Atitude do consumidor em relação a alimento cárneo com atributos de saudabilidade

Abstract

The food industry has been engaged to launch products with health attributes in response to the increase of consumer awareness. In Brazil, academia has also endeavored to contribute to the technical feasibility and sensory acceptance of healthier foods. Due the high costs to develop, launch and market a product, it is important to previously understand consumer perception and attitude. Two methodologies used to explore consumer attitudes towards a food are projective techniques and conjoint analysis. The purpose of this dissertation was to conduct empirical studies on how individuals deal with healthful attributes in frozen burger. Three studies were conducted with different but complementary goals. In the first, via projective technique of word association, it was identified the most relevant categories for consumers considering the traditional burger and healthier burgers: Healthful, Good Taste, Quality/Flavor Apprehension and Fat/Calorie. In the second study, also based on a projective technique (completion test), it was found that the most important categories in the purchase of frozen burgers in general were related to brand, price, taste and healthiness. In the third study, the conjoint analysis revealed that the attribute Claim had more relevance to the participants than the Price. Levels of Claim were a traditional burger (no claim), a second with flavor appeal (tasty) and a third as the healthier (source of fibers). Of these, the traditional was preferred by consumers and the source of fibers one was rejected. In market simulations, the participation of the source of fibers burger was low, but there was evidence of a niche to be explored. The general conclusion is that there is a potential niche of consumers of frozen burger with healthful attributes. However, in the case of this meat product, the traditional and taste qualities are still highly valued even among the healthier versions, and sensory importance should not be neglected by researchers and food industries. The price, in turn, was considered secondary in the case of frozen burger. Regarding the evaluation of the methods used, it was found that qualitative and statistical techniques contributed to these consumer studies, identifying attributes that need attention to the development of new products and marketing strategies.

Street food: factors influencing perception of product quality

“…Although the scales developed by the authors do not have a direct application to the consumer perception about street food cleanliness, their statements and discussions guided the development of the items used in this study. The concept of healthiness is inversely related to the risk of intoxication that street food can cause (Viana, 2013). It concerns how safe the consumer feels when looking for street food, regardless of other issues such as price and accessibility.…”

“…According to Viana (2013), there are few studies on perception of product healthiness in Brazil. The perception about a product's healthiness is inversely associated to the risk perceived by the consumption of it.…”

“…The adoption of an specific theoretical model is appropriate to explain the relational structure of the data, but does not prove that the adopted model is the only one; it only demonstrates that the theoretical framework gathered is adequate for the data used, not excluding other theoretical models (Marôco, 2014). Thus, the relationship between the variable "Quality" and "Healthiness"not totally clear in the researched literature (Asiegbu et al, 2016;Chrysochou and Grunert, 2014;Grunert, 2010;Ibáñez Casanova, 2003;Santos et al, 2012;Viana, 2013) makes it necessary to challenge the theoretical model initially proposed. The competitive theoretical models proposed in face of the challenge present the variable "Healthiness" as mediator, consequent and intermediate between the antecedents (Service, Cleanliness and Organization) and Quality.…”

“…Competitive theoretical models were also tested involving the variables in question, with the objective of evaluating the most adequate relationship between the perception of quality and healthiness that is not completely clear in the researched literature (Asiegbu et al, 2016;Chrysochou and Grunert, 2014;Grunert, 2010;Ibáñez Casanova, 2003;Santos et al, 2012;Viana, 2013) and which represents a theoretical gap to be filled.…”

“…,Almeida et al (2014),Brunso et al (2002),Santos et al et al (2015),Chrysochou and Grunert (2014),Viana (2013),Parry et al (2004), Santos et al (2012), Asiegbu et al (2016), Stojanovic et al (2013) Food in the booths cannot cause illness The food sold does not cause me harm Cleanliness The booths are clean and sanitized Van Der Geest (1998), Drechsel et al (2000), Santos et al (2012), Cardoso et al (2008), Henderson (2011), Schroeder et al (2007), Martins (2006) The location of the booths is clean The surroundings of booths are adequate for food trade Organization The booths are organized Oliveira et al (2008), Drechsel et al (2000), Probst (2008), Rheinländer et al (2008), Grunert et al (1996), Walsh (2014) The products sold in the booths are well arranged and presented The products sold in the booths are well advertised Service The vendors are kind and polite with customers Fontanillas et al (2013), Santos et al (2012), Rossi et al (2012), Rheinländer et al (2008), Loriato and Pelissari (2017) The vendors handle money and food adequately The vendors are clean and appropriately attired to sell food Source: Elaborated by the authors…”