Organic consumer choices for nutrient labels on dried strawberries among different health attitude segments in Norway, Romania, and Turkey

Almli, V. L., Asioli, D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2274-8450 and Rocha, C. (2019) Organic consumer choices for nutrient labels on dried strawberries among different health attitude segments in Norway, Romania, and Turkey. Nutrients, 11 (12). 2951. ISSN 2072-6643 doi: 10.3390/nu11122951

Abstract/Summary

Consumer interest towards healthy food is driving the growth of the organic food market because consumers perceive organic food products to improve their personal health. Berries have well-known health benefits and show increasing market shares in European markets. This manuscript investigates for the first time how health attitudes relate to organic consumers’ choices for nutrient labels of organic dried strawberry products. We conducted an online survey with 614 consumers from Norway, Romania, and Turkey. All participants consumed and liked strawberries and purchased organic food at least once a month. Participants filled out attitudinal questionnaires and conducted an experimental choice task featuring paired images of packaged organic dried strawberries varying in nutrients content label and other factors. The pooled sample was split into three groups of varying health attitudes for profiling and choice analysis. The results show that broad variations exist in health attitudes among Norwegian, Romanian, and Turkish organic consumers. A non-linear effect of health attitude is revealed, where a moderate health attitude is more strongly associated with the selection of products with increased nutrients content than either a low or a high health attitude. The results highlight the complexity in targeting nutrition labels to organic consumers. Finally, implications and suggestions for organic food operators are discussed along with future research avenues.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/87717
Identification Number/DOI	10.3390/nu11122951
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Agriculture, Policy and Development > Department of Agri-Food Economics & Marketing > Agricultural and Food Investigational Team (AFIT)
Publisher	MDPI
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