Eco-labelled food products: what are consumers paying for?

Are Consumers Willing to Pay More for Sustainable Products? A Study of Eco-Labeled Tuna Steak

“…These labels are intended to introduce environmental awareness for consumers who care about the environment and to help identify consumer products that are ecologically superior. Some labels quantify pollution or energy consumption by way of index scores or units of measurement; others simply assert compliance with a set of practices or minimum requirements for sustainability or reduction of harm to the environment [22]. Eco-labels were initiated in the 1990s and have been introduced in the fisheries sector, and they are increasingly being applied to tuna fisheries.…”

“…Some researchers [22,24] found that the market success of eco-friendly food products requires not only environmental but other verifiable attributes, such as better taste or higher safety. Other researchers also noted that the adoption of eco-labels may earn a premium price for food products [25][26][27].…”

Can Health and Environmental Concerns Meet in Food Choices?

“…); and (ii) the choice of seasonal fruit and vegetables (F&V) explicitly for environmental reasons. The choice of the first variable is related to the fact that preferences towards eco-labelled products (and the related willingness to pay) are often used in the literature to evaluate consumer environmental attitude [12,39]. The choice of the second variable is in line with a stream of literature that focuses on food miles, highlighting the environmental impacts of seasonal/unseasonal and local/imported-from-far-away products [54][55][56].…”

“…Indeed, some consumers are becoming increasingly careful about what they eat, giving value to the impacts of everyday food choices on their health and on the environment [9][10][11][12][13][14]. This is confirmed by recent trends in labelling that show an increase in the diffusion of health and environmental sustainability claims or logos.…”

Sustainable consumption and marketing

“…Consumers who purchase certified ethical food products at a premium price are not driven by selfish motives but by altruistic motives (Bougherara & Combris, 2009). The underlying mechanism of these altruistic motives is debatable, with some authors favouring attitudinal approaches like environmental concern (Sirieix, Kledal, & Sulitang, 2011;Thøgersen, 2010), and others favouring moral approaches like personal norms (Biel & Thøgersen, 2007;Gärling, 1999;Gärling, Fujii, Gärling, & Jakobsson, 2003;Van der Iest, Dijkstra, & Stokman, 2011), while it even has been argued that complete selflessness does not exist and that choices for ethical products are at least partly guided by selfish motives, such as impression management (Griskevicius et al, 2010;White & Peloza, 2009).…”