Environmental Concerns and Food Consumption: What Drives Consumers’ Actions to Reduce Food Waste?

Consumer behavior and food consumption comprise the largest amount of waste in the food chain. This study aimed to identify the relationships among consumer environmental concerns, their awareness of food waste, demographics, and their food consumption. The findings suggest that food waste prevention is positively influenced by consumers' environmentally conscious buying, food waste awareness, bulk buying, frequency of home cooking, and age. Impulsive food purchasing, the frequency of eating out, and the number of people in the household negatively influence food waste prevention. Food policy makers and retailers should be involved in educating and encouraging consumers to minimize food waste.     

消费者对食品添加剂认知的调查——以上海市为例

以调查问卷的形式,调查分析了上海市消费者对食品添加剂的认知情况.并在此基础上提出建议和措施,以加强对食品添加剂生产、使用等环节的监管力度,提高食品的安全性.     

Food Packaging in Japan

Japan is the highest per capita consumer of packaging materials in the world. The Japanese packaging materials industry has an annual value of US$50 billion. There is a close relationship between the food and packaging industries in Japan. There is a tendency toward ingenuity in packaging designs in Japan, and Japanese food manufacturers use high-tech packaging techniques. At the same time, there is still widespread usage of traditional packaging materials (i.e., wood, earthenware, ceramics, and bamboo). Available space, energy, and a severe lack of natural resources directly affect the food packaging industry in Japan.     

Domestically produced food: Consumer perceptions of origin, safety and the issue of trust

It is becoming increasingly difficult for the public to attempt to assess risks using traditional methods such as smell, taste or other physical attributes of food. The existence of extrinsic cues such as the country of origin (COO) of food can help to make food purchase decisions easier for consumers. However, the use of extrinsic cues depends heavily on the extent to which consumers trust such signals to be indicative of quality or safety, which in turn depends on the credibility behind that cue. This paper aims to examine consumers association of domestically produced food with increased food safety standards and the association of COO and food safety information with socio-demographics and other aspects of consumer psychology such as attitudes, risk perception and trust. Using an ordered probit model, domestic production is examined as an extrinsic cue for food safety by looking at the relationship with trust in food safety information provided by national food standards agencies (NFSAs) and other socio-demographic characteristics, based on nationally representative data from 2725 face-to-face interviews across five European countries. Results suggest that domestic production of food is an extrinsic cue for food safety and as consumers place increasing importance on food safety they are more interested in food produced in their own country. This, coupled with consumer trust in a strong, and independent national food standards agency, suggests the potential exists for the increased consumption of domestically produced foods.     

Impact of ‘‘high in” front-of-package nutrition labeling on food choices: Evidence from a grocery shopping experiment

This study investigates the ex-ante effects of the front-of-package (FoP) nutrition labeling for food products high in saturated fat, sugar, and/or sodium, which is a new regulation recently announced by Health Canada to combat obesity. The Canadian food industry has until January 1, 2026, to comply with the new regulations. To examine the ex-ante effects of this policy, an incentivized experiment is conducted in a lab that replicates a grocery store. The results at the product level indicate a significant decrease in the probability of choosing a product with a “high in” label compared to those without “high in” labels. Basket-level results demonstrate that FoP labeling is significantly associated with a lower quantity share and dollar value share of products high in one of the mentioned nutrients selected in a grocery basket, as well as fewer grams of sugar and sodium in a grocery basket. Furthermore, the study reveals that individuals with higher educational attainment, a risk-averse nature, and a lower level of self-reported nutrition knowledge tend to react more to the labeling. The insights from eye-tracking data further support these results, revealing that product choices are deterred by a fixation on “high in” labels. This study contributes to an improved understanding of the pathway in which labeling schemes influence food choices.     

乡村社会资本与农户宅基地退出——基于江西省余江区522户农户样本

研究目的:基于江西省余江区522份农户调研数据,揭示社会资本因素在农户退出宅基地决策中的影响机理,以期为同类型地区提供合理化的政策建议。研究方法:描述性统计分析法和Ivprobit模型。研究结果:乡村社会资本所包含的社会信任、社会网络、社会规范3个维度在农户宅基地退出过程中发挥着重要作用,平均边际效应分别为0.022、0.043和0.053;社会网络在社会规范对农户宅基地退出的影响中发挥了增强性调节作用。研究结论:引导农户自愿有序退出宅基地应找到符合农村社会现实的着力点,提升农户社会信任水平,扩大农户社会网络,发挥社会规范的驱动作用。     

经济林产品消费行为研究——以福州市居民为例

以经济林产品市场消费的实地调研为主:在相关经济林产品消费理论的基础上结合本课题实际设计出了一份消费者调查问卷,对市场经济林产品的消费情况、品种、动因及月消费额进行了统计分析。通过对调查数据和样本的分析,得出目前大众对经济林产品的消费量还比较少,对其营养价值的认知还有待提高,其中木本水果的消费意向最高,而木本油料的消费意向相对比较低,公众对木本粮食的消费因性别和收入水平有所差异。总的来说,公众对经济林产品的消费意向有增大的趋势。     

Nutrition, health and economic policies in Europe

This article explores the economic issues associated with diet choices and nutrition policies in Europe. A review of the current and potential policy measures is provided and the issues associated with the development of a common nutritional policy in Europe discussed, with a special focus on the collection of appropriate data for benchmarking. We propose a classification for the wide range of nutrition policy tools and the most recent developments are discussed with reference to policy actions in France, Italy and the United Kingdom.     

信任对城市居民有机食品消费行为的影响机理分析

[目的]揭示不同信任水平消费者在有机食品消费行为上的差异及其内在逻辑,从而为有效破解有机食品市场提供新的思路。[方法]文章以价值感知和食品安全意识为中介调节变量,构建信任影响消费行为的分析框架,并基于全国1 113位城市居民的微观调查数据,采用Ologit模型进行实证检验。[结果]信任水平正向影响居民有机食品消费行为和价值感知,价值感知在信任对消费行为的影响中发挥中介效应;同时,居民食品安全意识在信任与价值感知之间起调节作用,从而价值感知对信任与消费行为之间关系的中介效应也会受到食品安全意识的调节,即产生了被调节的中介效应。[结论]信任是决定消费者有机食品消费行为的重要因素,信任缺失会限制消费者的购买行为。利用有效的信号揭示和传递机制能缓解市场信息不对称,增进消费者信任,从而促进有机食品消费市场发展。与消费者信任相比,价值感知是影响消费者购买行为的更为直接的因素,不同消费者信任水平导致的购买行为的差异,在一定程度上是通过影响消费者价值感知实现的。因此,提供差别化的产品与服务、加强消费者的良性社交互动,普及和传播食品安全知识,有效提升消费者的价值感知水平和食品安全意识,都有利于有机食品市场培育。     

Consumer Attitudes Towards Convenience Food Usage: Exploring the Case of São Paulo,Brazil

Abstract

The goal of the present study is to assess the impact of attitudinal and sociodemographic variables and resources restriction (time, effort and income) on convenience food usage, mediated by customer convenience orientation. The study was conducted in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. 1391 participants completed an online questionnaire designed to evaluate convenience food usage, attitudinal and sociodemographic variables. Data were analyzed through structural equation modeling by blockwise comparison technique. The results showed that convenience food usage was directly affected by convenience orientation towards the meal planning, kitchen setup and cleaning up stages, and was driven by time and budget perception, both directly and indirectly (as mediated by convenience orientation). Health consciousness and cooking enjoyment showed a negative impact on the usage of these products. The convenience food market in Brazil has a large growth potential, especially if new products take into consideration palatability and nutritional quality.     

竹藤制品市场研究与对策

本文采用问卷调查的方法 ,在全国范围内对竹藤制品的消费者市场进行了研究 ,并根据消费者的性别、年龄、受教育程度、收入、所处地区经济繁荣程度和是否处于产竹大省等变量对消费者进行了分类 ,通过分析不同的消费者对竹藤制品的态度 ,从而获知竹藤制品在市场竞争中所具有的优势、劣势。结合调查分析结果 ,作者就如何提高竹藤制品市场竞争能力和扩大竹藤制品市场份额提出了积极的建议     

Export Crop Marketing in Tropical Africa

Abstract

Recent developments at the consumer and at the farm level have resulted in a renewed interest in short market channels for fresh food. This paper focuses on consumer valuation of purchasing fresh food from short channels in general and on differences between two distinct types of short channel initiatives, i.e., farmers' markets and food teams as examples of supply- and demand-side driven initiatives respectively. The research methodology builds on the Means-End-Chain theory. Data are collected through laddering interviews with 100 respondents. The general hierarchical value map largely supports classical theories of value structures. “Security” is the predominant value type with “Health” as the major value. Further, a distinct “Hedonism” and “Universalism” cluster are discovered, with the first being built on the attribute “Freshness,” the consequence “Taste” and the value “Pleasure,” and the latter including environmental, animal welfare and regional development concerns. Specific motivation structures dealing with farmers' markets versus food teams are reported. Recommendations pertain to organizational and marketing issues, more specifically product positioning, innovation and communication based on the revealed Means-End-Chains or motivational structures.     

Consumer trust, risk and food safety: A review

Consumers' attitudes to trust and risk are key issues in food safety research and attention needs to be focused on clearly defining a framework for analysing consumer behaviour in these terms. In order to achieve this, a detailed review of the recent literature surrounding risk, trust and the relationship between the two must be conducted. This paper aims to collate the current social sciences literature in the fields of food safety, trust and risk. It provides an insight into the economic and other modelling procedures available to measure consumers' attitudes to risk and trust in food safety and specifically notes the need for future research to concentrate on examining risk and trust as inter-related variables rather than two distinct, mutually exclusive concepts. A framework is proposed which it is hoped will assist in devising more effective research to support risk communication to consumers.