Análise do perfil de compra e consumo de iogurtes funcionais nas cidades de Matelândia e Medianeira através do grupo focal

Abstract

Due to consumer demand for healthier food and the search for a better quality of life, the interest of the population for more nutritious foods is growing every day, which brings greater improvement in the area of dairy products. Functional yogurts have great acceptance among the population because they help to promote health, contributing with an improvement in the nutritional status. For more information about the functional yoghurts the aim of this study consistid in investigating the profile of purchase and consumption of functional yogurts in the cities of Matelândia and Medianeira in the state of Parana. This study took place in two stages, the first stage covering the opinion of 300 individuals through market research, through the application of a questionnaire addressing issues such as yogurt consumption, knowledge about functional foods, dietary habits and sociodemographic data. Consumers were interviewed individually, and randomly selected, and 10% of the respondents were invited to participate in the focus group sections. The second stage consisted of the conduction of the Focus Group technique, where 30 attendees contributed as volunteers in 6 sessions conducted with 5 people during 90 minutes of interviews. This technique is an exploratory qualitative study, aiming to obtain information about packaging, labeling, sensory and nutritional aspects. According to the market research data, it was observed that 23% of the respondents had no knowledge about the meaning of a functional food, which demonstrates that there is a need to share this knowledge with the population. The study showed that the population pays no attention to food labels by factors related to limitation on the sense of vision and lack of interest as well. The health benefits perceived during consumption was also the main reason that made consumers opt to purchase functional yogurt. From the results obtained, it can be seen that the consumption of yoghurt has grown increasingly in the consumer's table, which indicates that the yoghurt is actually identified among people as a food that is good for health. Thus, it appears that this work was of great value, because it was possible to identify consumers opinions and experiences on issues related to the use of functional dairy food, and also enabling the interaction between people, allowing the free expression about their opinion on a particular issue discussed.