Lise Dreyfuss, Damien Bremaud, Béatrice Housez, Wyllène Poulier
BIOFORTIS Sensory & Consumer, France

The main motivation for consuming food supplements is the search for a better health or the expectation of a better physical or psychological wellness.

Despite few publications on this topic, compliance to a food supplement seems to be influenced by many factors and especially the characteristics of the supplement. When looking at functional foods’ compliance, a big size and a high frequency of consumption of the food have a negative impact on compliance (Galloway et al., 1994; Tuorila et al., 2002). Some authors also highlight the fact that the taste of the food can have an influence on compliance (Tuorila et al., 2002).

Through a qualitative study, we tried to better understand what drives the compliance to a food supplement. Through 20 face-to-face interviews with French women all users of food supplements and aged from 18 to 55 years old, we highlighted 4 determinants of the compliance:

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  Firstly compliance is different according to the segment of food supplement.
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  Secondly dosage can impact compliance.
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  Thirdly the galenic form of the supplement is a key point to take into account. Indeed when the positioning of the supplement is clearly a health claim, the galenic form does not influence the compliance while on the contrary, for beauty claims, capsules and tablets are more appreciated by consumers.
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  Finally, the sensory characteristics and especially the taste and color of the products can have an influence on the compliance.

Food supplement manufacturers should thus take a bigger interest in the sensoriality of their products since it contributes, to a certain extent, to the overall perception of the supplement and consequently to its perceived benefit on health.