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Insights Nutr Metab 2017
Volume 1 Issue 3
Nutrition World 2017
Notes:
Page 44
September 11-12, 2017 Edinburgh, Scotland
15
th
World Congress on
Advances in Nutrition, Food Science & Technology
Consumers’ acceptance and preferences for
functional dairy products in Iran
Marjan Bazhan, Nastaran Keshavarz-Mohammadi, Naser Kalantari,
Hedayat Hosseini and Hamid Alavi-Majd
Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Iran
I
n the last decades, consumer demand for health-
enhancing food products, such as functional foods, has
rapidly grown due to rising costs of health care, increase in
life expectancy and desire for improved quality of life. Given
the novelty of functional dairy products in Iranian market,
and considering the fact that consumers’ acceptance play
an important role in the success of marketing a product,
this study was conducted to fill the knowledge gap in
this regard. Four hundred consumers aged between 25
to 65 years were selected from ten major chain stores
in different geographical areas in Tehran, the capital of
Iran, through multistage sampling method. The data were
collected by a researcher-made questionnaire that its
validity and reliability had been measured. In general, 95%
of the subjects consumed at least one of the functional
dairy products. Low-fat dairy products (91%) and vitamin
D or omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids fortified dairy
products (20%) had the highest and lowest percentage
of intake among the consumers, respectively. Women
(p=0.042), those with higher education (p=0.012) and
higher average attitude score (p==0.007), and households
with children under 18 (p=0.041) showed high acceptance
and preferences for functional dairy products. Familiarity
with functional dairy products and their health properties;
interest in maintaining and improving health and disease
prevention; sensory and non-sensory features of the
product such as taste, quality, price, having safety and
health sign, and being
Healthy; and the product availability were also found to
be related to the acceptance for functional dairy products.
To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first in
this regard in Iran. The factors listed above should be
considered both in productions of dairy foods and in their
promotion plans. This understanding can contribute to
success of interventions to increase consumption of these
products among consumers.
Biography
Marjan Bazhan is working at the Faculty of Nutrition Sciences and Food
Technology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Iran. She
received her PhD in Nutrition Sciences from Shahid Beheshti University of
Medical Sciences, Iran. She has expertise in the field of Community Nutrition,
Behavior Change, and Health Promotion.
marjanbazhan@sbmu.ac.irMarjan Bazhan et al., Insights Nutr Metab 2017