The Shift Towards Plant-Based Lifestyles: Factors Driving Young Consumers’ Decisions to Choose Plant-Based Food Products

Marike Venter de Villiers (), Joy Cheng and Lorna Truter
Additional contact information
Marike Venter de Villiers: Marketing Department, School of Business Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa
Joy Cheng: Marketing Department, School of Business Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa
Lorna Truter: Department of Life and Consumer Sciences, University of South Africa, Florida 1710, South Africa

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 20, 1-15

Abstract: The shift in consumer dietary patterns from meat-based to plant-based food products has become a prominent trend worldwide. This shift is driven by various factors, including concerns about personal health and environmental awareness. Despite the global growth of the plant-based food industry, developing nations tend to be slow with adopting non-meat-based diets. This is mainly due to high levels of food insecurity and meat being the main source of protein, especially in countries like South Africa where food consumption is needs-based, and consumers are unaware of the environmental footprint of meat production. This paper is part of a two-phase study and reports on the quantitative results, which were obtained during the second phase. The main aim of this study was to investigate the factors that influence consumers’ decisions to choose plant-based food products. The factors that were selected were informed by the thematic results from phase 1, which involved focus groups that explored consumers’ opinions and behaviours towards plant-based lifestyles. By means of survey distribution, 426 online questionnaires were distributed among young consumers in South Africa. A conceptual model with six hypotheses was tested and the data were analysed using SmartPLS 4.1.0.8. The findings indicated the product taste and product knowledge are the most important factors that drive young consumers’ decisions to choose plant-based food products. The study further found that product quality, affordability, social influence, and product packaging play a role but to a lesser degree. Food marketers can utilise these findings and implement marketing strategies that can assist with persuading consumers to choose plant-based food products and adopt a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle.

Keywords: plant-based food products; plant-based lifestyles; consumer buying behaviour; youth consumers; sustainability; South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/20/9022/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/20/9022/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:20:p:9022-:d:1501466

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().