Consumer Driven Cereal Innovation: Where Science Meets Industry

Silvestri

PLENARY SESSIONS

Outline

Invited Lectures

Invited Lectures

Outline

Chapter 1: Consumer Attitudes Towards Healthy Cereal Products

Chapter 2: Consumer, Cereals and Health: Trends, Fads and Reality

Chapter 3: Health Benefits of Whole Grain Products

Chapter 4: Abstracts: Plenary Sessions: Invited Lectures

Consumer Attitudes Towards Healthy Cereal Products

R. SHEPHERD¹,     ¹Food, Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre, Department of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK

ABSTRACT

This paper reports results from a survey of consumer attitudes towards grain products conducted in the UK, Finland, Germany and Italy. Consumers were found to be more positive about wholegrain than refined grain products but these differences were more pronounced in Finland than in Italy or the UK. Women were found to be more aware of benefits of cereal based foods than men, to be more health conscious and to expect less illness in later life caused by their eating habits. Women and older people were more willing to use cereal products produced to have specific health benefits (e.g. cholesterol lowering bread). Perceived benefits for these functional grain products were greater for added fiber products than cholesterol lowering products and for bread compared with pasta and biscuits.

INTRODUCTION

Against a background of increasing obesity and an increasing focus in the scientific community, in the media, among policy makers and the public on diet and health, cereal products occupy an important position in the diet. There are a number of potential health benefits from cereal products including mainstream refined cereal products, wholegrain products and potential future functional cereal products. In order to increase the consumption of both wholegrain and functional cereal products it is necessary to understand the views of consumers about such products. However, there has been little research on consumer perceptions of wholegrain products (Smith et al., 2003) or consumer views on functional cereal products (Dean et al., 2007a). It is also important to understand how consumers think about different types of cereal products, ranging from staple foods such as bread through to cereal products eaten less frequently.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

As part of the European HEALTHGRAIN project (www.healthgrain.org), quantitative surveys have been carried out in the UK, Finland, Germany and Italy. Two thousand and ninety four (50.4% women, 49.5% men) members of the public from the four countries completed the questionnaire. The participants were over 18 years of age and were solely or jointly responsible for the family’s grocery shopping. The data were collected between February and May 2006 from nationally representative samples by marketing agencies. The questionnaire included questions on perceived attributes of wholegrain and refined grain products, along with a series of questions based on three different types of base grain products (bread, pasta and biscuits) with two forms of modification to make them healthier (cholesterol lowering and fiber added). These latter questions included perceived healthiness, benefits and willingness to use. The ratings were on 7 point scales.

Differences were analyzed using analysis of variance. In all cases reported differences are significant at p<0.05.

RESULTS

Wholegrain products were rated more positively than refined grain products in terms of healthiness, naturalness, being nutritionally balanced, filling and offering slow energy release. Differences in ratings of digestibility, taste and inexpensiveness were much smaller than for the other attributes, although still statistically significant. The differences in ratings were more pronounced for the Finnish sample but less so for consumers from the UK and Italy (Table I); in particular this was due to lower ratings of refined grain products by the Finnish consumers. See Arvola et al. (2007) for more details of differences in the ratings between the countries and differences between different segments of consumers.

Table I

Mean ratings of attributes of wholegrain and refined grain products in the UK, Italy, Finland and across all three countries

Women were found to be more aware of the benefits of cereal based foods than men, to be more health conscious and to expect less illness in later life caused by their eating habits. Women were also more willing to use bread containing added fiber (females m=5.2; males m=4.9) and pasta containing added fiber (females m=4.8; males m=4.4).

Older people were also more willing to use all of the examples of bread, pasta and biscuits modified to have added fiber or to lower cholesterol (Table II).

Table II

Mean ratings of willingness to use functional grain products by age group

An analysis of the perceived benefits of the three types of products (bread, pasta and biscuits) modified to have added fiber or to be cholesterol lowering showed that greater benefits were expected in the products with added fiber than the cholesterol lowering products (Table III). In addition, the modified bread was seen to have more benefits than were the pasta, with biscuits having the least benefit (Dean et al., 2007b).

Table III

Mean ratings of the benefits of modifying different grain products to have either cholesterol lowering properties or added fiber

CONCLUSIONS

Perceptions of grain products differ between countries, with Finnish consumers seeing refined grain products more negatively. Women and older people were found to be more positive about functional grain products modified to have added fiber or to lower cholesterol and more willing to use such products.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This publication is financially supported by the European Commission in the Communities 6th Framework Programme, Project HEALTHGRAIN (FOOD-CT-2005-514008). It reflects the author’s views and the Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained in this publication. The author is grateful to A. Arvola, L. Lahteenmaki, M. Dean, M. Winkelmann, E. Claupein, M. Vassallo and A. Saba for their contribution to the research reported.

LITERATURE CITED

Arvola, A., Lahteenmaki, L., Dean, M., Vassallo, M., Winkelmann, M., Claupein, E., Saba, A., Shepherd, R. Consumers’ beliefs about whole and refined grain products in UK, Italy and Finland. J. Cereal Sci.. 2007; 46:197–206.

Dean, M., Raats, M. M., Shepherd, R. Consumers and functional cereal products. In: Hamaker B.R., ed. Technology of Functional Cereal Products. Cambridge: Woodhead Publishing; 2007:3–22.

Dean, M., Raats, M. M., Shepherd, R., Arvola, A., Lahteenmaki, L., Saba, A., Vassallo, M., Claupein, E., Winkelmann, M. Consumer perceptions and expectations for healthy cereal products. J. Cereal Sci.. 2007; 46:188–196.

Smith, A. T., Kuznesof, S., Richardson, D. P., Seal, C. J. Behavioural, attitudinal and dietary responses to the consumption of wholegrain foods. Proc. Nutr. Soc.. 2003; 62:455–467.

Consumer, Cereals and Health: Trends, Fads and Reality

J.M. JONES¹,     ¹College of St. Catherine, Department of Family, Consumer and Nutritional Sciences, St. Paul, MN 55105, USA

ABSTRACT

Consumers have a love-hate relationship with carbohydrates. This ambivalence colors their thoughts on the health benefits of cereal foods. While a segment of consumers has embraced whole grain foods and the health advantages that they offer, others still eschew these foods as calorie laden, blood glucose- and insulin-raising and nutritionally non-edifying. Studies continue to link ingestion of whole grains, fiber and low glycemic carbohydrate with a decrease in risk for diabetes, weight gain, coronary heart disease and diabetes and other conditions. Yet, numerous product introductions, which are partially or totally whole grain, have failed to change the eating patterns of many consumers. The problem is partially due to the fact that consumers still have significant difficulty identifying whole grain products and often misidentify them. Many consumers are still unaware of the health benefits of whole grain and fortified cereal products, especially the important role of folic acid. These issues will be addressed along with the importance of dietary fiber in cereal foods in helping to bridge the fiber consumption gap and in improving the glycemic response. Health benefits of cereal foods, along with strategies to help communicate these virtues to a public barraged with conflicting messages, will be proposed.

INTRODUCTION

Consumers have developed a love-hate relationship with carbohydrate foods. This has occurred because conflicting messages barrage the consumer. Popular press books (Atkins, 2002; Agatston, 2003) and various internet sites have alleged that carbohydrate foods are the main culprit in chronic diseases such as overweight, coronary heart disease, diabetes and the metabolic syndrome. Carbohydrate foods have also been accused of elevating circulating insulin and glucose and of causing adverse effects caused by such elevation. In addition, media attention devoted to fructose and added sugars has convinced some consumers that all types of carbohydrates should be eliminated from the diet. Yet, during the same time period, health professionals and government bodies have continued to recommend carbohydrates as the basis of the diet (FAO/WHO, 2004; Franz et al., 2002; Lichtenstein et al., 2006; US Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture, 2005).

In contrast to official recommendations, the web is riddled with sites espousing the evils of carbohydrate foods. They make claims that these foods rob energy and make the eater emotionally weak. Some websites go so far as to label carbohydrates as morally bad and good. Bad carbohydrates are ones that have most of the ‘nutritional value is removed’, ‘are hard to digest and cause an immediate rise in blood glucose’, ‘are loaded with many additives, including colorings, flavorings and preservatives’, ‘are very tasteful and are packaged for easy handling’ (an evil attribute according to the website), ‘are usually created by refining grains or other plants into pure starches or sugars (i.e., flour, white rice, cornmeal, candy, baked goods with refined white flour, white pastas and sodas)’. On the other hand, good carbohydrates are still ‘in their natural state or similar to their natural state’; ‘have not been processed or altered by people or machines’; ‘usually do not cause a high rise in blood sugar levels, generally are high in fiber, deliver energy over an extended time, give a sense of feeling full, lower cholesterol levels and aid the body in toxin removal’. Furthermore websites suggest that good carbohydrates, when processed, are transformed into bad ones. For example, ‘whole grains have a thick fiber coating that releases starches and sugars very slowly so blood sugar levels do not rise too high. However, grinding a whole grain to form flour destroys the seed coat and allows the blood sugar rapidly to enter the intestines where it is absorbed almost immediately to cause a high rise in blood sugar.’ This type of content on websites and in the popular press caused one nutritionist to state that the demonizing of carbohydrates and concern over their potential role in disease has reached a fever pitch, generating mass-media claims and counterclaims. She is concerned that carbohydrates will be viewed the way fats were for a time as all bad, instead of the way they are now, when nutritional advice recognizes that there are fatty acids that should be limited and others that are needed and beneficial. She postulates that current thinking that all carbohydrates are ‘bad’, stratifying carbohydrates merely as simple or complex and by choosing foods by their glycemic index will not necessarily improve our diets and will once again cause nutritional practices that will require correction (Pelkman,