Abstract / Summary
Evaluating functional foods intended for children involves nutritional and health-related value, safety, sensory qualities, and suitability for family use. This study examined the relative priorities assigned to these attributes by adult stakeholders. An online Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) questionnaire was administered in Taiwan to parents and four professional stakeholder groups using a framework comprising six dimensions and 18 criteria. Of 39 completed questionnaires, 35 met the predefined consistency requirement and were retained. Mean weights were calculated using aggregation of individual priorities (AIP), with standard deviations, bootstrap confidence intervals, and leave-one-out analyses used to assess variability and sensitivity. Safety and ingredient trust received the highest mean weight (0.247), followed by nutritional and functional value (0.217) and sensory appeal (0.179), together accounting for 64.3% of the total weight. Food safety ranked first among the criteria (0.113), followed by taste and flavor (0.085), functional health benefits (0.085), and ingredient quality and naturalness (0.084), with rankings based on unrounded weights. The five stakeholder profiles showed relatively high rank concordance (W = 0.739, χ2(5) = 18.486, p = 0.002). Sensory appeal ranked first among industry and product development practitioners, whereas parental and family considerations ranked second among parents. These descriptive findings provide a preliminary framework for prioritizing attributes during early-stage product evaluation. They represent adult judgments rather than children’s directly measured food acceptance and warrant product-specific assessment alongside children’s sensory responses and family purchasing and consumption behavior.