Attitudes of dining customers towards sustainability-related food values at a public University campus

Abstract

The plethora of alternative food labels emerging in the marketplace reflects consumer interest in informed and sustainable purchasing. However, consumers’ preferences vary with respect to the sustainability metrics represented by labeling programs. The goal of this project was to characterize public university students’ perceptions of product parameters commonly represented by food labels for produce (e.g., cost, taste, certified organic, locally grown). A consumer survey (n = 338) was conducted at two university dining halls, located in close proximity to major residence hall communities which house approximately 2600 students. Culinary, health and cost attributes (taste, nutritional value, price and appearance) were ranked as more influential in determining purchasing decisions than sustainability attributes related to production and sourcing. While sustainability values were not as influential in driving purchasing behaviors as compared with product attributes, they were important to approximately 50% of the survey respondents. By identifying the sustainability values of students and their willingness to pay more for specific types of sustainable food, results from this study can inform efforts to align priorities of campus dining services with the values of their student patrons, as well as identify educational opportunities around agriculture and food production.

Students’ knowledge and expectations about sustainable food systems in higher education

“…Our results confirm assumptions of Hilimire and McLaughlin (2015) and of Silva et al (2019), that consider American students as consumers and purchasers of food, and found value “taste” and “price” as the most important motives. Looking into comparisons amongst universities, differences could be explained by a mix of cultural attitudes and educational focus.…”

What Influences the Sustainable Food Consumption Behaviours of University Students? A Systematic Review

“…Relevant studies that exceeded the scope of this review, e.g. qualitative, case studies, focused on awareness, etc., have been conducted in other countries [18,[76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85]. Since most of the selected studies rely on convenience sampling, generalizations about the country population are not possible.…”

A Review of the Literature on Food Values and Their Potential Implications for Consumers’ Food Decision Processes

“…In a similar comparison of North American and Iranian respondents, Shahriari et al [21] deviated from Lusk and Briggeman [4] and Bazzani et al [11] by finding that the strongest predictors of attitude toward purchasing organic food were naturalness in the US and price in Iran. Likewise, other authors [22] found that consumers ranked taste, nutritional value, price, and appearance as more influential over their purchasing decisions than sustainability attributes related to production and origin.…”