Benefit beliefs, attitudes and behaviour towards fresh vegetable consumption in Poland and Belgium

Abstract

This paper reports findings from a cross-sectional consumer survey on benefit beliefs, attitudes and behaviour towards fresh vegetables in Poland and Belgium. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) served as basic frame of reference for the analysis of consumer's decisions towards fresh vegetables. Benefit beliefs were investigated through principal component analysis and used for belief-based market segmentation. Health and prevention, hedonism, and nutrition are found to be the main beliefs associated with eating fresh vegetables. Three distinct clusters with different socio-demographic composition, attitudes and behaviour emerged. The findings point towards a need for greater attention to young males in future health communication, irrespective of nationality. Polish consumers claim lower fresh vegetable intake, despite stronger health benefit beliefs as compared to Belgians. Potential explanations for cross-national differences may pertain to the availability and variety of fresh vegetables, particularly during winter time. Investigation of the TPB confirms a strong positive predictive link between attitude and behavioural intention of eating fresh vegetables, as well as between intention and behaviour in the strict sense. Perceived behavioural control and subjective norm were insignificant as determinants of behavioural intention in the TPB model.