Consumer Demand for New Reduced-fat Foods: An Analysis of Cheese Expenditures

The dairy products industry is adjusting the types of products being marketed by increasing the availability of reduced-fat foods. The desire of consumers to purchase foods with lower fat content is affecting the cheese market with the introduction of recently developed reduced-fat cheese varieties. Econometric models of cheese expenditures for three specific cheese types are estimated, which incorporate censoring of cheese expenditures and the interrelationship between expenditures of full and reduced-fat varieties. Le secteur des produits laitiers s'adapte a la demande a la consommation pour des aliments a teneur reduite en matieres grasses. Cette evolution est en train de toucher le marche du fromage, comme le revele l'arrivee recente de nouvelles varietes de fromage a basse teneur en matieres grasses. Les autres presentent des modeles ecnometriques des depenses affectees e trois types de formuges, comportant une censurisation des depenses en fromage et l'interrelation entre les delpenses accordees aux fromages a teneur en matieres grasses normale et celles devolues aux varietes a i teneur reduite.