2003),
suggesting that some health claims combine better with some food products.
Though the explanatory power of demographic background variables,
such as gender, age and education, has been decreasing in explaining func-
tional food acceptance (Dagevos 2005), their role in functional food accep-
tance cannot be ignored. Generally, the most positive group toward functional
foods have been women and middle-aged or elderly consumers (Poulsen 1999;
Bogue and Ryan 2000). Therefore, it is important to identify market segments
in order to attend their needs when developing functional foods.
Information about consumers’ perception of functional foods is
extremely important for the development of functional foods, particularly in
small markets like Uruguay. Uruguay is located in east central South America,
between Argentina and Brazil. The population of Uruguay is 3,305,723, and is
predominantly of European origin, being the capital city Montevideo with
1,347,888 people (INE 2005). Functional products have been increasingly
launched in the market in the past 2 or 3 years. However, food companies do
not have information about consumers’ perception of the product and do not
know if consumers will embrace as enthusiastically as they hope for. Published
studies about consumers’ perception of functional foods have been performed
 PERCEPTION OF FUNCTIONAL FOODS 617

in the U.S.A. and Europe. However, no study has been found reporting the
attitude of Latin-American consumers toward this food category. Therefore,
one important question is if consumers in developing countries will behave
similarly to their developed country counterparts.
The aim of the present work was to get a first insight into Uruguayan
consumers’ perception of functional foods.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Subjects and Materials

Data were collected through a survey with 200 consumers, who were
randomly recruited at shopping areas, universities and public places. The
sample included 103 females (51.5%) and 97 males (48.5%), ranging in age
from 18 to 84 years (mean 37.7, SD 15.2). Table 1 describes the characteristics
of the participants by gender, age group, education, marital status, household

TABLE 1.
DEMOGRAPHIC DETAILS OF THE ACHIEVED SAMPLE

Total (n) %

Gender
Men 97 48.5
Women 103 51.5
Age
18–29 years 68 34.0
30–44 years 63 31.5
45 years and more 69 34.5
Education
Primary school only 21 10.5
High school 128 64
University 51 25.5
Marital status
Single 112 56.0
Married 59 29.5
Divorced 22 11.0
Widowed 7 3.5
Household dimension
1 28 14.0
2 64 32.0
3 or more 108 54.0
Number of children in household
0 134 67.0
1 or more 66 33.0
618 G. ARES, A. GIMÉNEZ and A. GÁMBARO

dimension and number of children in the household. Considering the places

where the participants were recruited, the sample was assumed to represent the
general middle class Uruguayan population.
The participants were asked to fill the questionnaire shown in Appen-
dix A. They had to complete some sociodemographic information and answer
some open-ended questions and some multiple-choice questions, and they had
to rate the importance on their health of some factors using a 7-box scale
labeled on the left with “not at all important” and on the right with “very
important.”
The consumers were also asked to indicate their preferred areas of action
of functional foods. Nine health benefits were chosen, comprising the most
important causes of death in Uruguay (MSP 2003), some of the health claims
considered in Japanese legislation (Shimizu 2003) and those considered in
other work (Bech-Larsen et al. 2001).
In order to compare desired health benefits at a generic with insights
from an actual product, functional food concepts were developed. Yogurt was
selected as the carrier product as it has been generally recognized as a healthy
product (Poulsen 1999) and because there is an increasing marketing activity
in Uruguay regarding functional yogurts. Calcium, fiber, antioxidants and iron
were selected as the functional ingredients because of the fact that their health
effects were related to those effects selected for evaluating the preferred health
effect of functional foods. For each concept, they had to score the perceived
healthiness using a 7-box scale labeled on the left with “not at all healthy” and
on the right with “very healthy.” For these products, they also had to score their
willingness to try using a 7-box scale labeled on the left with “I would
definitely not try it,” on the middle with “Maybe yes, maybe not” and on the
right with “I would definitely try it.”

Data Analysis
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on data from the per-
ceived importance of different factors on health, considering each factor and
consumer as explanatory variables, and on data from the perceived healthiness
and willingness to try yogurts with different enrichments. For evaluating
differences by sociodemographic characteristics, ANOVA for each factor was
performed on scores using the categories of each sociodemographic charac-
teristic as variation factor. When the effects were significant, least significant
differences were calculated using Tukey’s test. Differences were considered
significant when P ⱕ 0.05.
For multiple-choice questions, frequencies in each category were calcu-
lated. The existence of differences between genders and age was evaluated
using c2 statistical test. For evaluating differences by sociodemographic
 PERCEPTION OF FUNCTIONAL FOODS 619

characteristics, ANOVA for each factor was performed on scores using

sociodemographic characteristics as variation factors. When the effects were
significant, least significant differences were calculated using Tukey’s test.
Differences were considered significant when P ⱕ 0.05.
All analyses were performed using the Statistica 5.1 (StatSoft Inc., Tulsa,
OK) statistical software package.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Impact of Different Aspects on Health

The perception of the relative importance of various health-promoting
behaviors could have potential implications for the acceptance of functional
foods (Bech-Larsen et al. 2001). The participants were asked to rate the impact
that six different aspects have on health. Average ratings for the six evaluated
factors are shown in Table 2. A wholesome and varied diet, avoiding smoking
and stress, as well as regular exercise showed the highest (P < 0.05) impor-
tance scores, suggesting that they were seen by consumers as the most decisive
factors to health. According to Bech-Larsen et al. (2001), Finnish, Danish and
American consumers considered a wholesome and varied diet and regular
exercise as the two factors having the greatest impact on their health. There-
fore, Uruguayan consumers seemed to give more importance to avoiding
smoking and avoiding stress, considering them as important as diet and exer-
cise. The higher importance attributed to avoiding smoking could be related to

TABLE 2.
AVERAGE RATING FOR THE IMPORTANCE OF VARIOUS FACTORS ON HEALTH FOR
THE WHOLE SAMPLE BY GENDER AND AGE

Factor Average importance

Whole sample Gender Age

Female Male 18–29 30–44 More than

years years 45 years

Regular exercise 6.41a 6.37a 6.45a 6.13a,b 6.58a 6.51a

Avoid smoking 6.47a 6.47a 6.47a 6.44a 6.38a 6.60a
Genetic 5.32b 5.26b 5.38c 4.91c 5.14b 5.90b,c
Avoid stress 6.22a 5.21a 6.23a,b 5.72b 6.36a 6.55a
Avoid drinking alcohol 4.92c 5.04b 4.79d 4.42d 4.61c 5.72c
Wholesome and varied diet 6.24a 6.54a 5.91b 5.97b 6.45a 6.27a,b

Means with different letters within the same column are significantly different (P ⱕ 0.05) according to
Tukey’s test.
620 G. ARES, A. GIMÉNEZ and A. GÁMBARO

the effect of public health campaigns and the fact that smoking in closed public
areas has been recently prohibited in Uruguay. Besides, the high importance
attributed to diet suggests that it might be a decisive factor in the consumers’
mind in relation to maintaining their health. This might have potential impli-
cations for the acceptance of functional foods and suggests that Uruguayan
consumers might have a positive attitude toward functional foods. Thus,
Uruguayan consumers might consider the possibility of consuming functional
foods for achieving a positive effect on their health. The relatively lower
importance attributed to genetic factors could be explained considering a high
level of locus of health control or to lack of knowledge and awareness.
As shown in Table 2, women gave a significantly higher (P < 0.05)
importance to the effect of diet on health than men, suggesting that women are
more positive toward the health benefits of food than men and that they might
be more likely to have a balanced diet. Men did not score diet with the highest
scores, suggesting that for them, it might not be regarded as one of the most
decisive factors in maintaining their health (Table 2). Females have been
reported to be more positive toward the influence of diet on health (Verbeke
2005). Besides, except for genetics, the importance attributed to most of the
evaluated factors significantly (P < 0.05) increased with age (cf. Table 2).
Older people seemed to give more importance to all factors, suggesting a
higher concern about their health. On the other hand, the importance attributed
to having a wholesome diet on health significantly (P < 0.05) increased with
educational qualification, as people who have only completed primary school
rated diet with a significantly lower importance than people who completed
secondary school or had a university degree (5.62, 6.24 and 6.47, respectively).
These results suggest that higher educational qualification might lead to
healthier dietary choices, probably because of the fact that education helps
people understand relationship between diet and health.

Functional Foods Concept

When asked if they have ever heard of the term “functional food,” 87.5%
of the participants responded that they have never heard of it before, showing
the low familiarity of Uruguayan consumers with this type of food. Uruguayan
functional food’s market is growing and there are several types of enriched,
fortified or altered products, and even some products that are commercialized
with a health claim. However, companies and media do not usually mention
the term “functional foods.” For this reason, consumers were asked to give
their opinion about what functional foods are. The given descriptions were
sorted into five groups. As shown in Table 3, 38% of the participants associ-
ated functional foods with foods that have some influence on health, 23% with
foods modified in their nutrient content, 22% with foods easy to prepare, 9%
 PERCEPTION OF FUNCTIONAL FOODS 621

TABLE 3.
CONSUMERS’ DESCRIPTIONS OF FUNCTIONAL FOODS WHEN ASKED TO GIVE
THEIR OPINION ABOUT WHAT FUNCTIONAL FOODS ARE

Group Total (%) Men (%) Women (%)

Health 38 32 43
Foods that have some beneficial effect on health
A healthy food
Foods that are necessary to maintain our health
Foods that have a positive effect on our health
Foods that have an effect on some aspect of our
health
Nutrient content 23 37 11
Foods that are rich in vitamins
Foods that are rich in nutrients
Foods that are nutritionally balanced
Convenience 22 13 32
A food that is easy to prepare
A food that is ready to eat
Function 9 11 7
A food that have some defined function
Others 6 8 7
c2 = 9.864*

Percentage of consumers that provided descriptions in each category for the whole sample and by
gender.
Total sample: n = 200.
* Significant difference (P ⱕ 0.05).

with foods having some defined function and 6% of the respondents gave
descriptions that could not be sorted in any of the previously mentioned
categories. Table 3 gives a more detailed description of the associations. Only
61% of the participants associated functional foods with health and nutrient
content-related concepts, whereas only 37% related the real concept behind
the term (a food that has a positive effect on their health). These results show
that a certain food could not be promoted as a functional food without saying
what a functional food really is.
Highly significant differences (P < 0.001) were found between the asso-
ciations of males and females. As shown in Table 3, women tend to associate
functional foods more frequently with convenience, while 69% of men tend to
associate functional foods with health and nutrient content-related concepts.
As Uruguayan consumers do not know what functional foods are, in order to
evaluate if the concept of functional foods seems to be attractive for them, they
were asked if they believed that certain kinds of food could have a positive
impact on their health. Ninety-nine percent of the participants answered that
622 G. ARES, A. GIMÉNEZ and A. GÁMBARO

they believed in that statement, showing a positive attitude toward functional

foods. Next, they were asked if they were interested in regularly buying and
consuming that kind of foods, to which 98.5% of the participants answered
“yes.” These results showed a surprisingly positive attitude toward the
consumption of functional foods and might suggest that functional foods could
reach an important market in Uruguay. This proportion of interest in the
consumption of functional foods is much higher than that reported by Childs
and Poryzees (1998) for American consumers. These authors reported that
42% of Americans were interested in regularly buying foods that can help in
the prevention of diseases.

Preferred Health Claims

The participants were asked to indicate which health aspects or diseases
they would prefer a food to prevent or have a positive influence. As shown in
Table 4, prevention of cancer had the highest priority, with 73.5% of the
participants who mentioned this aspect. This could be explained considering
that cancer is the second cause of death in Uruguay, comprising approximately
24% or the total deaths (MSP 2003). Cardiovascular diseases and enhancement
of the immune system were the second and third most mentioned aspects, with
53 and 50%, respectively. Therefore, the development of functional foods that
address these aspects, and the use of health claims related to them could add
to the acceptance of different products. These results are in agreement with
those reported by Hilliam (1998), who mentioned that French and German

TABLE 4.
PREFERRED AREAS OF ACTION OF FUNCTIONAL FOODS
FOR URUGUAYAN CONSUMERS

Health aspect or disease Percentage of

mentions (%)

Cardiovascular diseases 53.0

Lower cholesterol 30.5
Lower blood pressure 20.5
Prevent osteoporosis 18.5
Prevent cancer 73.5
Enhance the immune system 50.0
Slimming effect 27.5
Prevent anemia 17.0
Increase healthy gut bacteria 24.0

Figures do not sum up to 100% as respondents were given the option

of mentioning three possibilities.
Total sample: n = 200.
 PERCEPTION OF FUNCTIONAL FOODS 623

90

80

70

60
Percentage (%)

50
men
women
40

30

20

10

0
Prevent Lower Lower blood Prevent Prevent Enhance the Slimming Prevent Increase healty
cardiovascular cholesterol pressure osteoporosis cancer immune system effect anemia gut bacteria
diseases

Preferred influence on health

FIG. 1. PREFERRED AREAS OF ACTION OF FUNCTIONAL FOODS FOR URUGUAYAN

CONSUMERS BY GENDER

consumers most often mention cardiovascular diseases, cancer and the

immune system as the preferred areas of action, probably because of the fact
that in western countries, there is a tendency toward a common consent about
which diseases are the most important ones.
According to the c2 test, highly significant differences (P < 0.001) were
found on the preferred areas of action of functional foods with the gender and
age of the respondents. As shown in Fig. 1, a higher percentage of women than
men mentioned increasing healthy gut bacteria and prevent osteoporosis as
preferred areas of action. These results suggest that women seemed to be more
concerned than men about gut health and osteoporosis. This is probably
because of the fact that these health issues affect women more frequently
than men. On the other hand, men are more concerned about cardiovascular
diseases, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure. Regarding age, the interest
in preventing cardiovascular diseases seemed to lower with age, while the
interest in lowering cholesterol and blood pressure increase with age (Fig. 2).
Young people seemed to be more interested in slimming effects than older
people. The interest in reducing the risk of cancer type of a health-related
claim did not seem to vary with the age of the participants. In general, younger
624 G. ARES, A. GIMÉNEZ and A. GÁMBARO

90

80

70

60
Percentage (%)

50
18 to 29 years
30 to 44 years
45 years and more
40

30

20

10

0
Prevent Lower Lower blood Prevent Prevent Enhance the Slimming Prevent Increase healty
cardiovascular cholesterol pressure osteoporosis cancer immune effect anemia gut bacteria
diseases system
Preferred influence on health

FIG. 2. PREFERRED AREAS OF ACTION OF FUNCTIONAL FOODS FOR URUGUAYAN

CONSUMERS BY AGE

people tend to emphasize the disease-preventing claims, while older people

tend to give more importance to short-term effects on health (e.g., preventing
cardiovascular diseases versus lowering cholesterol). These results show that
different health claims could be attractive to different market segments. Thus,
consumer research is necessary to determine which health claims could be
used according to which segment of the market the product is addressed to.

Influence of Different Enrichments on the Willingness to

Try a Functional Yogurt
As shown in Table 5, yogurt enriched with calcium showed the highest
(P ⱕ 0.05) perceived healthiness and willingness to try, while no significant
differences were found in the perceived healthiness and willingness to try
yogurt enriched with soluble fiber, antioxidant extracts and iron. Although
preventing osteoporosis was not one of the most preferred areas of action of
functional foods, yogurt with calcium addition was perceived as the healthiest
product and showed the highest willingness to try. This could be related to the
fact that consumers showed a more positive attitude toward functional foods in
which the functional ingredient is inherent in the original product (Poulsen
 PERCEPTION OF FUNCTIONAL FOODS 625

TABLE 5.
AVERAGE PERCEIVED HEALTHINESS AND WILLINGNESS
TO TRY YOGURT WITH DIFFERENT ENRICHMENTS

Enrichment Perceived healthiness Willingness to try

a
Calcium 5.62 6.04a
Soluble fiber 5.32b 5.64b
Antioxidant extract 5.32b 5.51b
Iron 5.23b 5.49b

Means with different letters within the same column are significantly
different (P ⱕ 0.05) according to Tukey’s test.

1999). These results could also be attributed to the fact that Uruguayan
consumers are familiar with the health effect of calcium but are not aware
of the health effect of antioxidants and soluble fiber, and therefore, do not
associate these components with the health effect they prefer. Therefore, these
results suggest that the use of health claims would be necessary in Uruguay in
order to promote food products with these types of components. Perception of
desired health benefits at a generic level might provide useful information in
order to select the most appealing health claims. However, it is also important
to get insights from an actual product, as interest in health claims might be
influenced by healthiness perceptions of the base product, the functional
ingredient and health claims (Roe et al. 1999; Bech-Larsen and Grunert 2003).
Lack of nutrition knowledge could also affect functional foods acceptance as
consumers do not know the effect of the functional ingredient incorporated in
the product. Further research is needed in order to understand the relationship
between nutrition knowledge and functional foods’ acceptance in Uruguay.
The low health perception of yogurt enriched with iron might suggest that
consumers do not seem to be interested in consuming iron-enriched products.
This could be explained considering that Uruguayans consumers have a high
meat intake and therefore, do not perceive a need for iron-enriched products.
These results are in agreement with the low number of mentions to anemia
between the preferred areas of action of functional foods.
Although significant differences were found in preferred areas of action on
health of functional foods with gender and age, ANOVA showed no significant
differences in perceived healthiness and willingness to try with the participants’
gender or age (data not shown). This lack of difference might be attributed to the
fact that consumers do not relate the evaluated components with their preferred
areas of action of functional foods, suggesting the importance of nutritional
knowledge in functional food acceptance. In order to ensure that consumers
relate their preferred areas of action on health of functional foods with func-
tional ingredients added to different foods, health claims would be necessary.
626 G. ARES, A. GIMÉNEZ and A. GÁMBARO

TABLE 6.
FREQUENCY IN WHICH PARTICIPANTS READ DIFFERENT
INFORMATION ON THE LABELS OF FOOD PRODUCTS

Information Always Sometimes Never

Net weight 36.5% 48.5% 15%

Shelf life 77% 20.5% 2.5%
List of ingredients 24% 61% 15%
Nutritional information 21% 51.5% 27.5%
Country of origin 41% 43% 16%

Total sample: n = 200.

When asked for the frequency in which they read different information on food
labels, 76% do not usually read the list of ingredients on the label when
purchasing a food product, whereas 79% do not read nutritional information
(Table 6). The healthiness of functional foods cannot be directly observed
from a product; instead, consumers need information-based knowledge on
the nutrient content and possible health effect of a functional food. Therefore, as
a large number of Uruguayan consumers would probably not read component or
health claims on the labels, marketing and media campaigns would be essential
in order to communicate a certain health claim.

CONCLUSIONS

Although the sample could be only considered representative of the

general middle class Uruguayan population, the present study provided a first
insight into the consumers’ perception of functional foods. A wholesome
and varied diet was perceived as a decisive factor in the consumers’ mind in
relation to maintaining their health and suggests that Uruguayan consumers
might have a positive attitude toward functional foods. The importance given
to diet was higher for women and older people, suggesting that these groups
might be more prone to accepting functional foods. Uruguayan consumers are
not familiar with the term “functional food,” as only 37% related the term with
the real concept behind it. Younger people tend to emphasize the disease-
preventing claims, while older people tend to give more importance to short-
term effects on health. These results show that different health claims could be
attractive to different market segments. Thus, consumer research is necessary
to determine which health claims could be used according to which segment of
the market the product is addressed to. Cardiovascular diseases, cancer and the
immune system were regarded as the preferred areas of action of functional
foods. However, this was not reflected in the ratings of perceived healthiness
and willingness to try yogurt with different enrichments, probably because
 PERCEPTION OF FUNCTIONAL FOODS 627

they do not associate the components with their health effect. Therefore,
preferred health benefits evaluated at a generic level might not provide the
same information as when evaluated in an actual product, probably because of
the lack of nutritional knowledge or the influence of both the base product and
the functional ingredient on the acceptance of functional foods.
Further research should be conducted in order to get more information
about Uruguayan consumers’ perception of functional foods and to address
some of the limitations of the present study, particularly the fact that the small
sample could not be representative of the Uruguayan general population.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are indebted to the Sensory Science Scholarship Fund and
GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare for the Rose Marie Pangborn Sensory
Science Scholarship granted to Gastón Ares.

APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRE ON FUNCTIONAL

FOOD PERCEPTION
Gender Age

Education Primary school Secondary school University

Marital status

Number of adults living with you Number of children living with you

Have you ever heard of the term “functional foods?”

Yes No

What do you think a “functional food” is?

How important are the following factors in terms of their impact on your health?
Regular exercise 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐
Not at all important Very important
Avoid smoking 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐
Not at all important Very important
Genetic 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐
Not at all important Very important
Avoid stress 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐
Not at all important Very important
Avoid drinking alcohol 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐
Not at all important Very important
Wholesome and varied diet 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐
Not at all important Very important
628 G. ARES, A. GIMÉNEZ and A. GÁMBARO

APPENDIX A:
CONTINUED

How frequently do you read the following information on the label of the food you purchase?
Always Sometimes Never
Net weight
Shelf life
List of ingredients
Nutritional information
Country of origin

Do you believe that certain kinds of food could have a positive impact on your health?
Yes No

Would you regularly buy and consume that kind of foods?

Yes No

Please indicate a maximum of three health aspects or diseases you would prefer a food to
prevent or have a positive influence
Cardiovascular deseases
Lower cholesterol
Lower blood pressure
Prevent osteoporosis
Prevent cancer
Enhance immune system
Slimming effect
Increase healthy gut bacteria

Please, using the scales, indicate how healthy do you perceive the following products, and if
you would be willing to try them.
Yogurt enriched 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐
with soluble fiber Not at all Very healthy
healthy
䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐
I would surely Maybe yes, I would definitely
not try it maybe not try it
Yogurt enriched with 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐
calcium Not at all Very healthy
healthy
䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐
I would surely Maybe yes, I would definitely
not try it maybe not try it
Yogurt enriched with 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐
antioxidant extracts Not at all healthy Very healthy
䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐
I would surely I would definitely
not try it try it
Yogurt enriched with iron 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐
Not at all healthy Maybe yes, Very healthy
maybe not
䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐 䊐
I would surely Maybe yes, I would definitely
not try it maybe not try it
 PERCEPTION OF FUNCTIONAL FOODS 629

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