Behavioural Factors Influencing Consumer Acceptance of Sustainable Healthy Food: A Review and Research Agenda

Abstract

Human and planetary health goals have coalesced within consumer food choices. Food-based dietary guidelines provide expert recommendations on what to eat, however, adherence is low and few include sustainability recommendations. This systematic review sought to extract consumer behavioural findings specifically related to ‘healthy sustainable diets’ to gain insights into the levers of food-related behavioural change. Data analysed from 57 studies reveal that while 27 discrete behavioural theories underpinned conceptualisation of research, just three dominate this literature: Theory of Planned Behaviour, Transtheoretical Model and Social Practice Theory. Correspondingly, studies were mainly concerned with motivation, attitudes, intentions and practices. Promising research directions are emerging from investigations into the roles of emotions, meat attachment and types of knowledge. Those sustainable healthy food behaviours (SuHeFB) most investigated were meat consumption reduction, plant-based food consumption, and alternative-to-animal protein food product acceptance. In addressing the perplexity surrounding consumer inertia in altering dietary habits, this review provides a comprehensive SuHeFB construct typology and a justification for directing research attention towards the phenomenon of amotivation. In addition, 31 future research questions are posited under six related SuHeFB themes.