Choice Behavior of Consumers on Healthy OTOP Food Products in the Central Region

Abstract

OTOP stands for ‘One Tambon One Product’ has been the Thai government's strategic approach for the community to identify a product that signifies the uniqueness of the community.  With the increasing trend of health awareness, communities have produced health-related OTOP products as an alternative for consumers. The objective of this study was to examine consumer’s knowledge, attitude, and personal factors in relation to the choice of OTOP healthy food products.  A survey was conducted in five souvenir shops in central Thailand, and 381 persons were interviewed using a questionnaire.  The results showed that the highest purchase was snacks, followed by processed foods and processed fruits.  92.7% of the consumers intended to buy healthy OTOP food products; among these, 22.6% used to buy OTOP healthy food products. The knowledge and attitude scores of the participants were moderate. There was no significant relationship between knowledge and behavior in choosing healthy OTOP food products (p = 0.549). All personal factors, namely, attitude, age, income, and occupation were significantly related to choosing healthy OTOP food products (p-values: 0.010, 0.014, 0.005, and 0.006, respectively.  In conclusion, study participants who have a positive attitude towards OTOP products were more likely to purchase OTOP healthy food product(s).  It showed that OTOP food products are accepted by consumers however the knowledge was not related to decision and frequency of choosing OTOP healthy food products.  The frequency of healthy food choices was not related to the level of nutrition knowledge because they have no different levels of healthy food choices. The suggestion of this population indicated that healthy food products were not diverse, expensive, and difficult to access.