Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to critically reflect on the effects that carbon labelling of food products will have on consumer purchasing behaviour and on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. Design/methodology/approach -The paper summarises the findings from research on organic food-purchasing behaviour and discusses how this can be applied to the new field of carbon labelling of food. Two consumer behaviour studies specifically examining carbon labelling are also reviewed. Findings -Although consumers have positive attitudes to preserving the environment, sales of organic products are low for several reasons: perceived high price, strong habits governing food purchases, perceived low availability, lack of marketing and information, lack of trust in the labelling system, and low perceived customer effectiveness. All these obstacles apply to the purchase of carbon labelled products and several are even greater for carbon-labelled products, since these do not bring any personal benefits to the consumer, unlike the perceived case for organic products. Practical implications -A carbon labelling scheme must be introduced carefully to avoid confusing the consumer. The goal of the carbon labelling system must be defined, and the label and labelling system designed and managed to meet that goal. Originality/value -Lessons learned from the abundant research on purchasing behaviour regarding organic food are applied to the new field of carbon labelling for the first time. Fields in need of further research for the successful introduction of carbon labelling schemes are identified.
The aim of our research is to examine Swedish consumers' perception and preferences of domestic vegetables compared to on the one hand imported and on the other hand organically grown vegetables. The paper draws from two consumer studies. The first study is a text analysis of consumers' associations to the four concepts Swedish, imported, organic and conventional vegetables as well as a conjoint analysis of the relative importance of the same four characteristics in the case of carrots. The second study is a taste experiment on tomatoes from the same Swedish grower labelled in three different ways, as Swedish, Dutch or organic. The conjoint analysis indicates that Swedish origin is considered more important than organic production methods. The text analysis shows that Swedish is associated with positive values, for instance, high quality, while imports have a more negative image. Organic is associated with characteristics such as being non-toxic, good quality and expensive while conventional is associated with poison, being good enough and traditional. The preference for Swedish vegetables is supported by the taste study. Tomatoes that were labelled as Swedish or organic were perceived as tastier than tomatoes labelled as Dutch. Thus, the experience of taste seems to be affected by the labelling. The conclusion is that to many Swedish consumers ''Swedish is good enough'' as a quality criterion. However, the research situation differs from a real shopping environment, where consumers make choices between bundles of different attributes, not only provenance and production method. Moreover, in a real shopping situation supermarkets promote their own private brands, regardless of origin, thus make origin less accentuated.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.