Definición de los conceptos "tradicional" e "innovación" en alimentos desde la perspectiva del consumidor europeo

Resumen

Traditional food products (TFP) are an important part of European culture, identity, and heritage. The main objective of present research is to obtain a consumer-driven definition for the concept of ‘‘traditional food products’’ (TFP) and ‘‘innovations in TFP’ by means of different qualitative techniques. According to the results obtained the concept of ‘‘Traditional” in a food context is made up of ten main dimensions: sensory, health, elaboration, heritage, variety, habit, origin, simplicity, special occasions and marketing. Five dimensions emerged around the concept of innovation: novelty-change, variety, processing-technology, origin-ethnicity and convenience. A manifest incompatibility between the two concepts, "Traditional" and "Innovation" was detected. This study provides a new and useful perspective on consumer’s definition of traditional food products and innovation and touches on some of the possibilities in applying different generic innovations in TFP.