More than just a food! : A qualitative study on functional food from the Swedish Millennials' perspective.

Abstract: Background: In Sweden, consumers have become more aware that certain types of food could improve their health and overall well-being. In addition, consumers, especially Swedish Millennials, are getting healthier day after day. Accordingly, manufacturers responded to this phenomenon by supplying food that offers extra health benefits (Ring & Mitchell, 2010). These types of food are called Functional Food (FF) and are defined as “food enriched with different components (such as vitamins, minerals or probiotic cultures) or modified in a way that the product provides an additional physiological benefit that might prevent disease and promote health” (Morna, 2015:336). Purpose: The study investigates the Swedish Millennials healthy lifestyle and focuses on their attitudes towards the functional food. Thus, the authors will explore the whole lifestyle and habits of the Swedish Millennials reaching to the core of the research, which is the consumption of the functional food. Method: In order to fulfil the purpose of this study an exploratory method, with qualitative and abductive approach, is chosen to understand the Swedish Millennials attitude towards the functional food. The focus group was the tool to collect the data for the study. In total, five focus groups were conducted with twenty-six participants all of them are Swedish Millennials. The reason behind choosing focus groups tool is to comprehend deeply the Swedish Millennials lifestyle and specifically their attitude towards the functional food. Conclusion: The authors concluded that the Swedish Millennials have a systematic lifestyle and they feel comfortable with the routine. The Swedish Millennial’s attitude towards the functional food is considered positive to the majority of the participants in the research. However, the minority of the Swedish Millennial’s participants have a negative attitude towards the functional food. Therefore, it was concluded that the Swedish Millennials attitude to an extent is positive towards the functional food consumption.