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How can food companies attract the consumer concerned about food safety? A logit model analysis in Spain

Debora Scarpato (Department of Economics and Legal Studies, University of Naples Parthenope, Naples, Italy)
Giacomo Rotondo (Department of Economics and Legal Studies, University of Naples Parthenope, Naples, Italy)
Mariarosaria Simeone (Dipartimento di Diritto Economia Management e Metodi Quantitativi, Universita degli Studi del Sannio, Benevento, Italy)
Andrés Gómez (INEA School of Agricultural Engineering, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain)
Pilar Gutiérrez (INEA School of Agricultural Engineering, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain)

British Food Journal

ISSN: 0007-070X

Article publication date: 7 August 2017

666

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore food safety attitudes among a sample of Spanish consumers and determine which variables, among those studied, most affect the probability of the consumer being attentive to food safety.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was conducted using a logit model. From the questionnaire 20 binary category variables were identified. Having selected the variable “Are you worried about safety food” as a dependent variable, the authors used binary logistic regression (Aldrich and Nelson, 1984; Borooah, 2002) to ascertain in what way the remaining 19 variables affect the likelihood of the consumer being particularly attentive to the healthiness and safety of food purchased.

Findings

The probability of the consumer being particularly attentive to food healthiness and safety, for the sample in question, is higher in consumers who stated that they were familiar with organic products, those who are attentive to fat contents in foods and those who value the presence of quality certification positively.

Research limitations/implications

Future research into Spanish consumers with the same methodology should target a larger sample in several Spanish cities.

Originality/value

This paper investigates not only Spanish consumer attitudes to food safety, but also how other variables can influence the probability of the consumer being concerned about food safety. This approach may be very useful for food companies to determine what strategies to adopt to attract the category of consumers who lend special importance to the food safety variable in their purchases.

Keywords

Citation

Scarpato, D., Rotondo, G., Simeone, M., Gómez, A. and Gutiérrez, P. (2017), "How can food companies attract the consumer concerned about food safety? A logit model analysis in Spain", British Food Journal, Vol. 119 No. 8, pp. 1705-1717. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-12-2016-0616

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited

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