Abstract—Table olives are among the nutritious and functional foods with respect to high contents of monounsaturated fatty acids, phenolic compounds, vitamins, minerals, and fiber. World raw olive production is around 1.3-1.8 million tons per year, and about 10% of these olives are processed into table olives. Food quality focuses on customer needs and expectations and is an important means of competition on the market due to the high competition pressure and saturation of the market Consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay more for specific foods’ attributes, meaning high quality-foods, is a complex decision-making process. A powerful tool to understand the quality of foods and customer behaviors is consumer preference surveys, since cultural practices, sensory properties (color, taste, texture), package and socio-economic status strongly influence the popularity of any food product. Hence, by understanding consumer preferences direct prediction and increase of consumption is possible based on the degree of happiness, satisfaction, enjoyment, or utility that olives provide.
 

Index Terms—olives, consumer preferences, consumer perception, food quality

Cite: Arzu Akpinar-Bayizit, Lutfiye Yilmaz-Ersan, Tulay Ozcan, Berrak Delikanli-Kiyak, Elif Yildiz, and Hasan Vural, "Consumers’ Behavior towards Table Olives," International Journal of Food Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 83-88, June 2017. doi: 10.18178/ijfe.3.1.83-88