Sensometrics & Consumer Science, Instituto Polo Tecnológico de Pando, Facultad de Química, Universidad de la República, By Pass de Rutas 8 y 101 s/n, C.P. 91000 Pando, Canelones, Uruguay.
MAPP Centre - Research on Value Creation in the Food Sector, Aarhus University, Fuglesangsalle 4, 8210 Aarhus V, Denmark.
Food Res Int. 2021 Mar;141:110106. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2021.110106. Epub 2021 Jan 5.
Food suboptimality is one of the major driving factors of food waste at the consumer level. Consumer decision to purchase a suboptimal food strongly depends on the associations raised by the suboptimality. In this context, the aim of the current study was to study the influence of different types of suboptimality on consumer associations, emotional reactions, perceived quality dimensions, and purchase intention. An online study with 600 Uruguayan participants was conducted. Results showed that the presence of a suboptimality triggered associations about quality issues and negative emotional reactions. The effect of suboptimality varied with categories and type of suboptimality. Regarding perceived quality, a significant reduction in perceived quality and purchase intention was found for products with damaged packages and defective fresh produce. At the aggregate level, consumers showed a slightly higher intention to purchase the products when a 50% discount was considered. In summary, results from the present work suggest that communication strategies aimed at increasing the perceived quality of suboptimal foods and pricing tactics could contribute to reduce food waste at the store level.
食品次优化是消费者层面食品浪费的主要驱动因素之一。消费者购买次优食品的决定很大程度上取决于次优性所引发的联想。在这种情况下，本研究的目的是研究不同类型的次优性对消费者联想、情绪反应、感知质量维度和购买意向的影响。通过一项有 600 名乌拉圭参与者参与的在线研究，结果表明，次优性的存在引发了关于质量问题和负面情绪反应的联想。次优性的影响因类别和类型而异。关于感知质量，对于包装损坏和新鲜农产品有缺陷的产品，发现感知质量和购买意向显著降低。在总体水平上，当考虑 50%的折扣时，消费者表现出略微更高的购买产品的意愿。总之，本工作的结果表明，旨在提高次优食品感知质量的沟通策略和定价策略可能有助于减少商店层面的食物浪费。
