LAUSR

Purpose – Following the standard practice of using nutrition claims to denote food functionality, this study empirically explores Chinese consumers’ willingness-to-pay for functional processed meat products by using three nutrition claims (namely “increased calcium,” “containing omega-3”, and “reduced salt”) made on pork sausages. It also aims to outline the typical characteristics of Chinese consumer segments based on preferences. Design/methodology/approach – A choice-based choice experiment is utilized to investigate Chinese consumers’ valuation on attributes of interest regarding functional sausage products. First-hand data was collected in the two cities of Xi’an and Beijing. Findings – There are market potentials for domestic and/or imported functional processed meat products among Chinese consumers. Nutrition claims made on pork sausages are appealing to Chinese consumers, and therefore, monetarily rewarded by them. Being imported from a more developed country of origin could both positively and negatively impact consumers’WTP for nutrition claims made on pork sausages. Furthermore, specific functional modification strategies should be taken into account when addressing different segments of the Chinesemarket. In addition, regional impacts between Xi’an and Beijing are implied in terms of consumers’ valuation for functional pork sausages. Research limitations/implications – Limitations in the current study are mainly two folds. First, theWTP estimation magnitudes are subject to a hypothetical bias by using a stated preference approach. Second, this Chinese consumers pay for nutrition claims