Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Science (Disafa), University of Turin, Grugliasco, Italy.
Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2022 Sep;73(6):709-725. doi: 10.1080/09637486.2022.2048361. Epub 2022 Mar 9.
Food-related diseases are a topic of concern for the population and institutions; therefore, regulations have been envisaged to improve consumer knowledge about food properties and to guide them towards healthy food consumption. Europe has addressed the use of claims on labels with two important regulations in 2006 and 2012. The use of claims allows for the differentiation of food products, particularly functional foods, i.e., those that can provide health benefits as part of a standard diet. The study aims to describe the interest of researchers on the topic of functional foods and health claims by observing the trend of publications and highlighting the role of the country on the topic through a network analysis. Another objective is to evaluate the role of lifestyle, psychological and socio-demographic predictors in the choice of functional foods bearing label claims or not, using a systematic literature review. To this aims, a bibliometric and a network analysis were assessed. The results reveal a positive trend in publications and a growing interest in the topic, thus showing that socio-demographic characteristics and lifestyle variables partially influence consumer behaviour. In particular, it emerges that educated people and women are more interested in functional foods, showing a higher willingness to pay for them. In addition, physical activity and beliefs regarding the nutritional quality of functional foods are positively correlated with WTP. However, several contradictory results were observed for some variables in the collected studies. For these reasons and considering the high number of functional foods and claims yet to be evaluated, further investigations are recommended.
食品相关疾病是公众和机构关注的一个话题；因此，已经制定了相关法规，以提高消费者对食品特性的认识，并引导他们健康消费。欧洲在 2006 年和 2012 年通过两项重要法规来规范标签声称的使用。声称的使用允许对食品进行区分，特别是对功能性食品进行区分，即那些可以作为日常饮食的一部分提供健康益处的食品。本研究旨在通过观察出版物的趋势，描述研究人员对功能性食品和健康声称主题的兴趣，并通过网络分析突出国家在该主题上的作用。另一个目的是通过系统文献综述评估生活方式、心理和社会人口统计学预测因子在选择带有标签声称或不声称的功能性食品中的作用。为此，进行了文献计量学和网络分析。结果显示，出版物呈积极趋势，对该主题的兴趣不断增长，这表明社会人口统计学特征和生活方式变量部分影响消费者行为。特别是，受过教育的人和女性对功能性食品更感兴趣，表现出更高的支付意愿。此外，身体活动和对功能性食品营养价值的信念与 WTP 呈正相关。然而，在收集的研究中，一些变量的一些结果存在矛盾。出于这些原因，并考虑到有待评估的大量功能性食品和声称，建议进行进一步的调查。
