Credence characteristics are ubiquitous in today’s
marketing of food products, and their importance relative
to search and experience characteristics is probably
increasing (Grunert, Bech-Larsen, & Bredahl, 2000).
Health-related qualities are credence characteristics—
consumers do not usually, and do not expect to, feel
healthier because they have eaten a product that is supposed
to be good for their health. With the increasing
development of functional foods, this will become a
much more prominent aspect of food marketing, since
most health effects of these products are quite abstract,
like a decreased risk of a certain type of diseases. Interest
in production processes is the major other factor
leading to increased importance of credence characteristics.
It relates not only to unwanted production processes,
like the use of GM, but also to production
processes which (some) consumers regard as desirable,
like organic production.