UK consumer perceptions of starchy foods

To gain an understanding of UK consumer attitudes and beliefs regarding sta rchy foods and their dietary role, a questionnaire based on the theory of p lanned behaviour was developed and sent out to a UK consumer sample (n 800) . The content focused on attitudes and beliefs towards starchy foods, perce ived barriers towards increasing their intake (e.g. cost, habit, social inf luences), perceptions of personal and recommended starchy food intake, inte ntion to increase starchy food intakes in the future and socio-demographic information. Responses (n 414) indicated that consumers have highly diverge nt attitudes and beliefs regarding starchy foods. These foods are seen as n utritious and good for one's health, but also as high in energy and not hel ping to control weight, and the overall intention to increase starchy food intake was extremely low. Possible barriers towards increasing starchy food intake were the perceptions that personal starchy food intakes were alread y high, beliefs that starchy food intakes should be reduced to achieve a he althier diet, and the view that personal starchy food intakes did not need to be changed any further, because (depending on attitude) individual's int akes had already been increased or reduced. The model including attitude an d subjective norm had the best fit for predicting reported intention to inc rease starchy food consumption, with attitude being the strongest contribut or. Addition of the factor 'family's liking of starchy foods' significantly improved the model. For reported starch intake, the model including attitu de had the best fit, and addition of other factors did not improve the mode l. These findings indicate that health promotion strategies aimed at increa sing complex carbohydrate intakes should take these perceptions into consid eration; however, further work is required to examine how these potential b arriers can best be addressed in practice.