Barriers to fruit consumption: Driving forces behind consumer behaviour

Abstract This study gives more insight in motives and barriers, i.e. positive and negative drivers, for European fruit consumption, as a basis to meet consumer requirements in developing new types of fruits and fruit products and to develop interventions. For that purpose, focus group discussions were held in Spain, Greece, Poland, and The Netherlands. Consistent with existing literature, healthiness, (sensory) pleasure, and (lack of) convenience emerged as major drivers of fruit consumption, with appearance, habit, and price as additional drivers. Talking about fruit, participants have fresh, unprocessed fruit in mind. Fresh fruit was more or less regarded as a synonym for health. The fresher, the less processed, and the more natural the fruit product, the healthier it is perceived to be. Especially, pleasure and convenience are conflicting with this. Implications of these conflicting drivers and solutions for product development and interventions are given. Still, quantitative research is needed to get insight into what extent certain motives and barriers play a role for different fruit types, different consumption moments, and different consumer segments.