Functional foods and natural health products: A review of consumer acceptance and regulatory issues

In recent years, consumer interest in functional foods and natural health products (NHPs) has increased considerably in industrialized countries, offering an opportunity for the agri-food sector to add value to agricultural commodities. At the same time, functional foods and NHPs offer potential health benefits that could enhance well-being of consumers and reduce the economic and social costs of non-communicable diseases. A critical issue mitigating the commercialization of functional foods and NHPs is consumer acceptance. Thus, there is a growing body of research on the attitudes of consumers towards functional foods and NHPs and their propensity of purchasing these products. This review provides a report of this research and suggests avenues for future research efforts. The functional food and NHP market has been highly dynamic over the last 10 years or so, with significant growth in the value of sales and in the number and variety of products. USA is the leading global market, followed by Europe and Japan. Both across and within these markets there is great variation in the attitudes of consumers towards functional foods and NHPs. These attitudes are influenced by a plethora of factors associated with the product themselves, consumer demographics and psychographics, policy and market context, etc. At the same time, distinct regulatory regimes act to differentiate markets and set the parameters in which consumers make their choices and the industry promotes their products.