Consumers’ Attitude towards Sustainability in Italy: Process of Validation of a Duly Designed Questionnaire

Abstract

This study aimed to describe the process of validation of a questionnaire assessing Italian consumers’ perception of food sustainability. The study has a multiphase design. Phase 1 consisted in translating and structuring the questionnaire. Phase 2 aimed at assessing the validity of the content by experts. Phase 3 consisted of a pilot study (n = 150) carried out to revise the questionnaire based on the reactions of consumers representing the target group of the assessment. The questionnaire showed adequate content validity for 11 out of 14 questions (>0.79) and S-CVI/Ave > 0.80. Cronbach’s alpha values ranged from 0.08 to 0.90. The construct with insufficient results (0.08) was changed because it failed to correlate with the rest of the questionnaire. The factor analysis permitted the identification of questions that needed improvement in terms of comprehensibility, elimination of redundancies, and repetitions. The validated questionnaire included 12 questions (71 response options); 3 sections were identified: food sustainability knowledge (4 questions-30 items); sources of proteins alternative to meat (3 questions-20 items); eating behaviors (5 questions-21 items). This study showed the importance of validation before the administration on a large scale of a questionnaire on a topic such as sustainability still lacking large support from consensus documents.

Promoting Nutrition and Food Sustainability Knowledge in Apprentice Chefs: An Intervention Study at The School of Italian Culinary Arts—ALMA

“…Regarding nutrition knowledge, the total score obtained by the apprentice chefs was in line with the results reported for the sample of university students with a nutrition background enrolled by Rosi et al [23] to validate the questionnaire applied in this study. Considering the Italian adult population, Aureli and colleagues recently validated a 12-item questionnaire [40], but in this example, the instrument aimed at investigating the attitudes of individuals, without specifically investigating their actual knowledge. Some studies on the topic of nutrition and food sustainability knowledge are reported in the literature; however, comparisons are difficult due to the peculiarities of the study design and target population of our study.…”

The Alignment of Recommendations of Dietary Guidelines with Sustainability Aspects: Lessons Learned from Italy’s Example and Proposals for Future Development

“…There are still limitations to this approach. In the IDGs, the sustainability recommendations were developed without an evaluation of Italian consumers’ considerations of sustainability [ 44 ]. As reported by Rossi et al, 2022 [ 18 ], the sustainability of diet is an aspect that is still not completely exploited, in which the risk of bias and “personal” interpretation is also possible, given the limited sources of information, based on consensus documents.…”

“…Another limitation to the development of the sustainability of diet in the IDGs, was related to the fact that the commission included nutrition experts with an under-representation of environmental sustainability competencies. In a modern approach, nutritional recommendations should consider the environmental implications of food choice, and the development of nutritional recommendations are tasks for community nutrition specialists and public health experts [ 44 ]. A multidisciplinary approach to the development of nutritional recommendations is important for the wide range of aspects belonging to different disciplines that should be considered together in order to identify possible solutions for the transition towards a healthy and sustainable diet.…”

“…One of the limitations of the Italian approach to the development of sustainability recommendations was that it was carried out without an evaluation of Italian consumers’ awareness of sustainability. A duly designed survey on this topic was carried out in 2022 on a representative sample of Italian consumers with an approved questionnaire to assess Italian consumers’ level of awareness of the environmental impact of food choices, with a specific focus on whether alternative protein to meat, even new generation, would be accepted by Italian consumers [ 44 ]. The preliminary results of this work indicate a dichotomous attitude on the part of consumers, who by and large agreed that food consumption can affect the environmental sustainability but wanted to be free from constraints and limitations, in terms of dietary choices.…”

“…In addition, Italian consumers reported a strong resistance to the consumption of insects and synthetic meat. As a policy implication, this nationwide country representative assessment could also be used as a benchmark for developing specific recommendations, in consideration of the limits of the inclusion of sustainability in nutritional advice, and could contribute to the maximization of the capacity of the dietary guidelines, to create a healthy food environment [ 44 , 46 ].…”