The Mexican consumer, reluctant or receptive to new foods?

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to measure the relative degree of rejection or reluctance to try new foods of the Mexican consumers. Design/methodology/approach – To measure the degree of acceptance or rejection that individuals have for foods that are unusual in their diets, a phobia scale was used to new foods developed by Pliner and Hobden (1992) Food Neophobia Scale (FNS). The authors also distinguished between individuals’ predisposition to taste new foods, “neo-phobic” (lower bias) and “neo-philic” (predisposition). Additionally social and demographic variables such as age, gender, monthly income level and marital status to discuss relations with the FNS scale were incorporated. Findings – The results have shown that Mexican consumers show relatively low levels of phobia toward new foods, but there may be differences in accordance with the characteristics of the environment, the proximity of another culture or urbanization level have a significant influence on consumer attitudes. Originality/value – In Mexico the development of new foods has increased, in a recent study 83 percent of respondents indicated they are interested in buying new foods on the market. Studies of novel foods phobia have been made in various international contexts, in Mexico, however, the exploration and understanding of consumer attitudes toward foods that are unusual in their diets is incipient. This study represents one of the first contributions in this regard and more so to focus specifically on the Mexican consumer.