Consumer attitudes and behaviors toward more sustainable diets: a scoping review (original) (raw)
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Environmental Science and Pollution Research
Sustainable diets and food production systems are important for healthy life and future generations. This goal should be reachable by consumer motivations. The study aim is the evaluation of awareness and knowledge of sustainability and logo/ claims related with sustainability. Participants' knowledge about sustainability definition and logos/claims related to sustainability were assessed by an onlinequestionnaire. The questionnaire involved the calculation of annual dietary carbon emissions (kg), nitrogen waste (g), and water consumption (L). Four hundred-two volunteers participated in the study (male: 24.9%; female: 75.1). Only 44 participants (10.9%) explained what sustainable nutrition definition, correctly. The rates of knowledge about logos were quite low; 29.4% for organic product logo; 26.6% for Good farming practice logo; 86.1% for Recycle logo; and 8.0% for Eco-label logo, respectively. The education status of participants affected to knowledge of logo/claim ratio (p < 0.05). Ethic production and environmental impact statement information were care of participants' ratio of 33.6% and 34.1%, respectively. The mean dietary carbon emission of participants was 551.0 ± 343.6 kg/year, which was 81% of the upper limit (680 kg/year). The mean nitrogen waste was 3238.8 ± 4620.9 g/year and mean water consumption was 91,538.7 ± 157,537.9 L/year. Mediterranean diet model carbon emission and nitrogen waste were higher than other diet models, omnivore diet models had more water consumption than other diet models. But these differences were not found statistically significant (p > 0.05). Sustainable nutrition can be achieved via consumers' awareness. Food industry and government should encourage the people about promotion of sustainable food preferences.
Consumers Towards Sustainable Food Consumption
Marketing of Scientific and Research Organizations
The progressive and unprecedented growth of the Earth’s population and the shrinking of the planet’s natural resources make it necessary to look at contemporary consumption from the point of sustainable development goals. The purpose of the paper is to characterise consumers’ attitude towards the idea of sustainable food consumption, which manifests itself in declared undertaking of sustainable behaviours both on the market and in households. The research employed the exploratory survey technique (direct survey) on a sample of 900 consumers from Poland and Slovakia. The most common declared sustainable behaviours include: avoiding overconsumption, monitoring healthy eating, as well as sorting and recycling of waste. On the other hand, the customers of both countries should be more strongly encouraged to reduce the consumption of water, electricity and natural gas when preparing meals. Less than half of all respondents declared such behaviour.
Consumers’ Attitude towards the Sustainability of Different Food Categories
Foods, 2020
Currently, poverty, climate change, environmental pollution and the depletion of natural resources have generated a greater concern for sustainability. The objective is the survival of the human species and the persistence of all components of the biosphere. To achieve sustainability, human participation is essential; sustainable consumption depends on consumers’ perceptions of sustainability and how they affect their behavior. The aim of this study was to understand consumers’ perceptions and attitudes towards food sustainability based on country, age, gender, income and education level. An online survey was carried out in countries in Europe, America and Asia. Consumers were asked questions organized into food categories. The results showed that consumers’ attitude towards sustainability is understood differently in each country, even within the same food category. Consumers with lower education level showed the lowest knowledge and concern about food sustainability. Older generat...
Appetite, 2016
Internationally, there is increasing recognition of the importance of multilevel policies and actions that address healthy and environmentally friendly food behaviours. However it is not yet clear which actions are most suitable to support consumers to adopt both behaviours concurrently. To this end, we undertook a qualitative study to assess consumer perceptions, experiences and attitudes towards healthy and environmentally friendly foods and four target behaviours: reducing overconsumption of food beyond energy needs, reducing consumption of low-nutrient energy dense foods, eating less animal- and more plant-derived foods, and reducing food waste. Online in-depth interviews were held with 29 Australian food shoppers representing different levels of involvement with health and environment in daily food choices. The results indicate that compared to health, the relationship between food and the environment is rarely considered by consumers. The four target food behaviours were prima...
Nutrients
The importance of a sustainable diet is an emerging concept within sustainable food systems. Food systems emit 30% of greenhouse gases, which needs to change. A cross-sectional study was carried out to determine the knowledge, attitudes, and habits of students and professionals in the health sciences regarding a sustainable diet, comparing these to the Spanish population. We further aimed to analyse the consistency between the knowledge and attitudes of these individuals and their dietary habits and analyse the consumption of different food groups that are typical of a sustainable diet. A survey was completed by a total of 415 participants, both university students in the health sciences and health professionals. These two groups were more knowledgeable of sustainable diets than the general population, although certain concepts are unfamiliar to both populations. A positive attitude towards sustainable food habits was also observed among the population studied. The health sector rep...
Sustainable food versus health concerns
2008
Simultaneous with the growing demand for sustainable food, statistics in all EU member states report consumption patterns that are characterized by too much fat, overdoses of sugar and a lack of fruits and vegetables. The streams of literature that investigate the factors influencing sustainable food consumption and healthy food consumption are largely separated. However, the question whether there is a positive relationship between consumer behaviour towards sustainable food and consumer behaviour towards healthy food remains largely unanswered. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the consumption of different types of sustainable food on the one hand, and healthy food patterns on the other. The study is based on a sample of 2595 respondents in Belgium. The research shows a significant relationship between a healthy diet and sustainable food choices. Analyses applied to identify gender- or age-specific tendencies demonstrate that the association is parti...
Fostering more sustainable food choices
Food production, especially meat, is one of the main pressures on the environment and experts agree that diets have to change into a more sustainable direction. The present paper examines whether Self-Determination Theory (SDT) can be of help in fostering more sustainable food choices by taking a closer look at the relationship between food-related types of motivation and different aspects of meat consumption, based on a survey among 1083 consumers in the Netherlands. SDT appeared to be useful for studying why consumers can be motivated to make more sustainable food choices and also why these preferences are not shared by all consumers. Consumers with different types of motivation differed in their level of meat consumption (frequency and portion size), reasons for not frequently eating meat, frequency of buying carefully produced meat, frequency of buying meat substitutes, and preferences in favour or not of plant-based protein products. Internalized motivation was the main factor that made a difference, but intrinsic enjoyment of cooking and eating also played a role. The conclusion is that SDT provides both theoretical and policy-oriented insights into fostering more sustainable food choices.
The Sustainable Diet Question: Reasserting societal dynamics into the debate about a Good Diet
International Journal of the Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 2021
This paper locates the notion of Sustainable Diet as the latest iteration in the long-term policy question: What is a ‘Good Diet’? It reviews why there is tension over broadening the notion of a Good Diet to include the environment. It contrasts simple and complex approaches to sustainability for food systems and diet in particular. It proposes a multi-criteria approach to dietary analysis and to policy guidelines. The experience of a number of countries are summarised and analysed for sources of resistance and difficulty. It proposes that the socio-cultural dimension of Sustainable Diet requires further analysis but already offers promising avenues for change.
Exploring the attitude towards the adoption of a sustainable diet: a cross-country comparison
British Food Journal, 2021
PurposeUnderstanding the determinants that influence consumers' attitude to adopt sustainable diets represents an important area of research to promote sustainable food consumption. The aim of this study is to investigate how (1) the individual openness to new foods (ONFs), (2) the involvement in food trends (IFTs) and (3) the social media use (SMU) can potentially impact the attitude towards the adoption of a sustainable diet (ATSD).Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a structured survey in eight countries: Italy, Germany, Poland, USA, Brazil, Japan, Korea and China. The final sample of 5,501 individuals was analysed applying a structural equation model.FindingsThe main results show that attitude towards the ATSD is influenced differently by the antecedents investigated in each country. In particular, the ONF positively influences the ATSD only in Italy, USA and Germany. IFT positively influences the ATSD only in Italy, Poland and USA, while negatively in Germany. ...