Proposal of Adding New Category of Health Functional Foods Based on Consumer Demand and Social Megatrends

• Published in: Food Supplements and Biomaterials for Health Vol. 2; no. 1; pp. 1 - 11
• Main Authors: Kim, Bum Sik, Kim, Woo Kyung, Park, Hee Jung
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 건강기능식품미래포럼 01.03.2022
• Subjects: 식품과학
• ISSN: 2765-4362; 2765-4699
• DOI: 10.52361/fsbh.2022.2.e8

Social megatrends are changing very quickly, and the trend of disease outbreaks is also changing. Health functional foods (HFFs) have been used for public health particularly for disease prevention. Therefore, it is very necessary to preemptively discover new functional category based on recent megatrends and reflect them in national policies. In this study, new functional categories were derived through Delphi research and focus group interview (FGI) analysis. For the Delphi survey, 15 experts selected from industry of HFFs drew new categories and scored priorities. For the FGI analysis, 15 medium or heavy consumers were participating, and they described new categories based upon satisfaction, necessity, and purchase intention. In the Delphi analysis based on megatrends such as demographic change, acceleration of technological change, environment problems, and cultural diversity, the followings were derived as new categories, which are hair loss prevention, fetal health, and detoxification of harmful environmental substances. In the FGI analysis, hair loss, children’s growth, bad breath, gastroesophageal reflux disease, allergic rhinitis, acne, and pain were highly requested as new categories of HFFs. Taken together, hair loss, children's height growth, allergic rhinitis, halitosis, and gastroesophageal reflux disease are highly recommended to be added to HFFs as new functional categories. KCI Citation Count: 0