Consumers' perceptions and consumption behaviour concerning red fruits

Consumers' concern for disease prevention makes them aware of the importance to follow a healthy diet. Red fruits are known for their potential health benefits, namely due to their richness in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. To assess consumers’ perception of red fruits purchase, conservation, preparation and consumption habits and their potential health benefits. A questionnaire was applied and distributed through e-mails and social media. From January to February of 2023, 507 individuals answered this survey. It focused on individuals’ perception of red fruits consumption and purchase habits; reasons, frequency and season of consumption; preparation and conservation procedures and potential health benefits. Among all participants, 62.7% were aged between 18-29 years, 75.3% were females and 60.4% were from Lisbon. The majority had higher education (79.6%) and a considerable number had health qualifications (36.1%). 387 participants claimed to frequently consume red fruits. Those who do not consume essentially declared high price as the main reason (60.0%). Most people purchase red fruits at super and hypermarkets (88.4%), eat them mostly fresh in spring and summer, and keep them in the fridge until consumption. Strawberry was the most frequently consumed and cranberry was the least one. Vitamins (92.1%) and anthocyanins (44.4%) were the most common substances related to red berries. 49.1% of the participants considered red fruits to be more beneficial than others, associating them with antioxidant effects (87.8%), general health and well-being (69.6%), and prevention of diseases (71.8%) like cardiovascular diseases (73.9%) and cancer (57.4%). Our findings suggest that most of this population consumes red fruits. It was verified a reasonable knowledge of their health benefits; however, several did not recognize their advantages, even having higher education. It is essential to enhance the spread of scientific information regarding the potential health benefits associated with the consumption of red fruits.

this work was financially supported by INSA, I.P., under the project TradFRUIT (2012DAN668) and by European Union (FEDER funds through COMPETE), under the Partnership Agreement PT2020, and National Funds (FCT, Foundation for Science and Technology) through projects UIDB/50006/2020 and by AgriFood XXI I&D&I project (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000041) co-financed by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the NORTE 2020 (Programa Operacional Regional do Norte 2014/2020).

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