Food: Not Only Safety, but Also Sustainability. The Emerging Trend of New Social Consumers

Gennaro Civero, Vincenzo Rusciano, Debora Scarpato and Mariarosaria Simeone
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Gennaro Civero: Department of Economic and Legal Studies, University of Naples Parthenope, 80133 Naples, Italy
Vincenzo Rusciano: Department of Economic and Legal Studies, University of Naples Parthenope, 80133 Naples, Italy
Debora Scarpato: Department of Economic and Legal Studies, University of Naples Parthenope, 80133 Naples, Italy
Mariarosaria Simeone: Department of Law, Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods (DEMM), University of Sannio, 82100 Benevento, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 23, 1-15

Abstract: Consumers’ purchasing choices are no longer based only on economic factors but also on ethical reasons related to environmental sustainability and food safety. However, nutritional information on food labels is underused by consumers. Often the lack or incompleteness of information available on the market obstructs the complex transition towards sustainable consumption patterns. This empirical study analysed a sample of 359 consumers from an area in Southern Italy (city of Naples) to identify homogeneous consumer clusters with respect to the assessment of the level of consumer attention to sustainable environmental, social behaviours in daily life, and also to safety attributes. The most important sources of information influencing the consumers’ choices, food safety knowledge, and future purchasing behaviour were analysed. The research sample was self-selected, and the questionnaire for the survey was administrated through a non-probability sample from a reasoned choice. The results indicate that the ideal solution is a five-cluster partition that confirms a good level of attention to intrinsic attributes, in particular food expiry, transparency of food information, food traceability, and seller confidence. In addition, the research could provide an opportunity to consider collaborative actions between policy makers and industries to increase consumer awareness of environmental attributes.

Keywords: consumers; cluster analysis; sustainable consumption; mass media; social media (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:23:p:12967-:d:685943

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