Consumers’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior Regarding Functional Food Products-A Survey from Selected Areas of Sri Lanka

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to assess the influence of demographical variables (gender, age, education level, study area, nature of residence, residential milieu, suffering from non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and monthly household income) on the consumption frequency of mostly available processed food products with health benefits (functional food products-FF) in Sri Lankan market. Consumers’ knowledge of the health-promoting ability of FF, attitude on FF choices, and behaviors on FF consumption were also analyzed. Research Method: A questionnaire was completed by 303 individuals (60.40% females, 39.60% males, and 83.17% of the total having a diploma/degree) from the Western, Central, Southern, Sabaragamuwa, and Uwa provinces. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient assessed the reliability of the questionnaire and Pearson’s chi-squared test was used to examine the independence among qualitative variables. The Likert scale numbers were transformed to means and articulated the weights of the study variables. The Correlation analysis was carried out to find the association between Consumers' knowledge and attitudes regarding FF. Findings: The age, education level, and NCDs of the respondents were significantly affected (p