Innovations in traditional foods: Impact on perceived traditional character and consumer acceptance Filiep Vanhonacker a , Bianka Kühne a , Xavier Gellynck a , Luis Guerrero b , Margrethe Hersleth c , Wim Verbeke a, ⁎ a Department of Agricultural Economics, Ghent University, Coupure links 653, B-9000 Gent, Belgium b IRTA-Monells, Finca Camps i Armet, E-17121 Monells, Spain c Nofima AS, Osloveien 1, 1430 Ås, Norway abstract article info Article history: Received 19 July 2013 Accepted 17 October 2013 Keywords: Acceptance Consumer Europe Innovation Traditional food Traditional food products represent a growing segment in the European food market. In order to maintain or expand their market share and profitability, the traditional food sector is also forced to innovate. More than for other food categories, the level of novelty and its conceptualization will be a critical determinant of consumer acceptance of innovations. Based on a pan-European survey (n = 4828), consumer acceptance of innovations in traditional food products has been investigated. Consumer acceptance is linked to the perceived impact of the innovation on the traditional character of the resulting food product. Findings illustrate that consumers are generally open towards innovations in traditional food products. The highest levels of acceptance are found for innovations that reinforce the traditional character of the product (e.g. a label that guarantees the origin of the raw material) or provide benefits from improving negative attributes associated with the traditional character of foods (e.g. the reduction of fat or salt content). The more narrowly consumers define traditional food, the more their acceptance is influenced by the perceived impact of the innovation on the traditional character of the food product. The results demonstrate that the innovations covered in this study would barely succeed in attracting new consumers to traditional foods, while consumers with a medium or high consumption frequency of traditional food products expressed a clear positive acceptance for a wide variety of innovations in traditional foods. The traditional food sector can benefit from the insights provided by this study to customize specific products for specific consumer segments and to communicate and market their products accordingly. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Traditional foods are important components of the dietary patterns of many populations, including those of modern developed societies. Consumer demand for traditional food increases in many western countries (Trichopoulou, Soukara, & Vasilopoulou, 2007), even though the growing globalization of the food markets has promoted the production of large volumes of uniform and cheap food products. The increased demand is in line with the general positive image consumers have of traditional foods (Almli, Verbeke, Vanhonacker, Naes, & Hersleth, 2011), and it is related to the fact that food represents a significant part of the cultural, historical and geographical identity, as historians and sociologists have repeatedly reported (Caplan, 1997; Fischler, 1988; Scholliers, 2001). Food consumption patterns were mainly shaped, until a recent time, by local and durable cooperation among a variety of socioeconomic actors operating in a given territory. This cooperation has left its imprint over time on current individual and group food preferences. Thus, despite the food standardization propensity that characterized the 20th century, a great diversity of dietary patterns can be observed from the international diet (Naska et al., 2006). In the last decades, both food companies and public authorities have shown a growing interest in traditional foods. The traditional food sector, as any other sector of the food industry, faces the need to continuously innovate and develop its produce, in order to maintain or expand market share and profitability (Stewart-Knox & Mitchell, 2003). The aim of this study is to investigate consumer acceptance of a variety of innovations in traditional foods. Specifically, the likelihood of consumer acceptance will be linked to the perceived impact of the innovation on the traditional character of the product. Jordana (2000) indicated at the start of the millennium that traditional foods have good perspectives to grow in the future, if at least they would succeed in accomplishing some challenges. One of the principal challenges identified was innovation, which can be roughly defined as improvements in the ways industries produce and commercialize things, e.g. product changes, process changes, new ways of organizing the company or new forms of distribution (Porter, 1990). However, food marketing literature indicates that Food Research International 54 (2013) 1828–1835 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +32 92646181; fax: +32 92646246. E-mail addresses: filiep.vanhonacker@ugent.be (F. Vanhonacker), bianka.kuhne@ugent.be (B. Kühne), xavier.gellynck@ugent.be (X. Gellynck), lluis.guerrero@irta.cat (L. Guerrero), margrethe.hersleth@nofima.no (M. Hersleth), wim.verbeke@ugent.be (W. Verbeke). 0963-9969/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2013.10.027 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Food Research International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodres