Consumers' perception of the health aspects of organic food

Abstract

Organic foods are grown using the principles of organic agriculture that are produced, processed and packaged without using chemicals. Th ey have been accepted due to their several perceived benefi ts over the conventional food. Health aspects of organic food are, in addition to the ethical, environmental, hedonic and "feel good" aspects, the main benefi ts that the consumers appreciate in organic food. Th is paper presents the results of a quantitative survey in the Czech organic food market. By using the factor analysis, it showed that the consumer perception of the health benefi ts of organic food can be viewed from several diff erent angles. Th ere were found three factors that explain 58.42% of variability, which are, based on their relationship with the original items, interpreted as the "knowledge and responsibility", "being aware, but lax" and "health is important, but not related to food". Th e fi rst factor contains enough knowledge related to the health care, the conviction of the importance of food choice regarding health and the active interest and eff ort to do something for one's health. Th e second factor contains enough knowledge related to health care, but is lacking the interest to apply the knowledge and to do something for one's health, and the third factor contains the conviction that health is an important asset, but the perception of the connection between one's health and food is absent.

Quality attributes of cactus pear fruit and their role in consumer choice

“…With specific reference to credence attributes, the results show that the "environmental sustainability" attribute has a positive effect on the probability that a larger number of fruits will be consumed. In line with what has already been observed in the literature on organic products, products' environmental sustainability is one of the elements that most influences consumer choice (Zanoli and Naspetti, 2002;Saba and Messina, 2003;Kutnohorská and Tomšík, 2013). The "healthfulness" attribute also assumes a certain importance in steering consumer choice, which probably refers to the nutritional properties of some foods in general (Oude Ophuis and Van Trijp, 1995) and to the cactus pear fruit in particular.…”

“…The results of numerous empirical studies show the existence of a positive cause-effect relationship between production processes and perceived effects on the environment. This is the case for organic agri-food products, which the consumer associates with natural processes, care for animal welfare, and the non-use of pesticides and fertilisers (Shafie and Rennie, 2012;Verneau et al, 2014), all of which have a positive effect on environmental sustainability (Davies et al, 1995;Zanoli and Naspetti, 2002;Baker et al, 2004;Kutnohorská and Tomšík, 2013). Saba and Messina (2003), who effected a survey on a sample of 950 Italian consumers, ascertained that consumers perceive organic fruit and vegetables to be more respectful towards the environment than products obtained through conventional methods.…”

Factors affecting consumer attitudes towards food products with sustainable attributes

“…M ore interesting aspects emerge from the analysis of the reasons that limit the purchase frequencies of the different product categories mentioned. In this regard, we asked the respondents to express their level of agreement with five statement regarding the main reasons for not purchasing the products, which emerged from other similar works in the literature (Renard 2003;Padel and Foster 2005;Kutnohorská and Tomšík 2013).…”

Consumer interest towards tropical fruit: factors affecting avocado fruit consumption in Italy

“…The results of numerous empirical studies show the existence of a positive cause-effect relationship between production processes and perceived effects on the environment. This is the case for organic food products, which the consumer associates with natural processes and the non-use of pesticides and fertilizers (Shafie and Rennie 2012), all of which have a positive effect on environmental sustainability (Kutnohorská and Tomšík 2013;Baker et al 2004;Padel and Foster 2005;Zanoli and Naspetti 2002).…”