A discrete choice experiment of the impact of consumers’ environmental values, ethical concerns, and health consciousness on food choices

Abstract

Purpose Over the last few decades, consumers’ concerns for healthier lifestyles and the environment have become the driving forces for forming food-buying intentions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of product attributes regarding nutrition and health benefits of products, the environmental impact of production and social responsibility of producers on consumers’ food and wine choices. Design/methodology/approach The empirical analysis is based on an online survey conducted in the USA, the UK and Germany, and incorporates a discrete choice experiment with visual shelf simulations. Findings Price and nutrition information are much more influential on consumers’ food choices than information about social responsibility of producers or the ecological impact of production. Product attributes emphasizing the ecological impact of production and social responsibility of food producers are specifically valued by consumers with high levels of environmental consciousness and by those concerned about goods production. Consumers who are health conscious regarding their lifestyle and diets derive high utility values from the nutritional information of the product. Practical implications The study contributes to an understanding of how to promote healthier food and wine choices and social and environmental responsibility of food and wine producers in various markets. Originality/value The study offers a comparison of product attributes concerning ecological, social, nutrition and health benefits of the product; as well the investigation of congruent interrelationships between the consumers’ values and related product attributes in three culturally distinct consumer groups.

Sustainable Diet Dimensions. Comparing Consumer Preference for Nutrition, Environmental and Social Responsibility Food Labelling: A Systematic Review

“…The majority of tested attributes elicited a positive WTP, although one study found participants were not willing to pay a premium for either health or environmental attributes, preferring the 'traditional' status quo pasta product [64]. Another negative WTP was also found in a cross-country comparison study [45], with USA participants unwilling to pay a premium for social welfare/equity attributes.…”

“…Many studies employed Likert scales to gauge consumer preference and characteristics. Only seven studies used conceptual theories of consumer behaviour to inform their findings [42][43][44][45][46][47][48]. Sample size varied between studies, ranging from 16 participants to 1950, with a mean study size of 635 participants and an overall population of 19,040 participants across the 30 studies.…”

“…Of the nine studies where consumers preferred nutrition-related attributes to the environmental or social alternative, there was a split between a preference for macronutrient information and nutrition-related health claims ( Table 2). Low-fat labelling information was ascribed a high utility by consumers, the preferred type of nutrition attribute information in four studies [41,45,61,62]. A distinction in consumer label information preference can be seen in those studies where two types of nutrition information (health claims and nutrient content information) are tested side-by-side.…”

“…A distinction in consumer label information preference can be seen in those studies where two types of nutrition information (health claims and nutrient content information) are tested side-by-side. In the four studies permitting a comparison of health claims and nutrition content information [45,51,57,63], just one found that the nutrient content information was preferred to information emphasising longer-term health benefits [45]. This preference for health claims over nutrition content information was particularly strong in Zakowska-Biemans et al [57], where the utility of nutrient claims simply stating the omega-3 and vitamin content of eggs was rated negatively compared to health claims expanding on the functional properties of these nutrients.…”

It is Domestic, it Must Be Healthy: How Health Consciousness and Consumer Ethnocentrism Shape Healthiness Perception and Purchase Intentions of Domestic Food

“…On the contrary, health-conscious people base their food choice on health reasons and benefit from nutritional information provided on food products (Ghvanidze et al, 2017). Moreover, they avoid eating unhealthily (Glanz et al, 1998) and believe in the efficacy of their actions potential to benefit their health ( Jayanti & Burns, 1998).…”