Lifestyle, demographic and psychological factors involved in the choice and willingness to pay for functional and healthy foods: consumers’ preferences and behaviour

The study of consumer behaviour towards functional foods can be considered a topic of growing interest. Indeed, the rise in diet-related issues and the associated costs of unhealthy eating for national health systems represent a current problem. To address this, institutions aim to enhance consumers' knowledge of food properties. Therefore, the healthy characteristics can be communicated to consumers through various strategies, including the use of claims on labels. The health characteristics of foods, if effectively communicated, can be appreciated by consumers resulting in a higher valuation of products. Consumer behaviour science is helpful in understanding how much consumers are interested in functional and healthy foods. The general objective of the PhD was to understand the topic of functional foods by assessing what can drive consumers' choices or their willingness to pay (WTP) for such products, whether with or without claims on the label. This objective was pursued through a systematic literature review based on the PRISMA framework. The analysis allowed us to understand the current use of claims for differentiating functional foods and the role of certain drivers such as psychological, lifestyle, and socio-demographic characteristics, in influencing consumers' WTP or consumption of functional foods. Two specific objectives were developed. The first one: to assess what drives consumers towards their choices of functional foods and what affects their WTP for different characteristics. The second objective was: to understand the role of health claims in consumers' evaluations of functional products. These objectives led to the development of two publications. Furthermore, certain drivers of consumer behaviour were selected to predict both consumption and willingness to pay. Specifically, psychological factors, such as consumer knowledge, lifestyles, and health status, along with socio-demographic characteristics, were examined in the experimental studies.