Estimate of wtp for enriched crushed tomatoes in Southern Italy. A new approach

The concerns about health and personal well-being have changed consumers demand for food. Concerns about health and personal well-being have supported the introduction and conseguent growing of a new products categories: functional foods. The aim of this study is to make a step forward in investigating the willingness to pay for a specific functional product, crushed tomatoes, with a lycopene content increased by 50%, in an italian sample. Our empirical strategy was to carry several session of experimental auctions to analyse participants real willingness to pay; after the auctions, participants were asked to complete a questionnaire about their demographic information and consumption habits and attitudes. They also completed questionnaires on explicit measures validated to explain the behavior of consumer choice for food products, the Food Choise Questionnaire (FCQ) and The Food Technology neophobia Scale (FTNS). Finally, to determine which variables are determinant to the bidding behaviors we run a random-effect Tobit model including sociodemographic variables such as gender and age, and the variables related to explicit measures of consumer’s behavior. Results indicate how much consumers are willing to pay for functional tomatoes and which variables can be consiedered as a driver in choosing functional food products.