Functional Food Consumption in Multi-Cultural Society : A study of Cultural Values Convergence in Malaysia

Functional food is a fast growing market niche and is sometimes associated with advanced food technology indeveloped countries.These foods are usually promoted because of the perceived health benefits and targeted consumersin general. however, the role of culture and the value systems in influencing functional food consumption is littleunderstood and neglected in developing countries. Also the role of ethnicity and the dynamics of cultural and valuechanges are usually ignored.This paper explores the possibility of convergence of culturally-based values within andbetween the three different ethnic groups namely the Malay, Chinese and Indian in functional food consumption. Thispaper also explores how these consumers negotiate and manage their cultural values when they face conflicting valuesin making consumption choices for functional food. Data were collected through indepth interviews and analysed usinga constant comparative method.The results shows that the cultural value system in functional food consumption isconverging in multi-cultural society to a certain extent, due to consumer behaviour aimed at maintaining health orpreventing diseases.These health conscious consumers are willing to try other ethnic culturally-based or modernizedfunctional food as long as consuming these foods does not conflict with their principle values.