Chinese consumers’ willingness-to-pay for nutrition claims on processed meat products, using functional sausages as a food medium

Abstract

PurposeFollowing the standard practice of using nutrition claims to denote food functionality, this study empirically explores Chinese consumers’ willingness-to-pay for functional processed meat products by using three nutrition claims (namely “increased calcium,” “containing omega-3”, and “reduced salt”) made on pork sausages. It also aims to outline the typical characteristics of Chinese consumer segments based on preferences.Design/methodology/approachA choice-based choice experiment is utilized to investigate Chinese consumers’ valuation on attributes of interest regarding functional sausage products. First-hand data was collected in the two cities of Xi'an and Beijing.FindingsThere are market potentials for domestic and/or imported functional processed meat products among Chinese consumers. Nutrition claims made on pork sausages are appealing to Chinese consumers, and therefore, monetarily rewarded by them. Being imported from a more developed country of origin could both positively and negatively impact consumers’ WTP for nutrition claims made on pork sausages. Furthermore, specific functional modification strategies should be taken into account when addressing different segments of the Chinese market. In addition, regional impacts between Xi'an and Beijing are implied in terms of consumers’ valuation for functional pork sausages.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations in the current study are mainly two folds. First, the WTP estimation magnitudes are subject to a hypothetical bias by using a stated preference approach. Second, this study only focuses on pork sausages to explore consumers’ perceptions and selects three nutrition claims among many other relevant options.Practical implicationsImplications are provided for meat marketers and for Chinese official food policymakers, such that promoting meat products with a nutrition claim is an attractive marketing strategy for foreign food manufacturers in China, and more reformulated meat products with better nutritional compositions should be allowed in the Chinese market.Originality/valueTo the best of the author’s knowledge, this research is the first to fill in the literature blank on investigating the consumers’ valuation for functional meat in the emerging market of China. Because when taking Chinese consumers as a target market and evaluating their perceptions of food quality-related labeling and certifications, the existing literature is mainly limited to topics of product safety, organic/green products, and geographical origins. However, nutrition claims, as marketable credence attributes that associate closely to the main characteristics of the functional food products, have been explored to a much lesser extent among Chinese consumers.

Chinese Consumers’ Heterogeneous Preferences for the Front-of-Package Labeling on Fresh Pork: A Choice Experiment Approach

“…There existed heterogeneities in the preference for FOP labeling attributes of fresh pork among Chinese consumers, which was in line with the prior studies about heterogeneities of labeling preference in terms of education levels and trust degrees in the labeling [ 19 , 20 ]. However, previous studies only focused on labels.…”

“…However, previous studies only focused on labels. For example, Chinese consumers’ preference for pork import labels decreased with their higher education level [ 19 ], and Vietnamese consumers’ preference for VietGAP certification increased along with higher trust degree [ 20 ]. In contrast, consumers preferences’ heterogeneity regarding levels of labeling attributes was identified, and it was found that consumers who received different education levels had preferences for different information expression forms and colors, and consumers with different trust degrees in the labeling had different preferences for the paid labeling.…”

“…At present, some studies have focused on consumers’ preference for nutrition labels for fresh agricultural products, including nutrition claims for aquatic products, unsaturated fatty acid omega-3 claims for eggs, and nutrition facts tables for pork [ 14 , 15 , 16 ]. The choice experiment is a method widely used in consumer preference surveys [ 15 ]; consumers’ preference for the food labeling attributes has shown population heterogeneity such as by gender, age, education level, personal annual income, attention to health products, cognition of food nutrition, and labeling trust [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ].…”

The Effects of Nutrition and Health Claim Information on Consumers’ Sensory Preferences and Willingness to Pay

“…After the informed test, a CBC experiment was used to measure consumer preferences and WTP for the selected attributes of sausages. The CBC experiment is a widely applied method to investigate consumers’ preferences towards food claims and other attributes of healthier meat products in the existing literature [ 23 , 37 , 38 ]. In this study, five attributes of sausage products (i.e., price, meat content, omega-3 enrichment, fat reduction, and salt reduction) and their associated levels are described in Table 1 .…”

“…These attributes and levels were selected to reflect sausage characteristics valued by consumers, based on the relevant literature [ 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ]. Price and meat content ranges were drawn on real commercial products in Irish grocery shops or supermarkets (see Appendix B : A summary of selected information on pork sausages available in Irish supermarkets).…”