Risk-indicative or sustainable consumption? Consumers’ risk perception on conventional and organic food products in Poland

Abstract

The consumption of organic food is becoming increasingly popular and, to avoid numerous threats to human health and the natural environment, the issues devoted to it require greater attention from decision-makers, producers, and consumers. Consumer decisions have an impact on shaping food consumption patterns and recently the trend of the consumption of conventional versus organic food products has been widely discussed. This is especially true given the fact that the area of human health is strongly related to the consumption of food products produced under the challenges of environmental protection and sustainability. The study aimed to investigate if the perception of consumption among Polish respondents was risk-indicative or sustainable based on the animal, fruit, and vegetable products purchased from conventional or organic production. The results revealed that fruit and vegetable consumption was not identically related with socio-demographic features, but the income level equally affected consumer choices regarding the purchase of organic food products. Gender and marital status only influenced decisions regarding the purchase of organic fruit. The consumption of animal products regarding the frequency of their consumption did not reveal the features of sustainability. The metal accumulation index (MAI) for conventionally cultivated vegetables was not higher for all of the investigated vegetables, namely pumpkin, spring onion, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, and garlic. Our study contributes to addressing the knowledge gap on consumer choices about organic food products in Poland.

Sustainable Foods: Consumer Opinions and Behaviour towards Organic Fruits in Poland

“…These results can be used to target different age groups of consumers. Figure 7 shows that young respondents (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39) most prefer a variety of apple products and the middle-aged (40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54)(55)(56)(57)(58)(59) and the oldest (60+) the least. All of them most prefer juices, and the young almost equally prefer smoothies and smooth mousses.…”

“…The dissimilarity of organic and conventional production systems is associated not only with differences in the health impacts on consumers but also with differences in aspects of price, availability or increased need for reliability in terms of product quality [26][27][28], which in turn may have a negative impact on sales of organic products. Therefore, various factors related to the purchasing behaviour of consumers of organic and conventional products, such as environmental values, availability and either egoistic or altruistic motives, are becoming a frequent focus of research [29][30][31][32][33].…”