Do Europeans consider sustainability when making food choices? A survey of Polish city-dwellers.

OBJECTIVE

To obtain a better insight into the conceptualization of sustainable consumption among consumers with special focus on food choice determinants. Previous studies show that people present positive attitude towards sustainable diet while their everyday food choices do not follow sustainable diet rules.

DESIGN

A structured questionnaire was designed and data were collected via computer-assisted telephone interview among a random group (n 600) of city-dwellers. Quota sampling was used in proportion to the city population. Cluster analysis (k-means method) was applied to identify consumer segments according to the determinants of food choices. Consumer segments were identified using one-way ANOVA with post hoc Duncan comparison of mean scores and cross-tabulation with χ 2. The Friedman test was applied to identify enablers and barriers of sustainable food choices.

SETTING

Cities in Mazovia, the best developed, central region of Poland.ParticipantsAdults (21-70 years old).

RESULTS

Consumers are not familiar with the concept of sustainability and are not able to define it adequately. Only 6 % of the studied population indicated that sustainable consumption is connected with nutrition which has possibly less impact on the environment. Three segments of consumers were distinguished regarding their attitude to food choice determinants adequate to sustainable diet: Non-Adopters (17 %), Emergents (32 %), Adopters (51 %). Desire to improve health by decreasing body weight was the main driver for sustainable food choices, while prices were the main limitation.

CONCLUSIONS

Knowledge dissemination on sustainability issues is needed to empower consumers to make more sustainable food choices and to make public health and food policy measures more effective.