A Consumer Perception Study on Functional Dairy Products Among Consumers in Istanbul, Turkey

The aim of this study is to understand Turkish consumers’ perception of functional dairy products in three different categories, namely milk, yogurt, and cream cheese, as well as their willingness to buy products with health claims. In this study, 50 untrained participants from the city of Istanbul, Turkey, were enrolled to evaluate three types of milk (calcium & vitamin fortified, soy, and whole), three types of yogurt (probiotic, strawberry flavoured probiotic, and plain) and four types of cream cheese (calcium, phosphate & vitamin fortified, reduced fat, light, and regular) using free listing testing and check-all-that-apply (CATA) questions together with Yes/No questions. Twenty-five participants were recruited from Yeditepe University’s Food Engineering Department and 25 participants from public places to form two clusters. In the free listing analysis, the number of frequent terms related to health dramatically decreased after the tasting session for all products, whereas sensory related terms became more important. CATA analysis showed that consumers look for different product properties in different dairy categories. The findings of both analyses showed that, regardless of their education and awareness, consumers still are not willing to compromise on the taste of dairy foods independent of how healthy the product might be. Their preference of functional dairy products was only 22%, 26% and 14% for fortified milk, probiotic yogurt, and fortified cream cheese, respectively. Moreover, only 30% of the participants were found to believe the health claims on the package, which is another obstacle the functional food industry has to face.