Consumer market for functional foods in south Brazil

Functional food is any healthy food claimed to have a health-promoting or disease-preventing property beyond the basic function of supplying nutrients. This study aims at investigating the consumer market for functional foods (FF) in specific region in South Brazil.

The paper underlines that Brazil is a leading country in food production and consumption, and the market for functional foods has been growing 10% per year. Findings are as follows:

• functional foods have been attracting the attention of multinationals and local food industries in Brazil
• the market for functional foods in the examined region is still premature, but it is developing fast
• in this sense, there are few local functional food products in the market, but those are attractive to consumers and indicate promising opportunities

The study concludes that the understanding of Brazilian consumers is fundamental to help food companies define their strategies. Accordingly, it is important to map the most accepted categories of functional foods.

Policy implications include:

• Brazil has a rich biodiversity, especially in plants, native energetic compounds and super-fruits that could be better utilised in new product development of functional food products
• nutritionists and health professionals have high credibility and could help inform consumers about the benefits of particular categories of functional foods
• women represent a very significant and important group to the development of functional food products in South Brazil, particularly for functional foods promoting beauty and weight management
• yet, there is a strong need for articulation and governance from the agents of the innovation system for functional food in Brazil
• similarly, regular attitude monitoring is needed to see how the attitudes towards functional foods are developing as the products become more familiar