Wang Hongsha, Chen Qihui, Zhu Chen, Bao Jiale
College of Economics and Management, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China.
Beijing Food Safety Policy & Strategy Research Base, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China.
Foods. 2022 Aug 15;11(16):2460. doi: 10.3390/foods11162460.
Promoting the transition from animal meat to plant-based food consumption has significant benefits for public health and environmental sustainability. This study, involving 526 consumers from Beijing, China, explores how food attributes and information may affect consumers' food choices concerning plant-based meat products. A discrete choice experiment was conducted using burgers with five attributes (meat patties, flavor, sodium content, energy, and price) as the focal product. Separate messages on nutrition, food safety, and the environmental issues related to plant-based meat consumption were also randomly provided to consumers to help examine the role of information. Our findings suggest that Beijing consumers' awareness of plant-based meat is relatively low at present, and they show a negative preference toward plant-based meat consumption relative to that of conventional meat. However, consumers' willingness to pay for plant-based meat significantly increased after nutrition information was provided, but it was not responsive to the provision of food safety or environmental information. These findings suggest that to promote plant-based meat consumption, information closely related to consumers' personal interests rather the "greater good" should be provided, at least in the context of Beijing, China.
推动从食用动物肉向植物性食品消费的转变对公众健康和环境可持续性具有重大益处。这项研究涉及来自中国北京的526名消费者，探讨了食品属性和信息如何影响消费者对植物性肉类产品的食品选择。以含有五种属性（肉饼、风味、钠含量、能量和价格）的汉堡作为重点产品进行了离散选择实验。还向消费者随机提供了关于营养、食品安全以及与植物性肉类消费相关的环境问题的单独信息，以帮助考察信息的作用。我们的研究结果表明，目前北京消费者对植物性肉类的认知度相对较低，相对于传统肉类，他们对植物性肉类消费表现出负面偏好。然而，在提供营养信息后，消费者购买植物性肉类的意愿显著增加，但对食品安全或环境信息的提供没有反应。这些研究结果表明，为了促进植物性肉类消费，至少在中国北京的背景下，应提供与消费者个人利益密切相关而非 “更大利益” 的信息。
