Barriers to increasing organic food consumption in developing countries: a systematic literature review

School feeding program as a social safety net has been popular in developing countries as an instrument for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. These programs are frequently targeted towards populations that are food insecure and reside in areas with high concentrations of families from low socioeconomic status, or towards schools that face poor attendance and enrollment of students. There are many studies that have evaluated the impacts of school feeding. However, the evidence on the impact of these programs is not always conclusive. This study presents a conceptual framework of how the Food for Education (FFE) programs work, how they impact children and families, and how they can be linked to agricultural development. The study uses the technique of systematic review of the literature to assess the effectiveness of these programs in achieving educational, nutritional and agricultural development goals. A protocol for finding studies that met the review criteria was established, which resulted in the identification of twenty-six studies from across academic disciplines, including economics, nutrition and education. Analysis of the information extracted from these studies shows that school feeding programs conclusively impact the micronutrient level of targeted children, but have modest and mixed effects on health outcomes as evaluated by anthropometric measurements. While the impact of these interventions on cognitive skills and abilities of students is still uncertain, there is strong evidence that school feeding programs positively affect school enrollment and attendance rates, especially for girls. The review points to several gaps in the literature, including the lack of a systematic analysis of linkages between FFE, sustainability, and agricultural development. There is also a lack of evidence on the cost effectiveness of school feeding programs in delivering desirable outcomes. These are identified as topics for further research.

Determinants of organic food consumption. A systematic literature review on motives and barriers

This research systematically maps out the research state of organic food consumption, specifically on consumer behavior and purchase intentions of organic food, which are key determinants in each of these areas. Based on 428 relevant publications indexed in Scopus (2014-2024), a bibliometric analysis using R Studio found key shifts and significance patterns based on study level, key trends in research, and themes over time. Over the past decade, the interest in organic food consumption research has grown, especially about consumer motivations such as environmentalism, trust or reliability in organic labels, perceived quality for fair trade organic foods, and ethical reasoning behind purchases. Some of the major journals producing relevant studies include the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, the British Food Journal, and Journal of Cleaner Production, yielding a dominance in organic food consumption research based on consumer behavior studies combined with sustainable parameters. There was a peak rise in research activity in 2024 in organic food consumption behavior.The co-occurrence network analysis indicated a highly integrated set of links between marketing strategy, environmental sustainability, and food supply chains. Findings also highlight how specific research has changed across the years with intention for future research, industry, and consumers, and the potential role that research may play in moving towards sustainable food choices. Overall, this analysis provides a solid foundation and bird's-eye view for future researchers into the evolving dynamics of organic food consumption.

Recently, a remarkable increase in organic food consumption can been seen in both developed and developing countries. This research aims to identify the role of sustainable consumption behavior in purchasing organic food. The research problem has been formulated with several questions, most notably: Does sustainable consumption behavior has a role in purchasing organic food? The relationship between sustainable consumption behavior and organic food has received a lot of attention in the literature. However, take a comprehensive approach to examine how sustainable consumption behavior might affect purchasing organic food? In order to examine the role of sustainable consumption behavior in buying organic food, this article proposes a framework that adopts a comprehensive approach. The author conducted a qualitative synthesis of the literature (Systematic Literature Review (PRISMA), including 43 articles, revealing several findings. One of them, is that sustainable consumption behavior positively and directly impacts buying organic food due to the health, environmental cognition, high quality, trust, and food safety. The second finding is that complex factors influence organic food buying behavior. For example, price is always likely to be an important factor for most customers. Moreover, the lack of knowledge about organic food is another factor affecting customers’ buying organic food.

PurposeThe present paper aims to reveal how different cultures, as reflected by cultural norms, traditions, and social expectations, influence food waste behaviour in different regions of the world.Design/methodology/approachA systematic multifaceted literature review was employed as a main research tool.FindingsThe focal role of education and awareness campaigns in reducing household food waste and promoting responsible food consumption behaviours is revealed. The importance of guilt, behavioural control, negative attitudes towards leftovers, and social norms are among the most important factors predicting intentions to reduce food waste. Cultural beliefs significantly shape food attitudes and waste. Tailoring sustainable practices to traditions helps to ensure food security. Embracing cultural diversity can lead to the development of effective and sustainable food consumption patterns across different parts of the world.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper fully devoted to revealing how different cultural backgrounds shape food consumption habits and which marketing strategies aiming to nudge positive changes in responsible food consumption are preferred in different cultural contexts.

Recently, concerns about people's health and the environment have led to an increased tendency to consume organic and functional foods that contain health-beneficial compounds and protect the ecosystem. This research was conducted to examine the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics, health awareness, and obsession with healthy eating, as well as consumers' preferences for organic and functional foods. A total of 1022 volunteers aged 19-65 years participated in the study. General information, demographics, health information, anthropometric measurements, an organic and functional nutrition questionnaire, the Orthorexia-15 Scale (ORTO-15), and the Health Awareness Scale were applied to the participants. A total of 59.9% of the individuals were male, 60.7% were married, and 71.8% were university graduates. A slight majority of the individuals (55.5%) had a healthy body weight. The organic and functional food consumption scores of women were significantly higher than those of men (P = 0.005, P = 0.046, respectively). The organic food consumption score and health awareness score of individuals aged 31 years and above were significantly higher than those of individuals aged 19-30 years (P = 0.002, P < 0.001, respectively). Participants aged 19-30 years had higher functional food consumption than those aged 31 years or older, single participants had higher functional food consumption than married participants, and university graduates had higher functional food consumption than primary school graduates. In addition, there was correlation between health awareness and orthorexia nervosa (ON) (r = -0.229, P < 0.001), organic food consumption and ON (r = -0.080, P = 0.011), organic food consumption and health awareness (r = 0.153, P < 0.001). There was correlation between functional food consumption and ON (r = -0.125, P < 0.001), functional food consumption and health awareness (r = 0.124, P < 0.001). Health-oriented attitudes of individuals are effective in their dietary behaviours. However, it was determined that orthorexic tendencies predicted both organic and functional food consumption, while health awareness was a significant predictor only of organic food consumption. Policies aimed at improving health awareness are expected to increase demand for organic and functional foods. Comprehensive and extended-duration studies are necessary to determine the factors that influence the consumption of these foods. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.

In recent decades, global interest in organically produced food has expanded substantially; however, the understanding of the motives and barriers underlying its consumption remains incomplete, prompting increased scholarly attention to this topic. However, in the context of the Chinese market, there is a particular scarcity of research that, within the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model, systematically analyzes newly introduced variables and determines whether they function as motives or barriers to organic food consumption. To address this gap, the present study systematically reviews 14 empirical articles on organic food consumption in China published between 2014 and 2024, and classifies and summarizes the relevant motives and barriers based on the consumption values theory and the innovation resistance theory. The findings indicate that the most frequently examined drivers include the conditional value of trust ( n = 5), followed by health consciousness ( n = 4) and revealed information ( n = 2). Within the domain of social value, environmental concern ( n = 3) emerges as a significant influence on Chinese consumers. Regarding barriers, an aspect less frequently analyzed in the reviewed literature, the present study identifies that existing studies primarily focus on value barriers, with price sensitivity and pricing policy. The findings aim to provide a more comprehensive, context-specific reference for advancing theoretical development and guide practical applications in this domain.

The organic industry in Australia has grown from a few farmers into an established and complex system with thousands of producers. The participants in the system include producers, processors, marketers, retailers, exporters, consumers, certifiers, researchers and government institutions. Its boundary is marked by organic standards, certification and labelling. Producers are motivated to convert to organic farming, and consumers to purchase organic food, due to a mixture of tangible and intangible factors that influence their belief regarding the benefits they will obtain. However, for individual farmers, converting from conventional to organic production is often a challenging process because it requires a change in established farming practices. The burden of change is borne by farmers alone, even though many of the benefits of organic farming (such as health and environmental benefits) are enjoyed by wider society. This research examines the complex range of social, financial and environmental factors that influence farmers’ perceptions of the benefits and costs of converting to organic farming, using a probabilistic model. A similar model was also developed for illustrating consumers’ perceptions of the benefits and costs of purchasing organic food. The models aim to integrate the range and variability of farmer and consumer viewpoints surrounding the decision to convert, so that policy levers most likely to support the organic industry can be identified. Workshops, interviews, surveys and the findings of previous studies were used in this research to capture the key benefit and cost criteria considered by producers and consumers when deciding to adopt organic farming or food consumption. Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN) were used to integrate the criteria into Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) models for comparing organic and conventional farming, and organic and nonorganic food. These models captured a variety of opinion from organic and conventional farmers, and organic and non-organic consumers, to produce a probabilistic assessment of the benefit-cost ratio of alternative farming and food consumption options. The BBN models were used to conduct sensitivity analysis to identify where policy interventions might bring about the greatest shift in the benefitcost ratio of organic farming and food consumption for producers and consumers. The research revealed that, for the certified organic farmers surveyed, intangible health and environmental benefits were greater motivations for converting to organic farming than tangible benefits such as profitability. Sensitivity analysis revealed that a shift in cost factors such as yield and price risks, certification costs, poor information availability and undeveloped market had a relatively large influence on the benefit-cost ratio associated with organic farming. Similar results from the consumer model indicated that intangible health and environmental benefits were strong motivations for frequent organic consumers to purchase organic food. However, the inconvenience of purchasing organic food and its price are still significant costs for them. The study identified some policy interventions that could have a relatively large influence on the organic sector. These were reducing yield and price risk of organic farming; streamlining the certification process to reduce costs and complexity; better provision of information on organic farming and best management practices; assisting the organic food distribution systems to improve market development and convenience of buying organic products; and increasing public awareness of the benefits of organic food production and consumption to improve the perceived value for money of organic food consumption. The BBN models developed in this study illustrate the complex mix of benefits and costs considered by farmers and consumers when choosing to enter that organic industry and offer an objective means for policy development in the industry to maintain the existing population of organic producers and consumers or attract new entrants to the organic industry.

The purpose of this study is to present a systematic literature review and offer a future research agenda on food acquisition and consumption of South Asian countries. The first section offers a comprehensive systematic literature review with a documentation analysis using PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. The study identifies several contemporary issues pertaining to food acquisition and consumption in these countries and proposes several research themes such as food quality standard issues, food security issues, food nutrition issues, organic food consumption patterns, dietary diversity and food intake issues. The second section includes a future research agenda on food acquisition and consumption patterns on the key constructs, context and methodology. This study contributed to the existing literature by offering several contemporary issues and the scope of future research areas pertaining to food acquisition and consumption, which may help policy makers, practitioners and scholars in investigating the solutions.

The deterioration of the environment, shortage of resources, and frequent occurrence of food safety issues have made people increasingly concerned about themselves while maintaining their health and protecting the environment through food. Organic food, as a healthy and eco-friendly option, is gradually gaining attention. Based on the value-belief-norm theory, this study explores why individuals consume organic food and the range of factors that lead to this consumer behavior. This study adopted a cross-sectional design and collected quantitative data from conveniently selected 300 youth participants in Bangladesh using an online survey. The findings revealed that health values and motivation have a significant positive effect on healthy eating beliefs, which, together with the awareness of the consequences, affect personal norms toward organic food consumption. Personal norms also have a significant positive effect on organic food consumption behavior among Bangladeshi youth. Finally, trust on organic food positively moderates the effect of personal norms on organic food consumption. The findings of this study are expected to foster the development of a comprehensive framework to promote programs and policies focused on organic and healthy food consumption culture among youth in developing nations.

Urban organic community gardening to promote environmental sustainability practices and increase fruit, vegetables and organic food consumption

Metabolic syndrome (MetS), a multicomponent condition, is a cardiovascular disease predictor. Although exposure to agricultural pesticides has been suggested as a potential contributor to the rising rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other features of metabolic disorders, no studies have focused on the association between consumption of organic food (produced without synthetic pesticides) and MetS. We aimed to investigate the cross-sectional association between organic food consumption and MetS in French adults to determine whether it would be worth conducting further studies, particularly large prospective and randomised trials. A total of 8174 participants from the NutriNet-Santé study who attended a clinical visit and completed an organic food frequency questionnaire were included in this cross-sectional analysis. We evaluated the association between the proportion of organic food in the diet (overall and by food group) and MetS using Poisson regression models while adjusting for potential confounders. Higher organic food consumption was negatively associated with the prevalence of MetS: adjusted prevalence ratio was 0.69 (95% CI 0.61, 0.78) when comparing the third tertile of proportion of organic food in the diet with the first one (p value <0.0001). Higher consumption of organic plant-based foods was also related to a lower probability of having MetS. In addition, when stratifying by lifestyle factors (nutritional quality of the diet, smoking status, and physical activity), a significant negative association was detected in each subgroup (p values <0.05), except among smokers. Our results showed that a higher organic food consumption was associated with a lower probability of having MetS. Additional prospective studies and randomised trials are required to ascertain the relationship between organic food consumption and metabolic disorders.

Purpose– The desire for health and well-being is a strong driver in the food market. Scientific publications show that health is an important motive for both functional and organic food consumption. The aim of this study is to investigate whether functional and organic food consumers have the same understanding of health, and which health and well-being improving lifestyles are characteristic for them. Based on this, the authors identify dimensions for a wellness-orientated lifestyle model.Design/methodology/approach– In order to measure the different well-being and health lifestyles, AIO dimensions were adapted to theoretical wellness concepts. The results of the conducted factor and multiple OLS regression analyses are based on the data of an online survey of 500 German consumers.Findings– Consumers of functional food have a similar concept of health and well-being to organic consumers, but differ in certain aspects in their way of achieving this. The purchase of organic and functional food is driven by different lifestyles. Overall, the results confirm the link between organic food and an active lifestyle, as well as functional food and a passive lifestyle.Practical implications– The paper contributes to the discussion of health in marketing and especially in the food industry. The results reveal which kinds of lifestyle food marketing should be considered in a target group specific product communication and positioning.Originality/value– This study contributes to the understanding of consumer behaviour, especially in the organic and functional food segment. It highlights the importance of health for both food types and also important differences in the understanding of wellness. Moreover, the results reveal first dimensions for a wellness-orientated lifestyle approach – especially for the food market.

This study investigates Bangladeshi consumers’ intentions to continue consuming organic foods as part of their commitment to sustainable consumption. It analyzes the causes of the continued consumption of organic foods using the extended Theory of Planned Behaviour. The goal of this study was to develop a model that highlights the factors that drive Bangladeshi consumers to continue consuming organic foods while taking into account the mediating role of satisfaction with organic food consumption (SOP). The study is based on primary data collected from 397 organic food consumers using the snowball technique. There were nine direct and three mediating hypotheses. Research results ensure that all nine direct hypotheses have been accepted indicating their significant influences on the organic food continuance intention (OFCI) of Bangladeshi consumers. Awareness of the health benefits of organic foods (AHB), food values of organic food (FVO), and sustainable properties of organic food (SPO) make the consumers satisfied with organic food consumption (SOF). Among the three variables, FVO is the most influential followed by SPO in making consumers happy with organic food. Again, if we consider the organic food continuance intention (OFCI), the attitude of the consumers (ATT) is the most influential followed by perceived behavioral control (PBC). SOF has been found to be a significant mediator. Though health awareness, knowledge of the benefits of organic food, and sustainability issues are important in making food choices, Bangla-deshi individuals’ understanding of organic food and sustainable consumption is yet to be up to the mark when compared to other nations. As a result, this study encourages policymakers to enhance awareness through various social initiatives.

Key Findings of the French BioNutriNet Project on Organic Food–Based Diets: Description, Determinants, and Relationships to Health and the Environment