The presence in the market of food products with nutritional claims is increasing. The objective of this paper is to assess consumers’ valuation of some nutritional claims (‘high in fiber’ and ‘reduced saturated fat’) in a European country and to test for differences among consumers. An artefactual non-hypothetical experiment was carried out in a realistic setting (mock/real brick-and-mortar supermarket) with a sample of 121 Spanish consumers stratified by gender, age, and body mass index. A latent class model was specified and estimated with the data from the experiment. Results indicate that consumers positively valued both nutritional claims, but the valuation was heterogeneous, and three consumer segments were detected. Two of them positively valued both nutritional claims (named ‘nutritional claim seekers’), while the third segment’s valuation was negative (named ‘nutritional claim avoiders’). This last segment is characterized by being younger males with university studies who give the least importance to health, natural ingredients, and the calorie/sugar/fat content when shopping. They pay less attention to nutritional information, and they stated that they use this information to a lesser extent. These consumers showed the least interest in healthy eating, and they reported that they do not have health problems related to their diet.

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Local plant genetic resources are of vital importance for the resilience of the agroecosystems, especially under conditions of global climate change. The diversification of production using these resources is postulated as an alternative for the development of rural areas with non-optimal farming conditions and/or disadvantaged by depopulation. However, in order to sustainably utilize local genetic resources, their use has also to provide products accepted by consumers. The aim of this study was to evaluate consumer acceptance of a local purple carrot that is a Spanish landrace at risk of genetic erosion from Teruel, a province in the Aragón region seriously affected by depopulation and extreme weather conditions, to contribute to its sustainable recovery. Consumer preferences for carrots with different characteristics (color, price, variety, and production system) were studied, and their willingness to pay (WTP) for the local purple carrots was assessed. Data from a survey conducted in this Spanish region was used. We identified two segments of consumers with different willingness to pay, hedonic liking, and intention to purchase the purple local carrots. These traditional purple carrots would be accepted by the segment of consumers more willing to pay for and more likely to purchase these carrots. The traditional purple carrots should be promoted, emphasizing that they are produced by a local landrace whose purple color is due to anthocyanic pigments with known antioxidant properties.