Beyond plant-based alternatives to milk and meat: Product and individual variables influence purchase intention for plant-based yoghurt and eggs

Abstract

The present research contributed new knowledge to support consumers’ uptake of plant-based (PB) foods and the wider transition to flexitarian and PB diets. Focus was directed to under-investigated PB foods – PB yoghurt and PB eggs – which were studied in a sample of urban-living adult Australian consumers (n = 2114). The research strategy used a combination of text highlighting and rating-based conjoint analysis, and this generated insights that were generic to each product category (text highlighting) and those that revealed preferences for specific product characteristics (text highlighting, conjoint analysis). In text highlighting, the results for the two product categories were similar in finding that consumers responded positively to information about the environmental and personal health benefits of PB foods. Negative responses (text highlighting) were observed for information relating to certain product characteristics. In the conjoint analysis, average purchase intention ratings were 3.6 for PB yoghurt and 3.7 for PB eggs, and thus closer to ‘not at all interested in buying’ (1) than to ‘very interested in buying’ (9). For PB yoghurt, the product concept that received the highest purchase intent had the lowest price and was based on soy milk with 3 % fat content. For PB eggs, only the PB ingredients used influenced stated purchase intent significantly, with positive utility for the combination of green split peas and chickpeas (compared to the combination of mung beans and lupin beans). Individual variables influenced consumer purchase intent in expected ways, and the results identified attitude to PB diets and PB product familiarity as most important, with sex, age, educational attainment, food neophobia and type of diet (omnivore, flexitarian and vegetarian) as lesser influences. These results suggest that improving attitudes to and familiarity with PB foods could contribute to support uptake of PB yoghurt and PB eggs among Australian consumers.