Tian Yixing, Zhu Hong, Zhang Lei, Chen Honghua
College of Economics and Management, China Agricultural University, #17 Qinghua East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China.
Institute of Food and Nutrition Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People's Republic of China, #12 Zhong Guan Cun Southern Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100081, China.
Foods. 2022 Apr 15;11(8):1145. doi: 10.3390/foods11081145.
The potential contribution of nutritionally fortified foods to the improvement of public health has been recognized internationally; however, the extent of people's preferences for functional foods and the influence of information intervention on consumers' acceptance and selection of nutritious foods have not been comprehensively studied in China. The main purposes of this study are to assess Chinese consumers' perceptions towards nutritionally fortified eggs and to explore the ways in which information about the health benefits and the international market status quo of functional eggs impacts Chinese consumers' preferences and their willingness to pay (WTP) for nutritional fortification. Discrete choice experiments were used to elicit the preferences of 740 egg consumers from four cities in China, and a mixed logit model subsequently utilized to interpret the results. It was found that the provision of comprehensive information regarding the health benefits of trace elements and unsaturated fatty acids, as well as insight into the current market status quo, significantly improved participants' preferences and their WTP for functional eggs. Furthermore, the heterogeneous effects of demographic and sociocultural factors on consumers' treatment of this information were explored. It was found that the study participants with children and those with prior purchase experience exhibited a relatively stronger response to the information, while those who had expressed trust in the human health benefits of the nutritional content of functional eggs were not as sensitive as expected to the additional information. Therefore, if the government and enterprises design appropriate information treatment and nudging methods according to the current consumption characteristics of nutritionally fortified eggs, this will help to improve consumers' purchase confidence in the health efficacy of functional food and play a positive role in promoting people's healthy food consumption.
营养强化食品对改善公众健康的潜在贡献已得到国际认可；然而，在中国，人们对功能性食品的偏好程度以及信息干预对消费者接受和选择营养食品的影响尚未得到全面研究。本研究的主要目的是评估中国消费者对营养强化鸡蛋的认知，并探讨有关功能性鸡蛋健康益处和国际市场现状的信息如何影响中国消费者的偏好及其为营养强化支付意愿（WTP）。采用离散选择实验来获取来自中国四个城市的740名鸡蛋消费者的偏好，随后使用混合逻辑模型来解释结果。研究发现，提供有关微量元素和不饱和脂肪酸健康益处的全面信息以及对当前市场现状的洞察，显著提高了参与者对功能性鸡蛋的偏好及其支付意愿。此外，还探讨了人口统计学和社会文化因素对消费者处理此信息的异质性影响。研究发现，有孩子的参与者和有购买经验的参与者对信息的反应相对较强，而那些对功能性鸡蛋营养成分对人类健康益处表示信任的参与者对额外信息的敏感度不如预期。因此，如果政府和企业根据当前营养强化鸡蛋的消费特点设计适当的信息处理和助推方法，这将有助于提高消费者对功能性食品健康功效的购买信心，并在促进人们健康食品消费方面发挥积极作用。
