The Core of New Food Products and the Perception of The Products by Final Buyers

This paper explores the subject of new food products, with particular emphasis on the core of the products and the perception of the products by final buyers. The purpose was to interpret the notion 'new food product.' Moreover, the authors presented a classification for new food products and examined how respondents (final buyers) perceived the products. The paper presents the results of a primary survey covering two regions (Lublin Province and Mazovia Province), which allowed the authors to conduct a comparative analysis of the respondents' opinions about new food products. The results of the primary survey allow for an observation that the surveyed final buyers of food products identify the notion of a new food product mostly with products that meet new needs. Furthermore, a large group of respondents related the notion to products that have been changed in different ways. Products with greater value for the buyer (such as products categorised as special foods) were chosen the most frequently as products that the respondents perceived in the most positive manner. It seems thus that products whose novelty resulted from modifications to their composition received relatively higher rating from the respondents than food products which were identified as new due to such changes as modifications to their packaging.