Healthy food consumption in the Covid-19 era : empirical evidence from Italian consumers choices on functional products

This study provides an explorative analysis of the potentialappreciation manifested by 312 Italian consumers for functionalconfectionery products, obtained from high-amylose soft wheatflours (high-amylose confectionery products, HACPs). Anonline questionnaire was administered in 2021, which assessedrespondents' willingness to pay (WTP) a premium price forHACPs with respect to non-functional confectionery products.Detailed information about respondents and their families wascollected and put in relation with the willingness, or not, topay a premium price for HACPs through a Binary Logit model.Two thirds of respondents were willing to pay a premium pricefor HACPs, that stood at +12.3%.

Analysis of the results of theBinary Logit model led to highlight that respondents' WTPfor HACPs is positively influenced by age, level of familyincome, satisfaction with the latter during the COVID-19pandemic, habit to purchase food products on e-commercechannels, adoption of healthy eating styles and belief thatfunctional foods can contribute to improve well-being. At theopposite, respondents' WTP is negatively influenced by familysize, presence of dependent members and, interestingly, habitto practice physical activity with high frequency. Based onthese findings, useful insights also in support of confectioneryindustry and commercial distribution are finally reported. [Publisher's text]