Fogyasztói magatartás a snack típusú funkcionális élelmiszerek piacán fiatalok körében

Abstract

A pretest-like non-representative research has been made in Kaposvár with the participation of 342 students. The sample is 57.6% based on respondents belonging to the 15-18-year-old age-group. Only every third student takes healthy meals regularly, which they think is behind their own expectations. Regarding the hindering factors of eating healthy food, it has come to light that 28% of the participants do not take it into consideration whether their meals and the way they eat them are considered to be healthy or not. The lack of competence and knowledge about proper eating mean further difficulties for 24% of the students. Moreover, stress and the lack of will-power also influence the eating habits of some of them. When it comes to film watching, every third student consume chips, further 20.4% of them also eat candies and sweets, and 19.4% of them have popcorn, too. We used open questions in order to reveal what type of food they eat between the main meals and also during travelling (e.g. on autobus or train). There’s hardly any difference between the results of the two categories. Thus, according to the participants, apple is considered to be a classic healthy food which usually appears at each main meal (and also during travelling); sour dairy products (especially yoghurt) are also had in the mornings and in the evenings. Cereals are eaten for breakfast and biscuits are also eaten in the mornings, however, the majority of the participants also eat sweets, bakery goods and candies, which they unfortunately do all day long (after each meal), and also during travelling. It is quite surprising that milk and dairy products are taken out of the fridge mostly after dinner. We received the following results with the help of closed questions focusing on our own foods. It is mineral water and chewing gum that are the most frequently (even several times a day) consumed functional foods among youngsters. In the snack basket there are no nutritionbiologically prominently valuable so-called „leader” functional foods like probiotic products, or nature foods with high antioxidant-content. Therefore, the snack basket of youngsters shows a deficient range of products. Finally, we have created our own snacking pyramid with the help of the nutrition pyramid serving as a model. It is recommended by nutrition science that mineral water, vegetables and fruits should be taken 6 times a day or even more often. However, it is candies, sweets, lollipops and chocolate that are eaten by students with such frequency – although they admit that they tend to choose the „healthier” kinds of them. It is only fruits that have room at the bottom of the pyramid. Products recommended to be eaten 3 or 4 times a day are not present at all in practice (these are mostly juices, drinks and sour dairy products)! They are replaced by mineral water, biscuits and chewing gum. Cereals, dried fruits, seeds, germs, algadrinks, soymilk and chewing gums should be eaten two times a day. In this case it is the probiotic yoghurts and the yoghurt drink that appear on the other side. Lollipops, chips, bisquits, energy drinks, sweets and chocolates should be eaten no more than once a day. Practice shows the opposite tendency, though: the majority of such products are part of the „6 or more times eaten” basket. It is merely cereals that are in the category of products taken once a day. As a verification of the nullhypothesis we can declare that the snacking pyramid is confusing, in other words it is „upside down” as the processes we have registered are completely in contrast with what is recommended. It is only the fruits that hold a good position among the nature functional foods, however, all other valuable foods are consumed less than recommended among youngsters.