Agribusiness最新文献

This study explores how nutrients, new ingredients, and health claims from product reformulation influence consumer decisions, dietary intake, and population health in the beverage market. We focus on the beverage market in the United States as a case study because of the emerging health demand for “better-for-you” beverage options. We formulate a random coefficient discrete choice model to evaluate consumer preference for reformulated products in the nonalcoholic beverages market. We find that new ingredients that provide functionality such as energy ingredients, carbonation, or no artificial flavors have a significant positive impact on consumer choices. Further, the use of health claims can significantly increase consumer demand for beverages. Results from simulations suggest that the use of “no/low sugar,” “no/low sodium,” and “no artificial sweetener” health claims will increase the net sugar and sodium intakes from sugar-sweetened beverages, leading to an increase in body mass index and the incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) and diabetes. The nutrient reformulation by cutting sugar and sodium content by 10%, on the other hand, will result in a decrease in sugar and sodium consumption, and further lower the incidence of CHD and stroke. However, the policy aimed at lowering the intake of one single nutrient may have an unintended spillover effect on other nutrient intakes, and policymakers should take a comprehensive approach and consider the broader nutrient impact of any policy aimed at reducing a specific nutrient.

Encouraging the food industry to reformulate their products is a possible public intervention to improve diet quality. In this paper, we assess the impact of food reformulation on per capita salt and saturated fatty acids (SFAs) intake, in France, for four product categories, namely, potato chips, fresh pizzas, frozen pizzas, and frozen meals, taking into account the changes in products' nutritional quality and consumer choices. Nutrient intake is calculated by matching data on food purchases and nutritional data, collected at the same date. An algorithm is run to disentangle the specific effect of food reformulation. We find that food reformulation, which is based on voluntary individual firm choices or voluntary industry-wide agreement in our case studies, contributes to decrease SFAs and salt intake in seven out of eight cases. However, the magnitude of the impact is moderate, except in the case of potato chips for which a much stronger impact is observed. Product renewal has an ambiguous effect, depending on the nutrient considered. By contrast, changes in consumer behavior increase the intake of SFAs and salt in all cases. Finally, food reformulation generally benefits all consumers equally, regardless of income or age. For food categories with consumption disparities, product reformulation can reduce heterogeneity in nutrient intake across socioeconomic groups, provided that recipes are greatly and widely improved  [EconLit Citations: D12, D22, I1].

Food reformulation can contribute to achieve public health objectives by facilitating access to healthy and sustainable food choices to consumers. Vitamin D is an important micronutrient that contributes to calcium absorption and bone health. Low vitamin D levels may lead to having a higher risk of poor bone and muscle for human health. In this manuscript we investigated, for the first time, United Kingdom consumer willingness to pay (WTP), and heterogeneity preferences for vitamin D fortification of eggs. We used a choice experiment (CE) involving several hypothetical egg products (i.e., pack of 10 eggs) that vary across three attributes levels such as production method (i.e., Cage, Barn, Free-range, and Organic), vitamin (i.e., no information or by reporting on the pack the claim “Vitamin D added”), and price (i.e., £0.80/pack, £1.90/pack, £3.00/pack, and £4.10/pack). Results suggest that, although on average consumers prefer low-price eggs produced using the free-range production method and the information about vitamin D fortification does not affect their valuation, there is a significant preference heterogeneity in consumer preferences associated with animal welfare, environment, health, and price attributes. Particularly, there is a significant preference heterogeneity towards the purchasing of eggs produced using the barn production method. Furthermore, we found that consumer preferences for vitamin D fortification of eggs is affected by consumer's age and the price of eggs. These findings provide useful insights into the psychology of consumer acceptance and attitudes that can be used in communicating the nature of the fortified vitamin D eggs to the public. They also have important implications for future labeling policies and marketing strategies of egg industry.

We provide an introduction to the Special Issue on the Economics of Food Reformulation.

Reductions in sugar intake are at the center of policy discussions to improve health. In this article, we use barcode-level nutrition and sales data on the near-universe of all packaged food products in the United States over 2007–2015 to investigate whether food manufacturers have reduced added sugar in their product offerings and whether these reformulations have played a role on consumers' sugar intake. We find that reformulation efforts would have reduced sugar intake by 52.8% between 2007 and 2015 had households' shopping baskets in 2015 remained the same as in 2007. However, consumers' purchases have gravitated toward more sugary products over time, thereby negating more than twothirds of the reduction in sugar intake that reformulation could have brought about. As a result, sugar intake has only decreased by 15.6%. Evidence shows that the largest reformulation effects come from product groups that have received the greatest scrutiny. Sweetened beverages, desserts, and sweets together represent 89% of pure reformulation, where sweetened beverages alone represent 43%. We also analyze the change in added sugar intake across income and find larger reductions in higher-income households; this finding suggests that existing disparities in diet quality have become more pronounced over time [EconLit Citations: D22, I12, I18, L66].

Food reformulation and the introduction of novel sources of nutrition are considered potential strategies to address poor nutrition and public health issues. Seaweed, a novel food in Western cuisine, is gaining popularity, and seaweed farming in the United States is an emerging and fast-growing aquaculture segment. This paper provides a comprehensive understanding of US consumers' preferences and attitudes toward seaweed and value-added seaweed products. Specifically, the study focuses on two distinct consumer groups: those who consume seaweed and those who do not. It includes separate analyses for each group to compare their attitudes and examine the characteristics and factors affecting their attitudes. This paper summarizes the different characteristics of seaweed consumers and nonconsumers. The results show that the seaweed consumers' knowledge of seaweed and perceptions of seaweed quality, price, and availability positively affect their intentions to try a new product flavored with seaweed. Nonconsumers have unique reasons for not consuming seaweed, several of which are associated with their intentions to try a new seaweed product [EconLit Citations: D12, Q13].

This study investigates the implicit and explicit health–taste tradeoffs that consumers make in response to sugar-reduction claims on chocolate cereals. We collect implicit measures through an Implicit Association Test, explicit perceptions of health and taste properties, and statements regarding product liking and purchase intention through a questionnaire. Based on a path analysis, we assess the relative strength of the indirect effects of sugar-reduction claims mediated by health and taste perceptions, as well as the direct effects on purchase intention. The results indicate that sugar-reduction claims decrease taste perceptions, increase health perceptions, and have only minor negative effects on product liking, but increase purchase intentions. Most participants show an implicit “unhealthy = tasty” intuition, which can be offset by moderate to high health consciousness. The implications for marketing and policymakers are twofold. First, our study shows that sugar-reduction claims are effective in addressing the original target group of health-conscious consumers. Second, our results suggest that the health–taste tradeoff is not prohibitively detrimental to purchase intentions among less health-conscious consumers. Potential instruments to increase the market share in this segment are discussed [EconLit Citations: I18, D12, D83].