Negative emotions,positive actions: Food safety and consumer intentions to purchase ethical food in China

Although ensuring food safety is still an urgent social issue in China, ethical consumption practices are relatively new, and ethical food is not widely consumed. Chinese consumers often face confusing information about a particular food product's safety and are concerned about the situation. Drawing upon stress coping theory, this study examines whether consumer confusion and negative emotions drive intentions to adopt ethical food. Data collected from a sample of 505 consumers were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results show that consumer confusion has a significant impact on negative emotions, which in turn influence intentions to purchase ethical food products. This research advances the food preference literature by providing a new perspective on ethical consumption based on coping strategies. The findings are important for policymakers and business leaders seeking to develop and better promote safer and more ethical food programs in China.     

Understanding consumer resistance to the consumption of organic food. A study of ethical consumption,purchasing, and choice behaviour

Although the demand for organic food is growing globally, the mainstream consumption of organic food is far less. The present study attempts to understand the underlying reasons for consumer resistance toward consuming organic food using the theoretical framework of innovation resistance theory (IRT). The study further examines the association between different consumer barriers and purchase decisions (purchase intentions, ethical consumption intentions, and choice behaviour) at different levels of buying involvement and environmental concerns. The collected data, consisting of 452 consumers, were analyzed by structural equation modeling approach. The results showed that value barrier shared a negative association with purchase intentions and ethical consumption intentions. Ethical consumption and purchase intention were found to have a direct influence on choice behaviour. Additionally, the relationship between ethical consumption intention and choice behaviour is mediated by purchase intention. However, no significant differences have emerged based on the level of buying involvement and environment concerns. The findings of the study provide insight into public policymakers, marketers, suppliers, and consumer associations by enhancing their current understanding of buying behaviour of the growing organic food community.     

Healthy food is nutritious,but organic food is healthy because it is pure: The negotiation of healthy food choices by Danish consumers of organic food

There is increasing demand for organic food products throughout the Western world. Health concerns have frequently been found to be the main motivation of consumers purchasing organic products, but the literature on consumer preferences and behavior is less clear about what ‘health’ means to consumers of these products, and because of this it remains unclear what exactly drives consumers to choose organic products. This article investigates health from the perspective of consumers, and analyzes negotiations of, and justifications behind, their consumption preferences. The analysis is based on a focus group study conducted in Denmark in 2016. Three different understandings of health can be found when consumers explain their preferences for organic products: Health as purity; Health as pleasure, and a Holistic perspective on health. The first two are familiar from the literature on food. The third, which reflects principles behind organic agriculture, is less documented in the context of consumption. Health as purity was the dominant understanding of health used by the participants when explaining why they purchased organic food products. When participants discussed healthy eating in general, detached from a specific context, most employed a purely nutritional perspective as a definitive argument in supporting claims about healthy eating. The paper’s findings have implications for future research on organic consumption. They also have practical implications for organic food producers and manufacturers.     

Lifetime wine drinking,changing attitudes and associations with current wine consumption: A pilot study indicating how experience may drive current behaviour

The ability to measure past experience of alcoholic beverage consumption would be useful in order to understand current wine consumption. A pilot study, using a recently validated tool, measured the lifetime experiences of 51 wine consumers. Linear increases in wine consumption over the course of a wine consumer’s life, contrasting with beer and spirits consumption, and patterns of changing attitudes were found. Correspondence analysis found associations between differing attitudes and consumption patterns. Results encourage application of the tool with representative samples of consumers. Results from the current and future studies will enable an understanding of the long-term development of preferences that may be useful for marketing strategies.     

Liking patterns moderate the relationship between sensory,emotional and context appropriateness profiles: Evidences from a Global Profile study on alcoholic cocktails

This study aimed to further the development and application of the Global profile approach, by (1) extending it to another product category, alcoholic cocktails; (2) investigating the relationship between sensory-emotions-context appropriateness in consumers differing for liking patterns; and (3) integrating the approach beyond product differentiation to consumer differentiation, thus improving and gaining a further insight into differences among consumers (consumer characterization). This was done taking into account consumer differences in oral responsiveness, personality traits, familiarity, explicit responses to products and implicit attitudes towards brand.Six alcoholic bitter-based cocktail samples were rated for liking, sensory properties, emotions and context appropriateness. Three clusters with different liking patterns for alcoholic cocktails were identified: ‘Fruit-bitter lovers’, ‘New-bitter lovers’ and ‘Classic-bitter lovers. Very small differences in sensory evaluation were found between the three clusters, while instead large differences were found for emotions and, to a lesser extent, for context appropriateness. Furthermore, the relationships among emotions, contexts and sensory properties were different in the three clusters.Clusters differed partly by gender, personality traits and alcohol consumption. A higher percentage of females was found in ‘Fruit-bitter lovers’; these consumers were also characterized by a higher Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) scores and a lower level of alcohol consumption. ‘New-bitter lovers’ liked cocktails with very different sensory characteristics who were associated with specific contexts of consumption. These consumers were less involved with cocktails than the other clusters. ‘Classic-bitter lovers’ cluster liked a broader variety of cocktails and also showed a more implicit positive attitude towards the bitter ingredient brand and a higher familiarity for cocktails in general. The information collected through this multidimensional approach will allow a better understanding of the differences in liking patterns among different groups of cocktail consumers and may be used to improve strategies for product innovation and consumer targeting.     

Profiling consumers who are ready to adopt insects as a meat substitute in a Western society

This study investigates the readiness of consumers in a Western society, where traditional meat consumption prevails, to adopt insects as a substitute for meat. Using cross-sectional data (n = 368) and binary logistic regression modeling, the study identifies gender, age, familiarity, food neophobia, convenience and environmental food choice motives, as well as meat-related attitudes and future meat consumption intentions as significant predictors. The predicted likelihood of adopting insects as a substitute for meat is 12.8% [95% CI: 6.1–19.4%] for males and 6.3% [95% CI: 2.8–9.9%] for females, other predictor variables held constant at their mean value. People who claim to be familiar with the idea of eating insects have a 2.6 times higher likelihood, and consumers who intend to reduce fresh meat intake are up to 4.5 times more likely to adopt insects. Food neophobia makes the largest contribution to consumers’ readiness to adopt insects: a one-unit increase in the food neophobia score is associated with a 84% decrease in the predicted odds of being ready to adopt insects. A stronger convenience orientation in food choice and a higher interest in the environmental impact of food choice increase the likelihood of adopting insects by 75% and 71% per unit increase in these predictors’ scores, respectively. By contrast, a one-unit stronger belief that meat is nutritious and healthy, and a one-unit higher importance attached to taste for meat lower the predicted odds by 64% and 61%, respectively. This study reveals that the most likely early adopters of insects as a novel and more sustainable protein source in Western societies are younger males with a weak attachment to meat, who are more open to trying novel foods and interested in the environmental impact of their food choice.     

Diagonal or vertical? An empirical study of the impact of food brand logo orientation on consumers’ food perception and food attitude

This study explores the role of food brand logo orientation on consumers’ perceptions and attitudes regarding food products through four studies. Study 1 examines the effects of food brand logo orientation (diagonal vs. vertical) on consumer perceptions of food tastiness and risk. The findings suggest that diagonal (vs. vertical) food brand logos result in higher (lower) taste and risk perception in branded food. Study 2 reveals the underlying mechanisms of this effect by introducing perceived movement as a mediator between logo orientation and food perception. The results support the inference that movement is an underlying mechanism for the effect. Study 3 examines the effects of brand logo orientation and regulatory focus on consumer attitudes regarding branded food. The results suggest that for consumers with a promotion focus, a diagonal (vs. vertical) oriented logo leads to a more favorable attitude toward the food. For consumers with a prevention focus, a diagonal (vs. vertical) oriented logo leads to a less favorable attitude toward the food. Study 4 establishes validity of the above findings regarding native English speakers.     

What determines ingredient awareness of consumers? A study on ten functional food ingredients

Given the importance of consumer awareness of functional food ingredients for healthy food choices, the aim of this study is to explore consumers’ ingredient awareness and the determinants which influence the awareness about functional food ingredients.A sample of 200 German consumers was interviewed via CATI (computer aided telephone interview) during September 2011. The participants have been asked about their specific awareness regarding to ten functional food ingredients. Likewise, determinants like health status and health motivation have been assessed and their influence on the construct “consumers’ ingredient awareness” has been tested by employing structural equation modeling.The study shows that consumers’ ingredient awareness varies throughout the sample. Overall it can be stated, that 19% of consumer awareness about functional food ingredients is explained through the described model based on the following predictors: age, educational level, health status, health motivation and information strategies. Among these factors, consumers’ health motivation seems to have the highest relevance to explain consumer awareness. But also the determinants information strategies as well as the education show a significant influence on consumers’ ingredient awareness. As health motivation shows the highest impact on consumers’ ingredient awareness this study underlines the importance of prevention propensity for healthy food choices.     

The adaptive eater: Perceived healthiness moderates the effect of the color red on consumption

Previous studies suggest that the color red reduces food intake because it signals danger and hence acts as a consumption-stopping cue. We demonstrate that this effect cannot be generalized to just any kind of food. Consequently, we show that the color red—despite eliciting similar associations—affects behavior more strongly with regard to unhealthy (potentially harmful) food compared to healthy food. Specifically, the color red more strongly influenced the amount of unhealthy food intake (Study 1) and the choice of unhealthy food options (Study 2) compared to healthy food. Study 2 further demonstrated that the impact of color on behavior decreases gradually as food options become healthier. Moreover, the effect can be observed for subtle (Study 1) as well as salient (Study 2) color cues. These results suggest that consumers do not react in a generalized but in an adaptive way to the color red.     

Household Food Insecurity and Canadian Aboriginal Women's Self-efficacy in Food Preparation

Purpose: Determinants of self-efficacy related to food preparation using store-bought food were examined in women belonging to the Atikamekw Nation. Also examined was whether self-efficacy was associated with household food insecurity. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 107 women responsible for household food supplies. Two self-efficacy scores were calculated, one for healthy food preparation and one for food preparation in general. Household food insecurity was measured with an adapted version of the United States Food Security Core Module. The other variables were household composition, income sources, food supplies, tobacco use, participants' health status, and lifestyle and sociodemographic characteristics. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze associations between self-efficacy and household food insecurity in 99 participants. Results: Severe household food insecurity was associated with significantly lower healthy food preparation scores in Atikamekw women. Other associated variables were food supplies, marital status, alcohol consumption, weight status, and understanding of the native language. Conclusions: Application of the concept of self-efficacy contributes to a better understanding of the factors influencing food preparation in Atikamekw women. In this study, self-efficacy in healthy food preparation was linked to food insecurity and obesity, particularly in the most serious cases. Efforts to improve diet will require not only behavioural interventions, but public policies.     

The role of time constraints in consumer understanding of health claims

The growing market for healthy foods has contributed to increased interest in communicating the health-related benefits of food products. Health claims are becoming an increasingly used instrument to communicate such benefits. In the European Union, consumer understanding of health claims was set as condition for use in order to protect consumers against misleading claims. However, consumer understanding has received little attention compared to consumer perceptions of claims. Consumers only have limited time in a normal shopping situation, which can impact the meanings they attach to claims. This study’s aim was to examine the effect of time constraints on consumer understanding of health claims and the potential link between understanding and intention to buy. A survey conducted among respondents in Denmark (N = 1483) used a time constraint manipulation and varied the health claim shown to respondents when assessing consumer understanding. The results showed that consumers’ objective understanding is lower under time constraint. Specific inferences were associated with increased intention to buy. Implications for public policy and food industry are discussed.     

The influence of reputational concerns on purchase intention of fair-trade foods among young Japanese adults

This study explores whether reputational concerns have an effect on purchase intention for fair-trade food products among Japanese young adults. To manipulate reputation cues, we assessed consumers’ intentions to purchase fair-trade food products under two different experimental situations: the ‘observable’ condition, in which participants’ purchase behaviors were observable by others (N = 84); and the ‘anonymous’ condition, in which participants’ purchase behavior could not be observed by others (N = 106). The effect of six sensory and extrinsic attributes including fair trade, price, country of manufacture, taste characteristics, polyphenol content and caloric content on consumer intentions to purchase chocolate was evaluated using conjoint analysis. Results demonstrated that participants under the observable condition valuated fair trade higher than those under the anonymous condition, whereas the opposite tendency was observed for the valuation of price and caloric content for their overall purchase intention. These phenomena suggest that ethical consumption, such as purchasing fair-trade foods, is influenced not only by individual’s intrinsic motives for ethical issues but also by extrinsic social factors such as reputation-enhancing opportunities.     

To fear the unknown: Covid-19 confinement,fear, and food choice

The coronavirus outbreak in December 2019 completely changed the dynamic of consumption in different sectors of industry. The food and beverage industries have been profoundly affected, from production, to modifications in consumers’ choices. Among the different reasons behind those modifications is confinement, which forces consumers to stay at home for an extended period and just go out to perform essential tasks, such as going to the supermarket. We hypothesized that this new dynamic of consumption could create a situation of fear that changes food choice. To test this hypothesis, two studies were conducted in three countries with a different degree of confinement: Mexico (flexible), Spain (strict), and Peru (hard). Study one consisted of a free association task with 60 participants in each country with the inductor word “coronavirus and food”. The different associations served as the basis to build a structured questionnaire, which was used in the second study focused on fear and food choice. The second study was applied to 450 participants in the same three countries. Results showed that fear can be separated into nine dimensions: social, emotional, food supply, government, basic needs, food-delivery, overeating, immunity, and family conflicts. The participants could also be clustered into four different groups that differ in their country of origin and sex, but also in their food choice. Overall, the results showed that fear influenced consumer’s food choices during a confinement period.     

Diversifying meat consumption patterns: consumers' self-reported past behaviour and intentions for change

This study analysed meat consumption patterns among Finnish consumers, considering both stated past changes and intended future changes. Consumer segments with different patterns of and reasons for change were identified. Latent class analysis revealed six consumer clusters that formed three major cluster blocks. The first block, comprising 48% of the consumers, had established consumption patterns and no intentions to change them. In the second block, with 13% of the consumers, consumption patterns had already shifted towards more vegetables and less meat. The third block, with 39% of the consumers, was identified to be in the middle of a change with a general tendency to reduce the use of meat and increase the use of vegetables. Although the environmental effects of meat and animal welfare issues were important reasons for change in some clusters, healthiness was the most salient stated reason for changing consumption habits.     

The impact of evoked consumption contexts and appropriateness on emotion responses

Sensory and consumer scientists are seeing the need to explore broader measures, such as product-driven emotions, to be able to fully understand and satisfy consumers’ demands. However, to date, the consumer methodologies used in food-related emotion research have neglected a crucial element linked to emotions: the consumption context. This is a concern, because consumers’ emotional responses to food are elicited by many other sources apart from the sensory properties of the food itself. The present research aimed to fill in this gap of knowledge by exploring how evoked consumption contexts affect responses obtained from an emotion questionnaire. Two food stimuli (apple and chocolate brownie) and three different consumption contexts (a ‘weekend breakfast’, an ‘afternoon snack’, and ‘after a special dinner’) were used to vary the level of product-context appropriateness. A within-subject design was used in which 157 participants first completed an emotion questionnaire (36 terms, checklist format) in response to each of the evoked consumption contexts (presented in written format). A week later, the same participants completed the same emotion questionnaire while imagining themselves eating an apple or chocolate brownie (shown as images) without any given context (control condition), and then under the three different contexts (random monadic sequential order). When the chocolate brownie was the food stimulus, 20 of 36 emotion responses were significantly different from context to context (including the no-context condition). Conversely, only 9 significant differences were established when apple was the food stimulus. It was also found that frequency of use of positive emotion terms was higher in those consumption contexts that were considered more appropriate, whereas negative emotion terms were more frequently selected when the context was perceived as less appropriate for the product. Taken together, these findings highlight how the context in which a food is consumed (even if imagined) can affect consumers’ emotion responses towards it. More broadly, they demonstrate the reciprocal effect that the context and the product have on the elicited emotion responses, which are not situationally invariant. This research also explored how psychological traits related to emotional eating affected the emotion responses and found that in general higher emotional eaters selected a higher number of emotion terms (positive and negative). This study represents a needed advance in food-related emotion research, and upon replication of the results with other product-context combinations, could offer an easy-to-implement methodology that should more closely match the emotion responses that consumers would elicit in real-life situations while eating and drinking.     

Shaping up: How package shape and consumer body conspire to affect food healthiness evaluation

Integrating research on human body shapes with studies of health cues in food package design, this research explores how food packages resembling humanoid shapes impact consumers’ evaluation of food healthiness. Adopting a self-referencing perspective, two studies show that packages resembling slim humanoid shapes lead to foods being evaluated as healthier, especially with female consumers whose bodily characteristics mark them as being not thin. Study 1 uses packages designed to mimic humanoid body shapes and shows that slimness effects depend on consumer gender and body mass index (BMI): The heuristic that slim packages contain more healthy foods is more pronounced with women and increasing BMI. Study 2 replicates these findings and offers process evidence for self-referencing as a mediator of the package slimness – healthiness evaluation. Together the findings highlight package shape as an important cue to food healthiness evaluation and aid marketers and designers in better matching packages to target audiences and products.     

Consumer associations about other buyers of suboptimal food – And what it means for food waste avoidance actions

One approach to tackling the imminent sustainability problem of food waste is to sell suboptimal food which otherwise might be wasted. However, understanding how the action of buying price-reduced suboptimal food is influenced by the fact that the consumer purchases it publicly while observed by others is yet unexplored. The present research investigates which associations consumers form when they see other consumers purchasing suboptimal foods. In an online experimental survey, consumers of five European countries checked every word that applied (CATA) from a set of items that described what choosing a food item told them about an acquaintance they met in the store in terms of his or her traits. The food item was optimal or suboptimal, fresh or packaged food, and presented with a communication that either underlined a budget saving benefit or a contribution to avoiding food waste. Results show that consumers of suboptimal products are regarded as economic and thrifty, as well as frugal and environmentally concerned. The associations with consumers of optimal products are more diverse, and include both positive and negative wordings, ranging from successful to fussy and inattentive. Consumers’ own level of environmental concerns and value consciousness explain the degree to which they perceive another consumer to have similar traits, revealing that consumers project their own traits on others. Findings imply that stores offering suboptimal food should present and communicate the items in line with the characteristics of the store’s target group, and that suboptimal food choices can trigger positive associations.     

What’s the deal? Consumer price involvement and the intention to purchase suboptimal foods. A cross-national study

Retailers aim to supply consumers exclusively with food products that are flawless, and therefore impose strict standards that foods have to comply with before deemed qualified for retail. This practice results in large amounts of foods, suitable for human consumption, to be discarded due to deviation from these standards. In an effort to battle food waste, retailers have begun to offer suboptimal food products on price promotion. However, consumers’ reactions to price promotions are not uniform and depend on the significance individuals assign to these promotions, based on their own price involvement. An online questionnaire administered to a total sample of 3,114 consumers divided across representative samples of Dutch (n = 628), German (n = 622), Swedish (n = 620), Norwegian (n = 625) and Danish (n = 619) consumers aimed to investigate the effect of five price involvement dimensions (Deal proneness, Value consciousness, Price consciousness, Price-Quality schema, Prestige sensitivity), Perceived budget constraints, and current use of suboptimal foods on consumers’ intention to purchase these products in the near future. Results indicate that consumers’ intention to purchase suboptimal foods is influenced by different price involvement dimensions within and across countries. These findings offer evidence that a more nuanced approach to price promotions can increase consumers’ intentions to purchase suboptimal foods and thus prove an efficient marketing tool that can be used to help reduce food waste. Retailers could benefit from applying price promotions that tap into the price involvement dimensions that increase consumers’ intentions to purchase suboptimal foods, in contrast to the current practice of applying uniform price reductions.     

Referent product information from a credible source: How front line employees can stimulate acceptance of incrementally new food products

Generating consumer acceptance for incrementally new food products remains a challenge. Drawing on analogical learning theory, we explore the combined effect of providing information about the new product’s closest referent (‘the product is like…’) and the instrumental value of store’s frontline employees (FLEs) as credible source of this information on a new food product’s acceptance. Using the context of aquaculture, two consecutive experimental studies with a joint data collection have been conducted among UK consumers. Study 1 focuses on the adoption of fillets of an unfamiliar fish species with the FLE communicating newness, or newness including closest referent information. Results confirm that information provided by the FLE has a positive effect on consumer attitude and willingness to buy the new product, but a similar rather than stronger effect is found for the condition including closest referent information. Using a subsample of the data of Study 1, Study 2 explores the underlying learning mechanisms involved. The findings show that the influence of the FLE’s information on the consumer’s attitude towards the new product is positively mediated by the consumer’s attitude towards FLE’s advice. Additionally, the positive indirect effect of the FLE’s information regarding closest referent on willingness to buy is conditional on the consumer’s (dis)liking of the referent product and his/her need to taste the new product first. These findings confirm that offering information on closest referent by FLEs is powerful and can be a useful variable in consumer segmentation.