CONSUMERS’ ATTITUDE AND PREFERENCES OF FUNCTIONAL FOOD: A

In 1980 the functional food (FF) term was first used in Japan in a study planned to explore the relationships between nutrition, fortification, sensory satisfaction and adulation of physiological system with an objective for defining food products fortified those have advantageous physiological effects (Hardy, 2000). It has been argued manifold beneficial effects of FFs particularly cholesterol lowering products in improving general health of human beings and minimizing the risk of cardiovascular diseases through lowering cholesterol (Menrad, 2003; Mark-Herbert, 2004). The nondigestible food ingredients beneficially affect the growth of one or a limited number of bacteria in the colon, which links with improving host health (Charalampopoulos et al., 2003; Stanton et al., 2005; Hassan et al., 2017). There are number of FF products categories, the nonalcoholic beverages are a category which is fortified with vitamins A, C and Eor may be with other functional ingredients. The availability of this category of FF product is more than sufficient as compared to market demand because the market is still small and fragmented in the European world. Germany is only country in Europe having appreciable space for this category of FF non-alcoholic product. The volume of these beverages has been increasing in Germany. In 1999 its volume reached to 89 million US$ while it was 15 million US$ in 1996 (Hilliam, 2000). The popularity of vitaminized non-alcoholic beverages could be seen from its consumption in Germany. In 2000 the sale of such beverages reached to 117 million US$ in Germany (Menrad, 2003). The FF is promising in addressing the human health care issues and there is growing recognition of potential role of FFs in improving human immunity and reducing health risks resulting in improved quality of life. The partnership of different stakeholders of FFs like FFs manufacturers, nutrition companies and food additives companies are required for healthy product development (Sutar and Mohapatra, 2010). They suggested that health professionals, nutritionists, and regulatory technologists should work together to frame suitable regulations to provide ultimate health and therapeutic benefits to mankind. Miano (2016) viewed the significance of FFs for the improvement of human health through minimizing the risk of many diseases. Miano (2016) stated the all food categories like vegetables, cereals, legumes, fish, meat, fresh and dried fruits all are FFs should be a part of normal diet because these foods are not drugs, medicines, or other dietary supplements. She was of the opinion that in Pakistan mostly people are unaware of the FFs and their benefits for human health. Ali and Rahut (2019) using primary data collected from 400 respondents from all the provinces of Pakistan found that majority of the respondents do not have proper knowledge and information about the FFs. The knowledge and information were more among educated, urban, economically well-off and female respondents as compared to illiterate and low level of educational attainment, poor economic status, Pak. J. Agri. Sci., Vol. 57(1), 9-16;2020 ISSN (Print) 0552-9034, ISSN (Online) 2076-0906 DOI: 10.21162/PAKJAS/20.9219 http://www.pakjas. com.pk