ABSTRACT
Functional and organic foods are both segments of the food market in Europe and have been growing constantly within the last decade [1]. Whereas organic food covers the entire manner of production [2,3], functional food describes nutrition and/or health related product attributes [4,5]. Both foods are labeled and the labels send quality and/or health related messages that point towards high quality food and/or extra health benefi ts [6,7]. Although consumers perceive these messages in both types of foods [8,9], they are associated differently. Furthermore, the conceptual background of functional and organic food is different with respect to quality concepts [10,11], which refl ect the difference in the underlying paradigms of these two different food segments [12]. The aim of this paper is to analyze the similarities and differences of functional and organic food in order to determine if the concept of functional food supports or contradicts organic food production. The work was done among members of the international association Food Quality and Health (FQH).
