"Wait, Do I Need More Fiber?" Exploring UK Consumers' Dietary Fiber-Related Awareness and White Bread as a Viable Solution to Promote Subsequent Intake.

Background

Sufficient dietary fiber consumption is associated with well-established health benefits, yet such intake is currently suboptimal globally. Thus, there is interest in developing strategies to improve dietary fiber intake. One such approach is to increase the dietary fiber content of staple foods, but this needs relevant investigation.

Methods

Forty-two United Kingdom (UK) based consumers (18-76 y) were recruited to take part in seven focus group sessions investigating: (i) key factors in food choice; (ii) dietary fiber-related knowledge, awareness, consumption habits, and engagement levels; (iii) willingness to consume dietary fiber-rich staple foods; and (iv) gain initial feedback on dietary fiber-rich breads.

Results

Overall, key dietary fiber themes emerged such as knowledge (benefits, foods, recommendations and labeling), consumption (not measuring intake), barriers (convenience and knowledge), resources (education and public appeal), and topics (food examples and cooking). Consumers were positive

Conclusion

Our findings recommend combining education with a personalized element of advice, coupled with a collective effort from the government and food industry, as essential to help encourage a step-change in dietary fiber consumption in the UK population.

Informations de copyright

© 2024 The Authors.