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Diet therapy or nutritional therapy has become a real challenge in the fight against the increasing number of modern illnesses such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancers. The scientific community has recognized the importance of studies that will support or rebut the association of certain nutrition/energy inputs with the prevention and/or improvement of certain diseases. Patient counseling is offered by medical doctors, nutritionists and dieticians, but patients often seek additional sources of information from popular media that may not be adequately scientifically supported. Whose responsibility is it when the Diet Therapy is not an effective treatment and where does the consequent ethical and moral responsibility lie?

This chapter argues for the importance of a nutritionally educated scientist evaluating the diets that are seen to be related with the health improvement also excluding diets that are mostly related to the patients’ well-being as the Mediterranean, DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), Ketogenic and Vegetarian diet. Diet guidelines are often explained with linguistic variables (as “reduce the input of” etc.) which can be differently perceived by the end user. The interpretation if a linguistic variable is presented using the body mass index categories using a bell-shaped curve. The preferable area fits to the linguistic variable “acceptable BMI.” But also are indicated those areas which are less preferable. Those examples of information interpretations show the necessity of knowledge transfer. The quantity of information presented in diet guidelines can be experienced as a great muddle for patients; leaving them not knowing where and how to start. So, remains the ethical and moral responsibility of all links in the chain of nutritional and diet research and recommendations. Only objective and open-minded recommendations based on the latest scientific facts can gain confidence of the social, economical, and political subjects which must put the well-being of the population uppermost in their mind.

In recent years, consumers have developed an interest in the type and the quality of food they eat. As consumers’ opinion is very important in identifying development strategy for food industry it seems justified finding out if geographical region had an influence on consumers’ opinion. Furthermore, this is the topic that is still under researched. The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers’ perception of functional food (FF) relative to geographical region.

Questionnaire based survey was conducted on a representative national sample with participants aged 18 and older (n=687). Participants were divided according to their place of residence taking into account difference in dietary habits, which created two geographical sets: Coastal (Adriatic) Croatia and Continental Croatia. Data were analyzed using univariate statistics and multivariate analysis as exploratory factor analysis, cluster analysis and principal component analysis.

The results indicate that Croatian consumers are familiar with the term “FF” and that there are significant differences between two geographical sets of respondents (Coastal Croatia and Continental Croatia) in their willingness to pay for FF. Furthermore, research showed that there is a general lack of confidence in the information provided on the product labels especially in the continental region. The results have shown that “taste” and “price quality ratio” are the most important features in choosing the FF and are equally important to the consumers’ in both geographical region.

Research results indicate a need for development of consumers’ confidence and need to focus mainly on educating consumers in label comprehension. This is particularly true for the Continental Croatia. Targeted advertising should take into account consumers’ preferences, confidence and label comprehension according to their geographical regions.

The case study represents consumers’ opinion coming from different geographical regions (Coastal Croatia and Continental Croatia) regarding FF. In this research the most important attributes in choosing the FF were extracted.

The goal of this paper is to explore the Croatian young consumers' perception of functional food, to investigate underlying attitudes and their willingness to buy functional food in the future.

Consumer survey was conducted using a self‐administered questionnaire on a sample of 1,035 young consumers aged between 14 and 30 years. Research questions focused on knowledge about functional food, attitudes and buying behaviour regarding functional food. Data were analysed using univariate statistics, bivariate correlations and factor analysis.

About 40 per cent of young consumers are familiar with the concept of functional food, and 27 per cent of them are regular buyers. The usual place where functional food is acquired is supermarkets and most commonly bought are functional dairy products. The most important functional food attributes are taste and price/quality ratio. Consumers are satisfied with functional food health enhancing characteristics and less satisfied with its appearance and durability. Three factors that explain young consumers' attitudes towards functional food are health awareness and confidence, lack of trust for functional food and its price and quality. More than half of respondents are willing to buy functional food in the future (51.8 per cent). Female consumers aged between 19 and 30, living in smaller households with higher income are more likely to be functional food consumers in the future.

A limitation of this study is the sample including only young consumers. Further research is needed to analyse other consumer groups, and to determine which segments are most appropriate for functional food products marketing.

Research results indicate a need to increase consumer familiarity with functional food and improvements in some of its characteristics. Overall positive attitudes toward functional food should be reinforced and young consumers can be influenced through targeted advertising.

This paper gives the first account of young consumers' perception of functional food in Croatia. The results of this research can be used to plan further marketing activities.

Quality and top quality wines (wines with geographical indication (GI)) have a larger share (59 per cent) on the Croatian market and this was one of the reasons for defining the subject of the research. Although there are a few market research studies, none of them is completely oriented on the role and market significance of GI of wine. There is an evident lack of information in this field. This paper aims to address these issues.

The population of the basic group is a high‐qualified population for reviewing different aspects of wine as a complex product. Stratification of the units from the sample has been made on the sample (n=200). Data were analysed using univariate statistics, bivariate correlations and multiple factor analysis.

Results have shown a high correlation degree between the higher socioeconomic status of examinees and preferences for wine with GI. It might be concluded that examinees with a higher level of education are more familiar with wine with GI and also have a higher culture of wine consumption.

The sample, including only expert groups from institutions, could be understood to be a limitation of this study although they are a highly‐qualified population for reviewing different aspects of wine as a complex product. Further research is needed to analyse other consumer groups and to determine possible differences in attitudes.

Research results indicate a need to increase consumers' familiarity with GI wine. Overall positive attitudes towards wine with GI should be reinforced and consumers could be influenced through targeted advertising.

The paper presents some Croatian consumers' opinions about the importance of GI of consumed wine. Extracted are the main impact factors regarding the wine selection.