Consumer Attitude and Behaviour Towards "Flandria" Quality Labelled Tomatoes

Abstract

In recent years, trust in food safety and food quality has decreased as a result of consecutive food crises. Consequently, numerous quality labels signalling credence characteristics have been established. One of these labels is the Belgian Flandria label for fresh fruit and vegetables. Based on a self-administered consumer survey (n=373), this paper addresses questions about consumer attitudes, behaviour and perception towards tomatoes in general, and the Flandria tomato label in particular. Principal component analysis and consumer segmentation are performed. The findings indicate that the Flandria label may have become the new standard for tomatoes and may have lost a major part of its differentiation potential by being positioned "in the middle" and being too intensively used for a wide range of other fruits and vegetables.quality labelling, consumer attitude, consumer behaviour, tomatoes, Belgium, Consumer/Household Economics, M390, D120, L660,