Consumer attitudes to food labelling: opportunities for firms and implications for policy-makers

In order to be competitive on the market and promote food safety and sustainable products, firms need to understand the characteristics of the various groups of consumers, in relation to their sensitivity to the environment and to food safety. Because of the informational asymmetry between consumer and producer, and despite the recent EC Regulation No. 1169/2011 on the provision of information to consumers on food, which became fully operational after 2014 and which provides for greater labelling transparency, consumers make choices based on the quality perception of a product without reaching the desired level of food safety and without understanding the benefits of environmentally and socially friendly products. Firms that wish to adopt corporate social responsibility initiatives, in a competitive scenario, need to understand how consumers make choices. To this end, this study investigates the intrinsic and extrinsic attributes that affect food choice like environmental certification, water footprint and carbon footprint as well as ethical aspects; information on the interviewee's ability to read the label and any problem understanding it were also requested. A questionnaire was conducted on a sample of 238 Italian consumers using face to face interviews. The data generated in this way were submitted to a descriptive analysis and cluster analysis. The results presented in this paper may be useful for both producers in formulating their marketing strategies and for public institutions in planning education and information programmes to promote a clear labelling regulation.