Ethical and Responsible Food Purchasing Decisions of Consumers Within the Scope of Sustainable Food Policies: A Case Study of Istanbul Province

Osman İnan and Sema Konyalı ()
Additional contact information
Osman İnan: Independent Researcher, 34534 Istanbul, Türkiye
Sema Konyalı: Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University, 59030 Tekirdağ, Türkiye

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 11, 1-27

Abstract: This study examines consumers’ ethical and responsible food purchasing decisions in Istanbul Province, Türkiye. These decisions are crucial for sustainable food consumption and policies. The data for this study were collected through a survey of 616 individuals who are influential in food consumption decisions within their households in Istanbul. Factor analysis was conducted to identify the factors influencing food purchasing decisions among consumers. After conducting factor analysis on food purchasing decisions, eight subgroups were identified: environmentalism, economy, conservatism, diligence, innovativeness, informativeness, caring, and transformativeness. After the factor analyses, the differences and similarities in the factors considered in food purchasing decisions were analyzed. According to the results of the analyses, the demographic characteristics and socio-economic status (SES) group were found to be different. In this study, logit analysis was also employed to identify the profiles of conscious consumers in their food purchasing decisions. It was determined that 51.00% of consumers were conscious of their food purchasing decisions, and women were more conscious of these decisions than men, with women having higher age and educational status than men. Consumers’ food purchasing decisions were analyzed, and recommendations are presented for decision-makers regarding sustainable food policy, with the aim of providing information and raising awareness.

Keywords: sustainability; food policy; consumer decisions; responsible consumption; Istanbul (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/11/4843/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/11/4843/ (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:17:y:2025:i:11:p:4843-:d:1663920

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 ().