Consumers value healthy eating and environmental responsibility: how negative food contexts aid decision-making

Huy Duc Dang,Giang Thanh Tran

doi:10.1590/fst.28120

Abstract

Abstract The research aims to explore consumers’ intention toward traceable food in the dual context of the animal disease outbreak (i.e. African Swine Fever - ASF) and the current food safety issues. An extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model was used to predict purchase intention/attitude toward traceable pork. The study employed the structural equation modeling (SEM) to extract insights from the dataset of 230 students in Vietnam. The current detrimental context of food safety deemed promoting the consumption of traceable food, a risk-mitigating alternative. Healthy and environmentally responsible consumers held positive standpoints toward traceable pork as a solution to fulfill their responsibility with the environment and healthy eating lifestyle. The extended model was promising in explaining 52% of the variance of the purchase intention. The study confirmed both the positive impacts of the long-lasting unsafe food issues and the short-term animal disease outbreak on intention toward traceable food. To promote traceable food, industry food marketers should tailor their marketing and communication strategies to target healthy and responsible eaters.

Highlights

Food contamination and food poisoning have been causing serious problems (My et al, 2017; Nga & Tuan, 2019) and deteriorate consumers’ confidence in Vietnam (Ifft et al, 2009; Dang et al, 2019)
Food safety incidents and scandals in the pig rearing industry have been reported with unsafe practices such as the use of beta-agonists and antibiotic residues (Nguyen et al, 2015; Nga & Tuan, 2019)
The contemporary food safety concerns in Vietnam could be exacerbated with the presence of the health risk of contracting animal diseases during its outbreak commenced in February 2019 and later spread over 63 cities and provinces in Vietnam and ended up with the culling of 4.5 million infected pigs (BBC News, 2019)

Summary

Introduction

Food contamination and food poisoning have been causing serious problems (My et al, 2017; Nga & Tuan, 2019) and deteriorate consumers’ confidence in Vietnam (Ifft et al, 2009; Dang et al, 2019). The contemporary food safety concerns in Vietnam could be exacerbated with the presence of the health risk of contracting animal diseases (e.g. the African Swine Fever – ASF) during its outbreak commenced in February 2019 and later spread over 63 cities and provinces in Vietnam and ended up with the culling of 4.5 million infected pigs (BBC News, 2019). In late May 2020, the recurrence of the ASF disease was reported in 20 provinces in Vietnam In this escalating food safety-related context, experts recommended the investigation of consumers’ perceptions into the health and safety-related aspects (My et al, 2017) due to the increasing concern of consumers worldwide about the quality, safety, and environmental friendliness of foods (Teng & Lu, 2016). Limited studies examine consumers’ purchase intention toward traceable food, in the context of animal disease outbreak. The results of this article could assist traceable food marketers in developing pertinent marketing and communication strategies

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Conclusion