World meat consumption patterns: An overview of the last fifty years (1961–2011)

Driven by economic development and urbanisation, protein consumption has surged worldwide over the last 50 years, rising from 61 g per person per day in 1961 to 80 g per person per day in 2011. This contribution analyses the apparent convergence of dietary models worldwide with respect to the proportion of Animal-Based Protein (ABP) and especially meat in intake. By using FAO data for 183 countries over the period 1961–2011, the authors show the connection between annual per capita GDP and the level of ABP (R2 = 0.62) and meat consumption(R2 =0.62). They emphasise the surge in ABP intake in emerging countries (China, Brazil) which has partly replaced plant protein. However, for similar degrees of economic development, the composition of ABPs and the position of meatwithin this category vary significantly among countries, suggesting that historical, geographical, cultural and religious factors may be involved

La révélation expérimentale des préférences des consommateurs

Sur des marchés très segmentés où l'information joue un rôle considérable, l'estimation des consentements à payer pour des produits ayant des caractéristiques spécifiques est une question centrale. Les méthodes de l'économie expérimentale ont pour but d'inciter les individus à révéler leurs consentements à payer dans un environnement où l'apport d'information est contrôlé. Appliquées à différents types de produits (aliments contenant des OGM, vin, Champagne, …), dont on révèle progressivement les caractéristiques, ces méthodes permettent de comprendre la contribution de chaque caractéristique à la valeur globale attribuée aux produits testés. Elles permettent aussi de mesurer l'impact sur les choix d'un apport d'information sur les propriétés nutritionnelles ou sanitaires des aliments.

Social- and Self-Image Concerns in Fair-Trade Consumption: Evidence from Experimental Auctions for Chocolate

Can social interactions be used to encourage the consumption of fair-trade products? Social interactions may alter purchase behavior by triggering either self-image concerns (when one sees others' decisions without being seen) or social-image concerns (when everybody sees everyone else). A laboratory experiment is designed to identify separately these concerns, using real auctions for normal and fair-trade chocolate, controlling for taste and packaging differences. The analysis of the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for both types of chocolate reveals that both social- and self-image matter: subjects pay a higher premium for fair-trade chocolate when their decisions are made public. This premium is sensitive to information received about the premia paid by other subjects, even when decisions are private. The higher premium in public auctions results from a lower WTP for normal chocolate, rather than a higher WTP for fair-trade chocolate. Subjects are also much more sensitive to information about others' choices that relaxes the moral or social norm constraining their own choice. We thus conclude that social interactions cannot be used to nudge consumers into fair-trade consumption, at least for ordinary products such as chocolate

The effect of shape and cooking duration on preference and consumption of carrots in preadolescent children

Background and objectives : Vegetables are one of the most difficult categories of food to introduce in children’s diet (Cooke & Wardle, 2005) and children’s low consumption of vegetables is pointed as a major source of public health concern in many developed countries. A better understanding of children sensory preferences could help to improve children’s vegetables acceptance

Estructura de preferencias de los consumidores de vino y actitudes hacia los vinos con denominación de origen. El caso de Castilla-La Mancha

[EN] This paper covers a dual objective. On the one hand, the relative importance was determined of the wine attributes that influence the formation of consumer preferences in Castilla-La Mancha. On the other, consumer attitude was analysed towards wine with Castilla-La Mancha’s most important Designation of Origin (D.O.) certifications (D.O. La Mancha and D.O. Valdepeñas), compared with the best-known wine in the national ambit (D.O. Rioja). As a result of the first objective, the most relevant attributes are price, colour (red, white), certification and origin, in this order. The second objective shows that D.O. La Mancha and D.O. Valdepeñas are considered cheaper wines, of habitual consumption and a lower prestige image, while D.O. Rioja wines are seen as prestigious and expensive, so their consumption is considered appropriate for special occasions.[ES] El trabajo ha cubierto un doble objetivo, por un lado se ha determinado la importancia relativa de los atributos del vino que influyen en la conformación de las preferencias de los consumidores de Castilla-La Mancha, y por otro se ha analizado la actitud de los consumidores hacia los vinos con certificación de Denominación de Origen (D.O.) más importantes de Castilla-La Mancha (D.O. La Mancha y D.O. Valdepeñas), con respecto al más conocido en el ámbito nacional (D.O. Rioja). Como resultado del primer objetivo, los atributos más relevantes son el precio, el color (tinto, blanco), la certificación y el origen, por este orden, y del segundo objetivo, se obtiene que la D.O. La Mancha y la D.O. Valdepeñas son percibidas como de vinos más baratos, de consumo más habitual y con una menor imagen de prestigio, mientras que los vinos de la D.O. Rioja son percibidos como vinos de prestigio y caros, por lo que su consumo se considera apropiado para ocasiones especiales.Bernabéu, R.; Olmeda, M.; Díaz, M. (2005). Wine consumer preference structure and attitudes towards designation of origin. The case of Castilla-La Mancha. Economía Agraria y Recursos Naturales - Agricultural and Resource Economics. 5(9):57-80. doi:10.7201/earn.2005.09.03SWORD57805

Effects of front-of-pack labels on the nutritional quality of supermarket food purchases: evidence from a large-scale randomized controlled trial

To examine whether four pre-selected front-of-pack nutrition labels improve food purchases in real-life grocery shopping settings, we put 1.9 million labels on 1266 food products in four categories in 60 supermarkets and analyzed the nutritional quality of 1,668,301 purchases using the FSA nutrient profiling score. Effect sizes were 17 times smaller on average than those found in comparable laboratory studies. The most effective nutrition label, Nutri-Score, increased the purchases of foods in the top third of their category nutrition-wise by 14%, but had no impact on the purchases of foods with medium, low, or unlabeled nutrition quality. Therefore, Nutri-Score only improved the nutritional quality of the basket of labeled foods purchased by 2.5% (−0.142 FSA points). Nutri-Score’s performance improved with the variance (but not the mean) of the nutritional quality of the category. In-store surveys suggest that Nutri-Score’s ability to attract attention and help shoppers rank products by nutritional quality may explain its performance

Young consumers’ preferences for water-saving wines: an experimental study

Freshwater scarcity is becoming one of the most pressing issues of the global environmental sustainability, and agriculture is the main responsible of that scarcity. During the last decade, there has been an increasing consumers’ environmental concern about the impact of food production on water usage. This paper investigates young consumers’ preferences towards water saving wines and the determinants of willingness to pay (WTP) for these products. Data were collected through an experimental auction mechanism in Italy by assessing young consumers’ willingness to pay for three different wines (i.e. conventional-no water saving label, water saving front-of-pack labelled and water saving back-of-pack labelled). Young consumers’ (N=200) characteristics related to their personal values, pro-environmental attitudes, wine habits, labeling attitudes and socio-demographics were also collected. Results reveal that on average young consumers are willing to pay higher prices for water saving labeled wines. Additionally, wine consumption frequency, label trust and use as well as consumers’ environmental-friendly attitude have a positive effect on willingness to pay for these wines. The current study offers valuable insights to policy makers and wine producers for product differentiation and for more efficiently targeting campaigns towards young consumers, in order to increase sustainability-labeled wine consumption

The Health Equity and Effectiveness of Policy Options to Reduce Dietary Salt Intake in England: Policy Forecast

Background Public health action to reduce dietary salt intake has driven substantial reductions in coronary heart disease (CHD) over the past decade, but avoidable socio-economic differentials remain. We therefore forecast how further intervention to reduce dietary salt intake might affect the overall level and inequality of CHD mortality. Methods We considered English adults, with socio-economic circumstances (SEC) stratified by quintiles of the Index of Multiple Deprivation. We used IMPACTSEC, a validated CHD policy model, to link policy implementation to salt intake, systolic blood pressure and CHD mortality. We forecast the effects of mandatory and voluntary product reformulation, nutrition labelling and social marketing (e.g., health promotion, education). To inform our forecasts, we elicited experts’ predictions on further policy implementation up to 2020. We then modelled the effects on CHD mortality up to 2025 and simultaneously assessed the socio-economic differentials of effect. Results Mandatory reformulation might prevent or postpone 4,500 (2,900–6,100) CHD deaths in total, with the effect greater by 500 (300–700) deaths or 85% in the most deprived than in the most affluent. Further voluntary reformulation was predicted to be less effective and inequality-reducing, preventing or postponing 1,500 (200–5,000) CHD deaths in total, with the effect greater by 100 (−100–600) deaths or 49% in the most deprived than in the most affluent. Further social marketing and improvements to labelling might each prevent or postpone 400–500 CHD deaths, but minimally affect inequality. Conclusions Mandatory engagement with industry to limit salt in processed-foods appears a promising and inequality-reducing option. For other policy options, our expert-driven forecast warns that future policy implementation might reach more deprived individuals less well, limiting inequality reduction. We therefore encourage planners to prioritise equity

8.3. Les transitions nutritionnelles et leurs déterminants

Le concept de transition nutritionnelle, popularisé par Barry Popkin au début des années 1990, vise à améliorer notre compréhension des causes et des conséquences des changements de régime alimentaire qui accompagnent la croissance économique. L’idée de transition a d’abord été utilisée par les démographes, puis par les épidémiologistes, pour caractériser les périodes pendant lesquelles des populations passent d’un état à un autre. La transition démographique désigne la transformation de la d..

Les caractéristiques des repas selon les groupes sociaux

[fre] A partir d'une analyse secondaire des données d'une enquête sur les repas des Français, cette étude a permis de mieux cerner certains aspects de la différenciation sociale des comportements alimentaires notamment en matière de caractéristiques des repas, et de type d'aliment utilisé selon les circonstances de consommation. [eng] Characteristics of meals of social groups - From an analysis of the datas of a survey on the meals of French people, this research reveals some informations concerning social differences of food practices especially of characteristics of meals, and of the kind of food used according to varied occasions.