Environmental Issues as Drivers for Food Choice: Study from a Multinational Framework

• Main Authors: Raquel P. F. Guiné, Elena Bartkiene, Sofia G. Florença, Ilija Djekić, Maša Černelič Bizjak, Monica Tarcea, Marcela Leal, Vanessa Ferreira, Ivana Rumbak, Panagiotis Orfanos, Viktória Szűcs, Dace Klava, Małgorzata Korzeniowska, Kathy Isoldi, Paula Correia, Manuela Ferreira, Ana Paula Cardoso
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-03-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: food choice; food waste; sustainable agriculture; sustainable packaging
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/5/2869

This work intended to explore some motivations that influence people’s eating habits towards sustainability. This was an observational, cross-sectional study, carried out by questionnaire survey on a non-probabilistic sample of 10,067 participants from 13 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Romania and United States). Results indicated that people prefer fresh local foods from the season, being important because it allows transportation and storage to be reduced, which in many cases implies refrigeration systems and consequent energy expenditure. Although people avoid food waste at home, the awareness for the waste at restaurants still needs to be improved. Consumers seem to prefer foods that have been produced and packed in sustainable ways but still give importance to the package—understandable for food products. The results also indicated significant differences in the food choice motivations between groups for all sociodemographic variables tested (age, sex, marital status, education, professional area, living environment and country), but the association was high only for variable country. Additionally, a tree classification analysis allowed to identify the relative importance of the influential variables on the sustainable food choices, with country being the most important, followed by age and sex. Additionally, discriminant function analysis allowed establishing a model for the relation between country and six variables accounting for preservation of biodiversity, respect for life, save natural resources, save energy, reduce industrial pollution and minimal packaging. Although with some limitations, this study brings valuable insight into some aspects linked with sustainable food choices on a number of countries and how people shape their food choices according to some sustainability issues.