The exception was cholesterol lowering margarine and
blood pressure lowering milk drink as they were marketed
with these statements in their packages.
Perceived healthiness and familiarity of the products
were also assessed. Healthiness was evaluated on a 7-
point scale (1 ¼ not at all healthy, 7 ¼ extremely healthy).
Familiarity with the products was measured on a
5-point scale in which 1 ¼ I do not recognize this product
(or this kind of product), 2 ¼ I recognize this product,
but I have not tasted it, 3 ¼ I have tasted this
product, but I do not use it, 4 ¼ I use this product
occasionally, and 5 ¼ I use this product frequently. The
scale was planned in such a way that unfamiliar and
familiar products, or products with different use frequencies
can be rated using the same scale. For instance,
spread is usually used several times per day but meat
products might only be used a few times per month.
Although the respondents were quite familiar with
functional food examples, the example products were
not used very frequently. Table 1 shows the mean scores
of respondents’ willingness to use, the perceived
healthiness ratings and the familiarity for both functional
and reference food products