Consumers' Perception of Food Product Quality in Tunisia

Abstract

This paper investigates consumers' perception of food quality in Tunisia. In fact, the development of quality standards is driven by government regulations and mostly in response to export markets regulations. The role of consumers in this process is quite missing. This paper first highlights the current food safety and quality programs undertaken by the Tunisian government. Second, we use a sample of 150 consumers chosen at random at two of the largest hypermarkets in Tunisia to analyze consumers' behavior regarding quality. The paper shows strong concerns about hygiene among other quality attributes and strong awareness about quality and quality assurance schemes in general. Consumers are also motivated by habits of consuming home made products for hygiene and taste reasons. If appropriate quality systems were implemented to assure consumers about such attributes this would boost up demand for quality products.     

Consumer Preference for Traditional Products in West Balkans Countries

The objective of this article is to better understand consumers' attitudes, expectations, and behavior toward traditional food among consumers in selected Western Balkans Countries (WBC). The article also presents a picture of the profile of WBC traditional food consumers (TFC) in terms of their sociodemographics, attitudes, lifestyle orientations, and behavioral characteristics. The method used for the data collection was a face-to-face interview using a structured questionnaire. In total, 800 respondents participated in the survey. WBC consumers expressed a positive attitude toward traditional food. If the researchers try to explain consumers' behavior toward traditional food, they can say that there are different types of consumers giving more or less importance to components considered traditional. The information about the profile, the image, and the actual characteristics of TFC has practical implications for marketing and communicating about traditional food, including their identification, differentiation, research and development, and positioning in the WBC food market.     

Consumer Perception of Genetically Modified Food: Empirical Evidence From India

Although the advent of genetically modified (GM) foods changed the agricultural scenario in developed countries, existing research confirms that consumer perception about the consumption of the same is often distorted. GM foods entered the Indian market amid widespread controversies and criticisms. There exists a host of studies that tried to establish the factors that shape favorable consumer perception toward GM foods indeed, but evidence from developing countries like India is still missing. The article undertakes an exploratory investigation of the factors that shape consumer perception about the consumption of GM foods in India and subsequently confirms the same with the aid of a measurement model. The study provides important implications for managers in directing efforts toward influencing consumer perception and instigating positive attitudes toward GM foods so that the benefits of their use can be extended to the masses in relatively nascent markets.     

Food Demand in Russia: Heterogeneous Consumer Segments over Time

The Russian food system has undergone substantial changes. However, knowledge on how economic transition has affected the structural parameters of food demand is lacking. Based on a two‐stage LES‐LA/AIDS model and annual panel data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (1995–2010), we provide a comprehensive set of food demand elasticities for Russia along two dimensions. First, we estimate demand parameters for three characteristic time periods in order to trace changes during transition. Second, to account for the Russian population's diversity, we derive elasticities for five different consumer segments. These groups are established by a cluster analysis based on households' food purchases. Our findings suggest that demand for food is far from satiated in Russia. We find generally high unconditional expenditure and own‐price elasticities for food. Both expenditure and own‐price elasticities show slight decreases in absolute terms over time. Low expenditure elasticities for staple foods like bread or cereals and high values for luxury goods such as meat, alcohol and tobacco suggest considerable changes in the composition of food baskets with further income growth. Results indicate that food production at home loses in importance while more affluent households in particular increase their demand for food consumption away from home.     

浅析食品生产加工的质量保证

食品生产加工质量安全直接关系着人们的身体健康和生命安全,而随着我国经济的快速发展,人民生活水平的不断提高,对食品生产加工质量安全的要求也不断提升.同时,食品生产加工的质量备受社会各方面的高度关注,是衡量国民幸福指数的重要因素.本文从食品生产加工的基础条件、质量标准和法律保障等方面进行论证,探析建立食品生产加工过程的质量...     

食品检验检测中的质量控制措施探讨

随着社会的发展,人们的生活质量越来越高,越来越多的新兴食品进入人们的餐桌.但近年来,食品质量却屡屡出现问题.为保障人们的生命健康,相关部门应控制好食品检验检测的质量,确保食品安全.本文主要介绍了现阶段食品检验检测中存在的一些问题,并对这些问题提出了一些质量控制措施,以期对解决相关问题提供帮助.     

浅谈食品质量安全管理中存在的问题和解决策略

随着我国食品质量安全相关法规政策、标准制度的颁布,以及政府监管力度的加强,我国食品质量安全管理水平得到了有效的提升,但仍有食品质量安全事件发生。因此,本文在综述了我国当前食品质量安全现状的基础上,从制度、监管体系、生产技术和风险预警能力4个方面分析了当前我国食品质量安全管理中存在的问题,并提出相应的解决策略,旨在为我国食品质量安全管理的完善提供客观的参考。     

Food Beliefs: Elicitation,Estimation and Implications for Labeling Policy

We present a model in which consumers use product attributes (or labels) and their own beliefs to form expectations about the quality of a product. We use best–worst scaling to elicit beliefs, and study how information may influence these beliefs. In our ranking experiments, participants sort different milk products according to (perceived) nutritional or environmental quality, and we use the resulting choice data to recover beliefs econometrically. In a nutritional quality experiment, we measure how food labels (i.e. front‐of‐package, back‐of‐package and ratio of recommended to restricted nutrients) alter consumers’ beliefs, finding that truthful attribute information may sometimes mislead consumers. The discussion explains how similar experiments could be used to distinguish informative labels from marketing messages.     

The Challenges of Organic Production and Marketing in Europe and Spain: Innovative Marketing for the Future With Quality and Safe Food Products

In this work the actual situation of organic production and marketing in Spain is explained, studying and analyzing their evolution in the last decade of previous the century and in the first years of the new millennium. In Spain, organic production began in the 1970s with pioneers in Catalonia, Murcia Region, and other zones. It was in the 1990s when was observed a great increase in organic surfaces. A very interesting and critical date is that at the moment, more than 80% of organic products are being exported to other European countries, United States, and other foreign markets, and it is necessary to find new marketing strategies and innovations to structure the organic market, give new information to consumers, improve investments in the relation between retailers and consumers, and improve the perception of the utilities of these products. In some countries, as is the case of Spain, the consumers don't have enough information about the characteristics of organic products, organic food, and organic production methodologies. They must have all the information about the benefits of organic production methodologies and their implications in environmental conservation, biodiversity protection, food quality and safety, and this task must be provided by the new marketing strategies and actions.     

EU Requirements for Food Safety and Quality Systems in Turkey: Determinants of Perceptions

Abstract

The European Union (EU) is one of Turkey’s most important trade partners. A large number of Turkish agri-food processors, however, are still unable to produce in accordance with the EU specifications. Furthermore, it is uncertain how Turkish food producers perceive the EU regulations. Based on a questionnaire survey of 99 Turkish agri-food enterprises from various industry subsectors and a conceptual framework including knowledge, personal and economic perspectives, this article assesses perceptions of the EU requirements regarding food safety and quality systems in the Turkish agri-food industry. The results indicate that those perceptions vary widely among the processors depending on education level, firm size, and legal form of ownership. Moreover, subjective information related to the perceptions regarding advantages, requirements, and costs of food safety and quality practices significantly contributes to the perceptions examined. The findings have manifold implications which should be taken into account when adapting Turkish legislation to reflect EU regulations.     

Linking Consumers’ Food Choice Motives to their Preferences for Insect‐based Food Products: An Application of Integrated Choice and Latent Variable Model in an African Context

Consumers’ attitudes, perceptions, personalities and motives play important roles in shaping their food choices. These factors are not fully observed by analysts, so they should be treated as latent variables. A number of economic studies treat such variables as direct measures of consumers’ food choice behaviour, even though this might introduce measurement error and endogeneity bias. We investigate the latent link between consumers’ preferences and food choice motives (FCMs) in an African context. We use an integrated choice and latent variable (ICLV) model specification for data analysis to recognise the latent nature of the FCMs and address the measurement and bias problems. The data originate from an incentivised discrete choice experiment conducted in Kenya to elicit consumers’ preferences for insect‐based foods. Our findings show that consumers’ preferences and choices are influenced by their latent motivational orientation. The results illustrate the benefit of the ICLV approach in accounting for consumers’ latent preference constructs in food choice and valuation research.