Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70126 Bari, Italy.
Nutrients. 2020 Jul 19;12(7):2150. doi: 10.3390/nu12072150.
Providing information to consumers through the label is a means for food companies to inform consumers about product's attributes, including the country of origin (COO). In the EU, COO labeling has been made mandatory for several categories of food products, to enable consumers to make informed choices at the point of sale. In particular, Regulation (EU) No 29/2012 has introduced a mandatory country-of-origin labeling system for extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). In the present study, conducted in Italy, we test whether there is a price differential associated with the COO information for EVOO. To this end, we employ a hedonic price model and data about the purchase of EVOO products collected from 982 consumers at the supermarket checkout. Having interviewed these consumers, we also assess the share of EVOO consumers that correctly identify the country of origin of the product purchased. Our findings point out that, in Italy, the EVOO with domestic origin, indicated on the label, benefits of a premium price equal to +35% compared to the product labeled as blend of European EVOOs, while a discount of -10.8% is attached to EVOOs from a non-European origin. A significant share of consumers in our sample (19.04%) is, however, unable to correctly identify the origin of the EVOO purchased. This label misuse mostly occurs among consumers who report that they had purchased Italian EVOO, while they had actually purchased a blend of European EVOOs. Female and more highly educated consumers are less likely to misuse label information about the product's origins.
通过标签向消费者提供信息是食品公司向消费者介绍产品属性的一种手段，包括原产国（COO）。在欧盟，原产国标签已成为几类食品的强制性要求，以使消费者能够在销售点做出明智的选择。特别是，法规（EU）No 29/2012 为特级初榨橄榄油（EVOO）引入了强制性原产国标签制度。在本研究中，在意大利进行的研究测试了 COO 信息是否与 EVOO 的价格存在差异。为此，我们采用了特征价格模型，并使用了从超市收银台购买 EVOO 产品的 982 位消费者收集的数据。在对这些消费者进行访谈后，我们还评估了正确识别所购买产品原产国的 EVOO 消费者的比例。我们的研究结果表明，在意大利，标签上标明的国产特级初榨橄榄油比标签上标明的混合欧洲特级初榨橄榄油的溢价高出 35%，而来自非欧洲国家的特级初榨橄榄油则折价 10.8%。我们的样本中有相当一部分消费者（19.04%）无法正确识别所购买的特级初榨橄榄油的原产国。这种标签误用主要发生在那些报告购买了意大利特级初榨橄榄油，而实际上购买了混合欧洲特级初榨橄榄油的消费者中。女性和受教育程度较高的消费者不太可能滥用有关产品原产地的标签信息。
