Young adults and seafood : using the voice of consumers to develop new seafood product concepts aimed at increasing consumption

Abstract

Young adults do not eat seafood frequently enough because they lack knowledge about the preparation of a quick and easy meal with seafood. One of the ways to improve this situation is to offer young adults a product which is based on their needs and helps them to eat seafood more frequently. The first survey study showed a positive association between health involvement, attitudes towards seafood consumption and total seafood consumption. In the second, young adults’ impressions of seafood were discussed in focus groups and resulted in nine values important for product development: successful preparation, healthiness, satiation, freedom of choice, convenience, visibility and trust, availability, image improvement and price. Finally, based on these nine values seafood product concepts were developed and evaluated in two web-based experiments. The result was a seafood concept consisting of cod and salmon portions with wild berries in a visible packaging which was ranked highly by young consumers. This concept is a starting point for further seafood product development which will increase seafood consumption by young adults.