Are Local Dairy Products Better? Using Principal Component Analysis to Investigate Consumers’ Perception towards Quality, Sustainability, and Market Availability

Abstract

Consumers are increasingly aware of the benefits of local foods in terms of quality, sustainability, animal welfare, and safety. This research addresses two main questions: (i) is the perception towards sustainability aspects of local dairy products related to individuals’ preferences for milk and cheese quality aspects? (ii) are these perceptions related to people’s socio-demographic characteristics? For this purpose, a choice experiment was conducted online in Apulia (South-East Italy) involving a sample of 543 respondents. A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to analyze the consumer opinion related to dairy products’ quality attributes, sustainability, and availability on the market. From the PCA, four main components (accounting the 64.5% of the total explained variance) were defined, highlighting non-overlapping choice styles of consumers, distinguished by attitudes primarily based on quality attributes of dairy products rather than sustainability characteristics or perceived higher quality of local products. Furthermore, the Availability request component described the consumer need for higher availability and/or visibility of local dairy products on the market. The effect of gender, age, and educational status of individuals emerged as significantly important for the resulting component definitions. The obtained results clearly suggest the need to increase the efficiency of communication strategies concerning local dairy products, as well as local dairy products’ availability and visibility on the markets.

The Noble Method in the dairy sector as a sustainable production system to improve the nutritional composition of dairy products: A review

“…A PCA analysis conducted on the responses of 543 people interviewed in the study of Merlino et al . (2022) showed that local dairy products were perceived to have higher quality. Consumers have expressed the need for greater availability of local products on the market.…”

The role of socio-demographic variables and buying habits in determining milk purchasers’ preferences and choices

“…However, analyzing the results of the B-W clustering, we noticed that purchasers aged 18-25 considered price and brand the less important attribute. Young individuals (aged [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] considered the taste as an important attribute for milk choice, while the brand was considered positively by subjects aged over 65 and by those in the 36-45 range. Finally, purchasers over 65 and those belonging to the age range 36-45 especially considered the organic certification and the information on the label as not important for milk choice.…”

“…To fill this gap, the aim of this research was to verify the weight and the role of individuals' SD characteristics and PH (in terms of the place of milk purchase) on the preference index calculated for each selected descriptor of cow's milk, i.e., credence, intrinsic, and extrinsic attributes of individuals' choice (15), to predict different milk purchasing patterns in a specific geographic area of Italy. This selection was made by considering the literature regarding the attributes of milk, and food products in general, that drive consumer preferences when making purchasing choices (30,(34)(35)(36)(37). Specifically, credence attributes are those whose veracity cannot be tested during either the purchasing or the consumption process.…”

“…In ( 33 ) the milk purchasing at milk vending machines was majorly linked to the consumer with a higher sensitivity toward environmental concerns, compared to the individuals buying milk at the supermarket. However, the Italian consumer buys cow’s milk especially in the large retail distribution ( 9 , 15 ), basing their choices specifically on the product brand and convenience ( 34 ).…”

Evaluation of Chemical Contaminants in Conventional and Unconventional Ragusana Provola Cheese

“…Dairy products are considered, in the global economy, as one of the main markets due to their high consumption [ 1 ]. Cheese from cow’s milk is the most widely produced and consumed, compared to cheese made from the milk of other species.…”