The objective of the study was to assess the correlation between the importance attributed to some selected bread characteristics by consumers making their choices, and their attitudes towards and perception of fibre-enriched bread. A consumer survey was conducted in October 2014 with the use of the authors’ own questionnaire and a computer assisted personal interview (CAPI) method; the survey comprised a Polish nationwide group of 1013 adult consumers. The procedure of selecting a sample from the GUS (Central Statistical Office in Poland) sampling frame fulfilled the requirement for representativeness of the general population of Poland for people over 21 years of age, sex, and size of place of residence. To characterize the attitudes towards bread, there were used the respondents’ opinions on the five expressions in the questionnaire and a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). A one-factor analysis of ANOVA variance and Tukey’s post hoc test were applied to compare the opinions on the importance of different bread characteristics in the decision-making process of buying bread; the gender of the respondents and their attitudes towards bread were taken into account. Regarding the factors under consideration
on purchasing bread, the following was pointed out as the most important: taste, freshness, shelf-life, and overall appearance. More than the hedonistic attitude, the pro-health attitude inclined the consumers to give higher scores to the characteristics considered on the purchase. The more the consumers showed a pro-health attitude towards bread, the more they shared the view that the fibre-enriched bread was characterized by a more advantageous taste and better health qualities, a higher content of nutrients; according to them, it had less calories, but, at the same time, it was more expensive. As hedonistic attitudes intensified, more emphasis was put on the fact that the fibre-enriched bread had a worse appearance and was available with difficulty.