Towards More Sustainable Diets: Investigating Consumer Motivations towards the Purchase of Green Food

Min-Yen Chang,Han-Shen Chen,Lin-Jyun Huang

doi:10.3390/su132112288

Min-Yen Chang, Han-Shen Chen + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su132112288

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Abstract

The concept of green consumption has become an environmental topic that draws worldwide attention. In order to mitigate environmental damage, it is imperative to increase the recyclability of the food system, and therefore, novel, sustainable, and produced foods need to be supplied to the food system. Among such foods, precooked plant-based foods (PPBFs), which feature health, convenience, and functionality, have become a new trend of the food culture. This study uses the value–attitude–behavior (VAB) model as the theoretical framework and incorporates research variables, such as “environmental concern”, “time pressure”, and “cooking habit”, so as to discuss consumers’ behavioral intention toward PPBFs. The research results reveal the following: (1) consumers’ health value and interest in PPBFs will significantly affect their behavioral intention; (2) there is a significant relationship between environmental concern and behavioral intention; and (3) time pressure and cooking habits indicate an insignificant relationship with behavioral intention.

Highlights

Owing to rising health awareness worldwide, healthy dieting has drawn increased attention [1,2]
This study keeps the theoretical framework of the VAB model, and incorporates environmental concern, time pressure, and cooking habit into the measurement, so as to further discuss consumers’ behavioral intention toward precooked plant-based foods (PPBFs)
The results indicate that the cooking habits of individuals and families will not impact consumers’ purchase intention of PPBFs, which is inconsistent with the study findings of Contini et al [19], which suggests individuals and families that are less likely to cook will seek more convenient dieting method; Hypothesis 5 (H5) does not stand

Summary

Introduction

Owing to rising health awareness worldwide, healthy dieting has drawn increased attention [1,2]. The study conducted by Hanson and Yun [5] highlighted that the change in consumers’ diet preference has led food producers to start producing new healthy foods, such as PPBFs. The so-called PPBFs are made of 100% vegetarian components; they can provide convenience, save cooking time, and replace traditional food. Frozen vegetables and fruits are produced by using cryopreservation technology to preserve their nutrition, so that there is no additional requirement of cleaning them again and can be directly consumed These include food items such as Nature’s Touch frozen avocado and Earthbound Farm’s organic frozen berry set with three varieties of berries sold at Costco; bean products and canned vegetables labeled as salt-reduced or salt-free can lower the intake of sodium (Cirio’s canned chickpeas and Carrefour’s canned peas and carrots); and plant-based burgers or steak

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