Researchers from Oklahoma State University and Purdue University teamed up recently to assess the purchasing habits of households that buy dairy products for children, affirming an ages-old trend that what parents ate as kids plays a role in what they feed their own offspring.
“Yogurt, as an example, did not really become popular until the millennial generation were growing up. They now feed it regularly to their own kids, although not necessarily the same kind of yogurt they ate while younger,” said Courtney Bir, an agricultural economist and researcher with OSU’s Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.
Key takeaways of the survey were that households with children were more likely to:
- Buy more milk.
- Buy milk with a higher fat content.
- Serve milk and cheese with meals.
- Buy more yogurt.
- Serve yogurt as a snack.
- Review product attributes of price, expiration date and nutritional information on egg, milk and meat labels.
The multi-institutional researchers collected data from 1,440 respondents through the Qualtrics online survey tool. Kantar, an online panel database, was used to obtain participants through their opt-in panel database.
Research such as this survey helps take the guesswork out of decisions that can affect dairy industry marketing decisions and commodity support programs, Bir said.
“Basically, consumers continue to believe dairy products are an important part of a healthy diet, particularly where children are involved,” she said.
More detailed survey information is available online through JDS Communications, volume 2, issue 1, January 2021. Research authors are Bir, Mario Ortez, Nicole Olynk Widmar and Jonathan Townsend.
An official journal of the American Dairy Science Association, JDS Communications is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that publishes concise, original research that relates to the production and processing of milk or milk products intended for human consumption.
Source : okstate.edu