Making sense of the "clean label" trends: A review of consumer food choice behavior and discussion of industry implications.

BACKGROUND
The health benefits of organic foods are unclear.


PURPOSE
To review evidence comparing the health effects of organic and conventional foods.


DATA SOURCES
MEDLINE (January 1966 to May 2011), EMBASE, CAB Direct, Agricola, TOXNET, Cochrane Library (January 1966 to May 2009), and bibliographies of retrieved articles.


STUDY SELECTION
English-language reports of comparisons of organically and conventionally grown food or of populations consuming these foods.


DATA EXTRACTION
2 independent investigators extracted data on methods, health outcomes, and nutrient and contaminant levels.


DATA SYNTHESIS
17 studies in humans and 223 studies of nutrient and contaminant levels in foods met inclusion criteria. Only 3 of the human studies examined clinical outcomes, finding no significant differences between populations by food type for allergic outcomes (eczema, wheeze, atopic sensitization) or symptomatic Campylobacter infection. Two studies reported significantly lower urinary pesticide levels among children consuming organic versus conventional diets, but studies of biomarker and nutrient levels in serum, urine, breast milk, and semen in adults did not identify clinically meaningful differences. All estimates of differences in nutrient and contaminant levels in foods were highly heterogeneous except for the estimate for phosphorus; phosphorus levels were significantly higher than in conventional produce, although this difference is not clinically significant. The risk for contamination with detectable pesticide residues was lower among organic than conventional produce (risk difference, 30% [CI, -37% to -23%]), but differences in risk for exceeding maximum allowed limits were small. Escherichia coli contamination risk did not differ between organic and conventional produce. Bacterial contamination of retail chicken and pork was common but unrelated to farming method. However, the risk for isolating bacteria resistant to 3 or more antibiotics was higher in conventional than in organic chicken and pork (risk difference, 33% [CI, 21% to 45%]).


LIMITATION
Studies were heterogeneous and limited in number, and publication bias may be present.


CONCLUSION
The published literature lacks strong evidence that organic foods are significantly more nutritious than conventional foods. Consumption of organic foods may reduce exposure to pesticide residues and antibiotic-resistant bacteria.


PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE
None.

Are organic foods safer or healthier than conventional alternatives? a systematic review

The following bibliography is conceived as a selection of international literature on food as heritage and as a marker of identity within the huge amount of works recently produced on the topic of food. The bibliography has been produced within the “Food as heritage” project, performed at University of Bologna and coordinated by Ilaria Porciani, with a team composed by Massimo Montanari, Paolo Capuzzo, Raffaele Laudani and Marica Tolomelli. “Food as heritage” is part of a wider projec...

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Bibliography “Food as Heritage”

Background Consumers’ perceptions of naturalness are important for the acceptance of foods and food technologies. Thus, several studies have examined the significance of naturalness among consumers. Nonetheless, the aspects that are considered essential in perceiving a food item as natural may vary across consumers and different stakeholder groups. Scope and approach This systematic review identified 72 studies conducted in 32 countries involving 85,348 consumers. We aimed to answer the following questions: 1) How has the perceived importance of naturalness for consumers been defined and measured? 2) To what extent is perceived naturalness important to consumers? 3) Are there individual differences regarding the importance given to food naturalness that can be explained by consumers' characteristics? 4) Do consumers’ attitudes toward food naturalness influence their intentions and behavior? Key findings and conclusions The review clearly shows that for the majority of consumers, food naturalness is crucial. This finding could be observed across countries and in the different years when the studies were conducted. Therefore, neglecting the aspect of naturalness in the food industry may be very costly in the end. Our review also reveals differences across studies in how naturalness has been defined and measured. Based on a content analysis of the measurement scales, the items used to measure the importance of naturalness can be classified into three categories: 1) the way the food has been grown (food origin), 2) how the food has been produced (what technology and ingredients have been used), and 3) the properties of the final product.

The importance of food naturalness for consumers: Results of a systematic review

Consumers' perception of organic product characteristics. A review.

There are many publications focusing on diverse aspects of marketing research for organic products. However, so far there have been very few attempts to provide an overall synthesis of current knowledge. The present study therefore gives an overview of marketing research for organic food consumption, enabling the identification of research strengths and deficits. The review analyses a total of 277 research studies published between January 2000 and December 2011. The structure of this review was derived from the concept of the consumer-oriented marketing mix (4Cs), taking into account consumer value and benefits, cost to the consumer, communication and information needs and convenience and distribution. The results of this qualitative analysis reveal a high density of publications, especially for the period from 2008 to 2011. The most investigated topics are cost to the consumer and consumer value and benefits. Nevertheless, there are still many aspects within these research areas that have not yet been addressed, such as ecological packaging, price knowledge and price processing. The research areas communication and information needs and convenience and distribution are also less intensively researched.

Consumption behaviour regarding organic food from a marketing perspective—a literature review

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an authenticity model for food specialties considering both the subjective and the object-based dimensions of authenticity. Moreover, the relationship with personality traits – such as consumer self-concept and identification with the product – (antecedents) as well as with the consumption intention (consequences) are measured. Design/methodology/approach – Hypotheses were analyzed by means of a structural equation model using AMOS. Calculations were based on data collected through an online survey of 138 German respondents who were recruited by a consumer panel. Findings – Both subjective and object-based perceived authenticity significantly influence the purchase intention. Object-based authenticity's role is mediated by the subjective authenticity, which is affected by the consumers self-identification with the product and personality traits such as determination and passion. Research limitations/implications – The results presented in this paper will h...

Developing an authenticity model of traditional food specialties : Does the self-concept of consumers matter?

Organic food labels are promising tools to transmit the positive image of organic products to consumers. Besides health-related aspects and environmental concerns, declaration of organic quality may have a positive impact on consumers’ taste perception. Many studies have proven the positive image of organic products, but very few have considered the link between labeling a product as organic and the consumer’s evaluation of sensory quality. This paper therefore investigates how organic consumers from six European countries (Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, and the Netherlands) are influenced by the information that strawberry yogurt is produced organically or conventionally. Within the framework of a European Union-funded research project, a cross-cultural survey with a total of N = 1,797 respondents was conducted between October 2010 and February 2011. Standardized computer-assisted interview techniques were combined with sensory tests. Results show that the presence of an organic label may lead to an enhancement of taste perception. With the exception of Italy, consumers evaluated the same product sample slightly better when an organic label was shown. For the evaluation of conventional products, the opposite effect was found for three out of six countries. These findings reveal that the positive sensory image of the organic food branch transfers to single organic products, resulting in a better taste evaluation. However, the relatively weak label effect observed in all study countries suggests that an improvement of the sensory image of organic products is advisable. This can be addressed by enhancing the sensory performance of food products as well as by implementing extensive sensory marketing activities.

Organic food labels as a signal of sensory quality—insights from a cross-cultural consumer survey

Purpose




The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into European organic consumers’ attitudes towards natural food and in their sensory preference for it. It explores whether there is any evidence for a latent dimension that represents consumers’ attitudes towards naturalness and which aspects can be assigned to this dimension. However, the main scope is to investigate whether attitudes towards naturalness are able to predict the liking of natural food.




Design/methodology/approach




Sensory tests of strawberry yoghurt are combined with consumer information obtained by means of a standardised questionnaire. About 1,800 organic consumers from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland were asked to blindly test two strawberry yoghurt samples that differed only in their absence/presence of an aroma additive.




Findings




On average, the consumers revealed a positive attitude towards natural food, but a negative sensory preference for the more natural yoghurt sample. Correlations between these two variables indicate that for most countries one cannot conclude that more naturalness-oriented consumers actually prefer the taste of more naturally flavoured yoghurts. This finding is interpreted as an attitude-liking gap.




Research limitations/implications




More research is necessary in order to clarify the reasons for the attitude-liking gap, since the authors can only speculate about these. Also, suitable data are needed to confirm the assumption made here that the naturalness of strawberry yoghurt can be determined by the degree of flavour intensity, especially against the background that the sensory skills of consumers are usually weak.




Originality/value




No attempt has been undertaken so far to test the claim that natural food products taste better and whether consumers with a positive attitude towards naturalness actually prefer the taste of a natural product over the taste of a more processed one. The present study attempts to fill this gap by exploring the preference for naturalness in a cross-national context.

Preference for naturalness of European organic consumers: First evidence of an attitude-liking gap

Consumers’ preferences for organic food have evolved in recent years, moving from altruistic values to more egoistic buying motivations, such as health promoting or nutritional aspects and sensory properties. Hypothesizing that organic consumers have peculiar preferences for naturalness-related sensory attributes, we developed the concept of the “core organic taste” based on the principles of a wholesome nutrition. This article investigates to what extent the “core organic taste” is relevant across different European countries and its potential relevance for food marketing. A sample of 1,798 organic food consumers was interviewed during 2010–2011 in six European countries. Explorative factor analysis, correlation analysis, ANOVA, and post hoc tests were applied to analyze the data. Results show that the “core organic taste” is not applicable for all countries. Indeed, for most countries only single elements seem to be relevant. However, for Germany and Switzerland the “core organic taste”—represen...

Sarah Hemmerling

Papers

Consumption behaviour regarding organic food from a marketing perspective—a literature review

Developing an authenticity model of traditional food specialties : Does the self-concept of consumers matter?

Organic food labels as a signal of sensory quality—insights from a cross-cultural consumer survey

Preference for naturalness of European organic consumers: First evidence of an attitude-liking gap

Core organic taste: preferences for naturalness-related sensory attributes of organic food among European consumers