Awareness and Attitude towards Functional Dairy Products among Consumers in Western Province of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Functional foods are the foods that provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition. Dairy products have a prominent position in the functional food market. However, the market share for functional dairy products in Sri Lanka is low compared to most of the countries in the world. Therefore, a study was conducted to investigate the status of awareness of and attitudes towards functional dairy products among consumers from the Western Province of Sri Lanka. The study was conducted using a pre-tested structured questionnaire during June to November 2018, with the participation of 307 purposively selected consumers. Information on consumers’ tendency towards a healthy lifestyle, awareness, and perception of health benefits of functional foods and dairy products, confidence in different information sources etc. were recorded. SPSS statistical software package was used for the data analysis. The empirical findings showed that consumers still concern about taste and cost rather than health when buying food products. Consumer age showed a significant and a positive association with a tendency towards a healthy lifestyle. Knowledge and awareness of functional dairy products, functional ingredients, and their benefits are considerably low among the consumers. However, consumer education showed a significant positive associations with the knowledge and awareness and knowledge of the ingredients present in functional foods and dairy products. Information availability, trustfulness, and media advertising had a significant effect on increasing consumer knowledge. Participants predominantly received information through electronic media (97.7%). Powdered milk followed by ice-cream and yogurt was requested by the consumers to be developed as future functional dairy products. A majority (70.7%) of the consumers did not satisfy with the existing market access and availability of variants and therefore, a good potential exists for the introduction of novel functional dairy products to the functional food market of Sri Lanka.