A group of researchers from New Zealand is set to start a study on Chinese people's eating habits, including attitudes, behaviors, and lifestyles, to help create new products appealing to the Chinese market.

The research aims to help New Zealand firms develop healthy products that are particularly tailored for the Chinese' palates. It will give special focus on key health areas including the metabolic health, gastrointestinal health, immune health, and infant nutrition, Global Times reported.

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The research also aims to study four aspects of consumer behavior. First, researchers want to determine the degree of importance Chinese consumers have for health and wellness. Second, they also want to study if social media and other factors play certain roles in their buying behaviors.

Third, they want to find out how Chinese consumers are willing to convert their intentions into actions when developing new consumption tasks. And lastly, the profile of the Asian consumer of healthy food from New Zealand, China Daily noted.

"Asia, and particularly China, has the potential to be a huge market of New Zealand's future food and beverage products," Roger Harker, research leader, said.

"By building a better understanding of the kinds of products that appeal to the consumer, as well as how they make their purchasing decisions, we can support the development of products in this space that will be viewed as more acceptable in these markets."

Harker continued saying that social media and online purchasing of food have become parts of the life of younger Chinese consumers, the ECNS noted.

"Successful companies are trusted and experts at listening and communicating with consumers via these networks - we need to constantly improve our ability to gather consumer insights from this online community."

TagsEating Habits, Chinese eating habits, china, new zealand, Consumer Behavior, Chinese lifestyle, social media