A Little Bird Told Me... Nutri-Score Panoramas from a Flight over Europe, Connecting Science and Society

Within the Farm to Fork Strategy, the European Commission ask for a unified Front Of Pack nutritional label for food to be used at the European level. The scientific debate identified the Nutri-Score (NS) as the most promising candidate, but within the political discussion, some Member States brought to attention several issues related to its introduction. This misalignment led to a postponement of the final decision. With the aim to shed some light on the current stances and contribute to the forthcoming debate, the objective of the present work is to understand to what extent scientific research addresses the issues raised by the general public. We applied a structural topic model to tweets from four European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain) and to abstracts of scientific papers, all dealing with the NS topic. Different aspects of the NS debate are discussed in different countries, but scientific research, while addressing some of them (e.g., the comparison between NS and other labels), disregards others (e.g., relations between NS and traditional products). It is advisable, therefore, to widen the scope of NS research to properly address the concerns of European society and to provide policymakers with robust evidence to support their decisions

Price Determinants of Sparkling Wine in Poland: Does Reputation Really Matter?

Due to the important worldwide growth of the sparkling wine sector in the last years, this research aims to explore the Polish sparkling wine retail market by applying a hedonic price model. Poland is the most important market in Eastern Europe, with a noticeable increase in wine consumption in recent years. Few researches have investigated the price premium of wine attributes in this area, while none of these concentrated their analysis on sparkling wines. The aim of this research is to apply a hedonic price model to estimate the effects of credence attributes and quality signals on sparkling wines sold in the Polish capital. Data were collected from 35 retail stores in Warsaw. Findings suggest that collective reputation linked to designation of origin is the variable that most affects the price, followed by brand reputation and characteristics of the point of sale. The type of retailer has a significant effect on price: discounts and supermarkets imply a price decrease with respect to hypermarkets, whereas specialised shops charge a premium. Moreover, we explore the presence of wine with Italian sounding names: this positively affects wine price, confirming the role of imitations stressed in the recent literature

Does Italian origin really determine a price premium for fluid milk? Evidences from a hedonic price analysis

The regulation 1169/2011, which aims to protect the consumers in relation to food information, stresses the fact that the country of origin is become a key attribute for consumers in their purchasing decision. In 2014, the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, with the Decree of 9 December 2016 − based on art. 26 of Reg. 1169/2011 – introduced the obligation of labelling the country origin of milk used in all dairy products and therefore for the first time for uht milk. In this context, the aim of the study is to evaluate the price premium of different quality attributes on uht milk sold in Italy, with particular regard to the country of origin of milk. From the analysis, it emerges that Italian origin of milk has a significant and positive effect on price, together with the type of retailer (i.e. hypermarket), notorious brands, plastic packaging, high and middle placement on the shelves, organic attribute and the enrichment with omega 3, phosphorus or fibre

Is it really a piece of cake to label Geographical Indications with the Nutri-Score? Consumers’ behaviour and policy implications

data repositor

Taste Beats Reputation in New Food Products Choice: The Case of Ready-to-Eat Pomegranate among Young Consumers in Veneto Region (Italy)

none4no: This study investigates the preferences for ready-to-eat pomegranate arils in Italy through a discrete choice experiment (DCE) on 264 young consumers in Italy. The aim is to estimate consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for the reputational attributes of the product (e.g., the product origin and sales channel) and to discriminate the elicited preferences between tasting and non-tasting situations. To this purpose, a random parameter logit model was employed to assess the heterogeneity in consumer preferences. The results suggest that non-tasters attach a relevant value to the reputational attributes (e.g., +75% WTP for Italian origin). Moreover, considering the sensory features of the products, we found that consumers in this group discriminate against the proposed samples only through their visual characteristics: they prefer the sample with the largest size and red colored arils. In addition, we found that the tasting experience reduced the value attached to the reputational attributes (e.g., −50% WTP for local origin) for consumers, compared to non-tasting situation, thus shifting their preference to the samples that they appreciated the most (high liking). Specifically, we found that consumers in the tasting group preferred the product sample with the highest level of sweetness and the lowest level of sourness and astringency, showing a higher preference for sweetness. The findings contribute to the literature on consumers’ behavior on new food products (NFPs), showing that reputational attributes lose value after the tasting experience. In contrast, the sensory features of the NFPs can help tasters to reduce the information asymmetry, which traditionally represents a hurdle in purchases for new consumers. However, this depends on the individuals’ subjective preferences, as demonstrated by the significant effect of liking levels in discriminating consumers’ choices. To conclude, although these results cannot be extended to the general population, they may give some interesting insights about future trends of NFP demand.noneAlice Stiletto, Erika Rozzanigo, Elisa Giampietri, Samuele TrestiniStiletto, Alice; Rozzanigo, Erika; Giampietri, Elisa; Trestini, Samuel

How about choosing environmentally friendly beef? Exploring purchase intentions among Italian consumers

The increasing global demand for livestock products and its large environmental impact ask for urgent policy and managerial strategies. With regard to meat consumption, feasible actions relate to its reduction and orienting consumers toward more sustainable meat choices. The aim of the study is to investigate the determinants affecting meat consumers in their intention to buy beef whose label clearly expresses environmentally friendly characteristics. To do so, we hypothesized to apply an institutional system of ecological labeling on beef products. An extended framework based on the Theory of Planned Behavior was applied to understand the factors affecting the consumer decision-making process toward eco-labeled beef. A survey was conducted with 1139 consumers in Italy. Data were analyzed by means of confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation models. Results highlight that beef consumers are likely to change their habits, in favor of more sustainable beef choices. The analysis highlights that, together with consumer attitudes, social norms and perceived behavioral control, institutional trust and food shopping habits play an important role in activating the consumer's cognitive decision-making process toward more sustainable beef. Results add to the literature on the determinants of green food-choices and introduce new insights on the role of institutional trust in the intention to buy beef labeled with a public standard. Findings highlight that particular attention should be devoted to build trust for public institutions in order to promote sustainable food consumption behavior. Moreover, results validate previous studies on the effectiveness of information-based policies in fostering more sustainable consumption choices