Resumen de Definición de los conceptos "tradicional" e "innovación" en alimentos desde la perspectiva del consumidor europeo
Traditional food products (TFP) are an important part of European culture, identity, and heritage. The main objective of present research is to obtain a consumer-driven definition for the concept of ‘‘traditional food products’’ (TFP) and ‘‘innovations in TFP’ by means of different qualitative techniques. According to the results obtained the concept of ‘‘Traditional” in a food context is made up of ten main dimensions: sensory, health, elaboration, heritage, variety, habit, origin, simplicity, special occasions and marketing. Five dimensions emerged around the concept of innovation: novelty-change, variety, processing-technology, origin-ethnicity and convenience. A manifest incompatibility between the two concepts, "Traditional" and "Innovation" was detected. This study provides a new and useful perspective on consumer’s definition of traditional food products and innovation and touches on some of the possibilities in applying different generic innovations in TFP.
