Distrust and food-neophobia in German consumers’ perceptions of functional foods

Despite being one of the most developed markets of functional foods in the world, German consumers are not very trustful (Peters et al., 2007). Poppe & Kjærnes (2003) report the results of comparative analysis about trust in food in Europe. Germany was among the countries surveyed in this study and Germans appeared to be one of the least trustful consumers in Europe (other countries surveyed were: Denmark, Great Britain, Italy, Norway, Portugal). Specifically, Germans tend not to trust media and food manufacturers. Similar results we observed in our focus group discussions, however, when asked about trustful information sources, German consumers were much more specific than Russians, not questioning the system as a whole but rather specific marketing techniques.

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“The label of the product I would not trust at all. I mistrust marketing way too much for that”. – Female, 21 years old.

“I don’t trust any packaging, I think every product has its marketing saying what this product has more or is able to do better and I personally don’t believe any of that”. – Female, 27 years old.

“It’s typical: no preservatives, no flavor enhancers, only natural ingredients. Then you turn it around and yeast extract is listed. When you don’t know it you think: “Oh, no flavor enhancers, I buy it”. But yeast extract is a flavor enhancer. For me, on a label a lot could be printed but I would definitely not trust it.” – Female, 27 years old.

Consumer trust in the food industry in Germany has been undermined due to several food scandals (Stein & Rodríguez-Cerezo, 2008) such as, for example, salmonella in chicken (Poppe & Kjærnes, 2003). Consequently, the most trustworthy stakeholders in the field of functional foods in Germany are nutrition advisors, medical doctors, research institutes and consumer groups. During our interviews, many German consumers referred to scientific information as a trustful source and impulse for purchase.

“… science magazines, reportages or something like that”. - Female, 27 years old (one more participant agrees).

“Health magazines (two more participants agree) like “Hauptsache Gesund” (“The Main Point – Health”) - there different new things are presented. You never know, if it’s right, but they test the product and say if what’s written on a label really is contained”. – Female, 57 years old.

“[b]ut in the end it comes back to what I think, that I needed some kind of more scientific proof rather than just a TV commercial or an ad in a magazine telling me it is healthy,” – Male, 24 years old.

“Somehow it has to be analyzed – if I only eat this kind of bread rolls for some time, then – scientifically or clinically tested – I feel better in this and that area”. – Male, 30 years old.

Another interesting perspective on the question of trust that came from German consumers is that higher price of a product can be a source of distrust. This perspective appeared in the first part of the discussions about price being a factor of food choice. If a price is perceived higher than usual, consumers start to question if this higher price is justified:

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“I’d also say I mistrust the term itself a bit, because I think with the present jurisdiction it can be misused quite easily. And even if it wasn’t misused so that functional is actually functional in the sense of an ingredient that is really good, I still don’t know if the price is justified. The price difference, I think, is too high in many cases, when a product is marketed”. – Male, 30 years old.

“I have to say I’m always a bit insecure because I can’t trust the products in the supermarket. For example, for the oil, I have too little information and I get trapped too fast, I think I can’t really differentiate between poor and high-quality olive oil. I don’t think one can see it just from the price”. – Female, 27 years old.

“I wouldn’t be willing either to pay a price that is too high because I also think you can cover it with other groceries. In general I’m always skeptical when it comes to new products; I mean it’s only a combination of two known ones”. – Male, 23 years old.

A possible explanation for these attitudes might be that consumer types with a rational accentuation are reported to be mostly present in Germany (Horska and Sparke, 2007).

Food-neophobia and the propensity to consume traditional products were much less pronounced among German participants. Although some consumers demonstrated a kind of reluctance to purchasing new products, it was expressed with doubts: “I don’t find it bad either. On the one hand I think: Why not the tried and trusted, sugar instead of … what was it called? … Anyway, I’m rather a friend of this. But I ask myself why these varieties didn’t exist for so long? Why … what …efficiency probably”. – Female, 29 years old.

Contrary to most of the respondents in Russia, some German participants were enthusiastic of trying novel foods and especially the discussed anthocyanin-containing cereal products: “I guess I would try this in any case because as I mentioned I like to try new, exotic thing. Extraordinary grain varieties are interesting to me. I would test it but wouldn’t aim my diet plan at this. It looks healthy, and other sorts of grains are healthy too, I would try it”. – Female, 22 years old. “My parents would be interested. They are both nutrition-conscious, they try a lot. My father always has strange things at home (giggling). He says: “It’s very new, very great and very modern”. Well, they both pay attention to nutrition. I guess they would be interested”. – Female, 23 years old.

This finding of lower levels of food-neophobia among German participants might be either one of the reasons why the German functional food markets is one of the largest worldwide or it is a consequence of it. With higher levels of social trust and a system of trustful formal institutions that is able to communicate the advantages of novel functional

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foods to the consumers, consumer acceptance in Germany is more dependent on price-value relationship and whether health claims are scientifically proven.