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European Consumers’ Definition and Perception of Traditional Foods

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Abstract

This chapter presents how European consumers define and perceive traditional foods based on consumer research performed within the EU-funded project Truefood. The insights were obtained through focus group studies, free word association tests, and cross-European quantitative consumer surveys. Consumers’ definition of traditional foods refers primarily to eating habits, naturalness, heritage, taste, and locality. Traditional foods have an overall positive image among European consumers, which provides an ideal basis to capitalize on future product development, market positioning, and marketing communication.

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Correspondence to Wim Verbeke .

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Verbeke, W., Guerrero, L., Almli, V.L., Vanhonacker, F., Hersleth, M. (2016). European Consumers’ Definition and Perception of Traditional Foods. In: Kristbergsson, K., Oliveira, J. (eds) Traditional Foods. Integrating Food Science and Engineering Knowledge Into the Food Chain, vol 10. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7648-2_1

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