Consumer Profile of Organic and Functional Foods
Functional foods, limiting causes of consumption, frequency of consumption, reasons for consumption, quality of life
The development of organic agriculture shows a model of sustainable consumption in the economic, social and environmental segments, producing healthy food without the use of synthetic chemicals. At the same time, functional foods stand out for their ability to promote a number of benefits to human health due to the presence of bioactive compounds responsible for antioxidant and anti-enzymatic activity, resulting in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, among others. Thus, the objective of this work is to investigate the profile of consumers of organic foods and their interest in consuming organic enriched with properties. The work was developed by researching the consumer profile of organic and functional foods through the application of the questionnaire inserted in the Google Forms platform (docs.google.com/forms/), where 1230 respondents from all Brazilian states were collected through (WhatsApp® and Facebook®) during the month of March 2017. The results show that men and women show behavior regarding frequency of consumption, degree of confidence and availability to pay more for an organic food, however, women differ with greater interest in consuming organic foods with functional potential. The high price and presence of some establishments as the main limiting causes, while the main resources of organic food consumption are their potential and an ability to promote improvements in quality of life. Fruits, vegetables, apis products and organic eggs were considered as most consumed organic, with emphasis on higher consumption among women. The most consumed functional foods are like fruits, vegetables and vegetables, and as women they contribute with greater consumption