scholarly journals Food Retailers as Key Actors

Author(s):  
Peter Oosterveer

All kinds of food products are easily accessible throughout the year in the outlets of global retailing firms. Nowadays, as most people shop for food in supermarkets, the retail sector is also assuming a dominant role in sustainable food consumption. Can they fulfill this role and how can they realize it?

Author(s):  
Mohammed Abdalrahman

People practicing food buying and consumption activities in everyday of their life’s, therefore this study aims to highlight the main factors that could affect consumer attitudes towards novel food products and consumption trends. The study handled three main food consumption trends that are: sustainable food consumption, organic food consumption and genetically modified food consumption. In order to achieve the study objective, a desk research was conducted, and a through literature survey was carried out on the main factors that affect consumer attitudes toward novel food products and consumption patterns. Literature resources were collected by screening various databases as EBSCO, Scopus, Science Direct, Taylor and Francis and other search tools. The main results indicate that the consumers attitudes towards novel food products are affected by different variables as consumer values and beliefs toward the environment and the farming technology in addition to the level of knowledge they have regarding food farming and producing technics. Also, it is found that trust, moral and ethical issues could influence the level of consumer acceptance of genetically modified foods.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 102-123
Author(s):  
Romana Korez Vide ◽  
Sergeja Juhart ◽  
Anica Hunjet

In this paper we discuss promotion of sustainable food consumption through online marketing communication. In the research we comparatively analyze selected Slovenian and Croatian grocery stores’ webpages from the aspect of the scope and the approaches of sustainable food consumption promotion. We focused on the sustainable/green products in the grocery stores’ sales offers, including products’ packaging, brands and labels, sustainable food products’ related projects, additional informing of consumers about important sustainability topics, placement, and the scope of advertising of sustainable products on the grocery stores’ websites, as well as on the comprehensiveness of communication, reflected also in the provision of sustainability reports. The research findings show that sustainability efforts are visible from the webpages of all analyzed grocery stores, however, the online marketing communication of sustainable food products is most developed in international grocery stores’ chains that are globally present and have more resources at their disposal. We noticed several differences in the scope of sustainable food products sales offers between the observed grocery stores, and in the approaches towards branding, labelling, and providing information about sustainable/green food products. We recognize the importance of institutional support to the awareness rising about the importance of sustainable consumer behaviour for society’s long-term common good. We indicate the COVID-19 pandemic as an important turning point for future orientations of businesses and consumers, particularly in the case of food products. Here, the digital marketing communication can take a leading role in promoting sustainable food consumption.


Author(s):  
Daniel Adrian Gârdan ◽  
Ionel Dumitru ◽  
Ilić Dragan ◽  
Iuliana Petronela Gârdan ◽  
Mihai Andronie ◽  
...  

The present context regarding development of the food products trade at European Union level presumes manifestation of some tendencies and challenges meant to claim at the highest level the adaptation capacity of economical agents - both producers and traders. Among these we can take into account their need to comply with organic product labeling standards as an integral part of food products safety policies at Union level. In order to be able to implement a proper label type, not only from the point of view of standards but especially from the perspective given by the consumers perception and motivation toward a healthy sustainable food consumption, producers have to constantly innovate, to find new design solutions for food products labels. This article propose an exploratory research in the form of a field survey that highlights the perceptions of Romanian and Serbian consumers, altogether from the urban environment in relation to organic food labeling and how they influence purchasing decision-making. A random number of 373 Serbian consumers’ questionnaires, respectively 1262 Romanian consumers’ questionnaires have been validated, the results showing interesting results from the point of view of national consumption profile differences due to different cultural, economic and social factors as well as different levels of integration within European economy for the both countries. Main conclusions of the research stress the fact that perceptions regarding organic food products labels are constructed around variables like: type of information to appear within the label, category of information that are missing from labels, degree of producers interest in proper labeling of organic food products, relevance of the information on the organic food labels as regards the decision to purchase the products etc. Conclusions propose some possible developments for innovative future characteristics for organic food products labels.


Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1088
Author(s):  
Yuanhao Huang ◽  
Xiaoke Yang ◽  
Xianguo Li ◽  
Qian Chen

(1) Background: Labeling is one of the significant strategies to guide sustainable consumption behaviors. Nowadays, multi labels being displayed on the front-of-pack of food products is a common phenomenon. However, labels seldom operate solo, and competition or complement effects may be exerted on different labels. Therefore, the research objective is to explore the interaction effect when nutrition and low-carbon labels appear simultaneously; (2) Methods: Across four scenario-based experiments, including ice cream, yogurt, steak, and toast, this study manipulated the separate and joint occurrences of low-carbon and nutrition labels, the interaction effect of joint labels was tested, and the serial mediation model, which includes resource allocation and anticipated enjoyment of food consumption, was verified; (3) Results: Results show that people have a positive preference for the nutrition label and the carbon label, respectively, while these two labels working simultaneously attenuate the positive effect of the single label. When facing nutrition and carbon labels simultaneously, people would infer partial resources are allocated to healthy and environmental aspects so they have a lower anticipated enjoyment from food consumption. Thus, these two labels working simultaneously attenuate the positive effect of the single label, and consumers have a lower evaluation of food products. In addition, the joint backfire on the effect is only exerted on people with a higher level of zero-sum bias and only when joint labels have a high consistency of labels; (4) Conclusions: This study solved the contradictory problem of the joint effect of positive labels. The findings in this research contribute to promote sustainable food consumption. We suggest that similar labels should be avoided in the same front-of-pack of food, and manufacturers need to use ads to bring down consumers’ zero-sum bias.


2015 ◽  
Vol 117 (8) ◽  
pp. 1998-2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niraj Kumar ◽  
Sanjeev Kapoor

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and compare the factors which affect the consumers’ buying behavior of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food products in an emerging middle-size market. The paper also compares the preferences of the consumers for various food products and their respective market attributes. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 282 households of two middle-sized cities of India were personally surveyed with a structured questionnaire. Simple statistical analysis such as frequency distribution, factor analysis and analysis of variance, and logit regression were carried out to infer the required information. Findings – The results indicate that consumers consume more of vegetarian product than that of non-vegetarian products. Most of the consumers were interested in seeing and verifying the products of both of the categories before buying. Age and income of the consumers play important role in influencing their buying behavior for vegetarian food products, but not that of non-vegetarian food products. It was found that credence attributes of products, and market attributes play a dominant role in influencing the consumers’ behavior for both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food products. Packaged branded products were not popular in both the food categories. Research limitations/implications – The localized nature of this study limits the scope of wider generalization. Future research could use larger samples spread across all regions having different food culture. Practical implications – The findings of the study will be of help to food retailers who are interested to know whether the consumers’ buying process for these two categories of food products is more or less same or different in nature. This would help them to customize their product-specific marketing strategies as per the customers’ preferences and requirements. Originality/value – The paper gives a comparative insight on consumers’ behavior toward both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. It provides specific reasons for having different or similar marketing strategies for two categories of food.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Elzbieta Gorynska-Goldmann ◽  
Michał Gazdecki

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to present the sources of information about food, the cost of collecting the information and the perception of messages by consumers in the light of the sustainable food consumption idea. We used primary materials from a direct, personal survey which were later analyzed with the use of Berelson’s content analysis method. We found that a consumer shows low interest in sourcing the information about sustainable food consumption. The most credible, from the consumer’s point of view, information about food, consumption and the food market, comes from reports and scientific papers, as well as from the consumers’ families or friends. Gathering information is connected with devoting time which we spend on finding the right content. The information connected to environmental issues was the most distinctive for the respondents; other categories of information concerned the waste of food, shopping planning, the direction of changes, personal health issues and the influence of food products on one’s health, as well as consumption in connection with recommendations concerning health (among others, in the scope of nutrition, recommendations and specialistic advices). The knowledge of the most credible sources of the information about food consumption, the frequency of acquiring such knowledge, the costs of gathering information and the perception of messages should be reflected in properly chosen communication channels for the promotion of sustainable food consumption. In the research over sustainable food consumption we should focus more on our information needs. The network approach and the perspective of active engagement of consumers in the process of creating innovations in food products give us a new approach for the market analysis, popularization of the idea of sustainable food consumption and let us change some deeply rooted habits and behaviors of consumers. As a result of such engagement, consumers will be more willing to cooperate and trust one another, and thanks to the feeling of social effectiveness, they will be more interested in the development of the sustainable food consumption model and food policy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 368-368
Author(s):  
Ilaisaane Fifita ◽  
◽  
Dayun Hong ◽  
Yuri Seo ◽  
Eunju Ko ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5513
Author(s):  
Iljana Schubert ◽  
Judith I. M. de Groot ◽  
Adrian C. Newton

This study examines the influence of social network members (versus strangers) on sustainable food consumption choices to investigate how social influence can challenge the status quo in unsustainable consumption practices. We hypothesized that changes to individual consumption practices could be achieved by revealing ‘invisible’ descriptive and injunctive social norms. We further hypothesized that it matters who reveals these norms, meaning that social network members expressing their norms will have a stronger influence on other’s consumption choices than if these norms are expressed by strangers. We tested these hypotheses in a field experiment (N = 134), where participants discussed previous sustainable food consumption (revealing descriptive norms) and its importance (revealing injunctive norms) with either a stranger or social network member. We measured actual sustainable food consumption through the extent to which participants chose organic over non-organic consumables during the debrief. Findings showed that revealed injunctive norms significantly influenced food consumption, more so than revealed descriptive norms. We also found that this influence was stronger for social network members compared to strangers. Implications and further research directions in relation to how social networks can be used to evoke sustainable social change are discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hartmut Derler ◽  
Simon Berner ◽  
Daniela Grach ◽  
Alfred Posch ◽  
Ulrike Seebacher

Project-based learning (PBL) has been thoroughly integrated in university sustainable development curricula, but has not been well-established in curricula used at pre-university educational levels. Integrating real-world settings into the teaching of secondary school students can help to promote problem-solving skills and competencies at younger ages, which is a crucial task in sustainability education. Therefore, in this article we describe the results of a case study on the development of sustainable food products that involved a university and two secondary schools in Austria. The methods used in this case study were drawn from the transdisciplinary case study (TCS) and the PBL literature. Data were collected by carrying out participatory research methods such as photovoice, focus group discussions, food diaries, student evaluations, and surveys. We divided the study design into three phases: (1) exploration, (2) product ideation, and (3) product prototyping and optimisation. The case study illustrates that the use of PBL research approaches by students at different levels of education provides promising results, if the research process is clearly structured and managed. When a demand for learning is encountered by students, secondary school teachers and university researchers must provide the students with additional sources of information. The establishment and management of a transinstitutional research setting is a promising, yet time-consuming endeavour.


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