Consumer acceptance of food obtained from olive by-products

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the market potential of food obtained from olive by-products. The marketing of such by-products (e.g. olive leaves and pulp) is a challenging opportunity for the sustainable development of the sector. Yet, consumer demand is still poorly understood. The paper contributes to filling the knowledge gap with an empirical survey of a sample of Italian consumers. Design/methodology/approach The authors provide an assessment of consumers’ willingness to accept (WTA) food from olive by-products. The authors collected structured questionnaire from a sample of 289 Italian consumers. The authors asked to consumers their willingness to try a variety of food products containing olive by-products, as a proxy for their WTA the products. In order to investigate the drivers of the average WTA, the authors used the information in the questionnaire to build four constructs of interest: technophobia, neophobia, perception of benefits and awareness about sustainable consumption. The choice of the constructs and the variables was driven by the existing literature. Findings The paper shows how the WTA food with olive by-products is a general attitude of the consumer, rather than product-specific choice. The results suggest that consumers perceive the use of olive by-products as a new technology for preparing well-known food products. The authors did not find statistical evidence of the wariness of olive by-products as new food products. Technophobia is the most important factor hampering the marketing of olive by-products. Originality/value The paper is a first attempt of exploring the topic of WTA food with olive by-products.

Consumer Attitudes towards Local and Organic Food with Upcycled Ingredients: An Italian Case Study for Olive Leaves

“…Respondents were given a short, four-section questionnaire. Section 1 collected the demographic information, Section 2 assessed the respondent's attitudes toward the covariates of interest (organic food and food origin), Section 3 investigated the respondent's technophobia [29,30], and Section 4 asked the respondent's willingness to try food obtained from by-products [33]. Descriptive statistics of the sample and the questionnaire are presented in Table 1.…”

“…Food technophobia (or food technology neophobia) is defined as consumers' fear, dislike, or avoidance of novel food technology [29]. Perito et al [33] found that it is a key driver limiting consumer acceptance of food with olive by-products. As a consequence, we included it as a control variable in our empirical investigation.…”

“…Several contributions in the literature proposed scale measures [29,54,55]. In this paper, we adopt the approach proposed by Perito et al [33]. The measure is based on three statements:…”

“…report how new products can cause a strong food technophobia and neophobia in consumers [28][29][30][31][32]. Furthermore, studies on consumer acceptance of food derived from upcycled ingredients have found a negative impact of food technophobia and neophobia on the likelihood of acceptance [25,33]. However, interestingly, studies found that consumers may accord these products a premium status if promoted as a new food category akin to organic foods [34].…”

Physical and Sensory Properties of Mayonnaise Enriched with Encapsulated Olive Leaf Phenolic Extracts

“…However, consumers' willingness to accept foods produced with olive by-product ingredients depends on the perception of different factors, mainly related to the general attitude of the consumer, rather than a product-specific choice. Indeed, information about the characteristics of olive by-products and the perception of the benefits from sustainable consumption can possibly offset the consumers' choice with a positive association between the use of vegetable by-products and sustainable production and environmental responsibility [8].…”