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The paper aims to explore consumer preferences for novel and other quality attributes in processed foods. It focuses on preferences for product origin, certification on food quality and standards and tradeoffs between novelty (fortification and highly processed) and other quality attributes.

In total, 317 consumers were randomly selected at a high-end supermarket and a traditional local market in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Stated and revealed preference approaches were used to investigate their preferences for different attributes in processed foods. A hypothetical choice experiment was used to assess consumer preference for six baby food attributes and the tradeoffs between the attributes, while the revealed preference method included questions on consumer's actual processed food purchasing and consumption habits. In addition, consumers were asked a series of hierarchical questions assessing the motivation underpinning their choices for different products attributes.

When making choices for processed food attributes, consumers are reluctant to choose novel technologies and have a strong preference for natural, nutritious, tasty and quality processed food attributes. However, they are willing to forego their preference for naturalness and to overcome their reluctance to trying novel technologies when the novelty is embedded with such quality benefits as nutrition, but not so when the embedded benefit is convenience. They are also willing to trade off their preference for nutrition for a sensory taste. This suggests that micronutrient deficiencies can be reduced among women and children under five by employing the appropriate strategies in processed food formulation. Further, the preference for product origin highlights the opportunity for national brands to fill the gap created by the increasing demand for processed foods in Tanzania.

The study claims a developing country perspective but is only representing consumers in one city in a developing country. However, this study speculates that consumers with representative characteristics in such context are likely to behave the same. Furthermore, although this study controlled for a hypothetical bias, having a hypothetical choice experiment with non-shoppers (non-purchasers) could have triggered the hypothetical bias, making participants concentrate more on non-price than price attributes.

The paper offers a developing country perspective on consumers' preferences for novelty in processed foods and tradeoffs with other quality attributes.

The purpose of this paper is to determine important attributes of processed food, consumers’ trust in different information resources, and the impact of trust, demographic and behavior variables on the preference of processed food attributes among Chinese consumers.

Data of 1,267 participants were collected from four cities in China. A five-point Likert scale was used to measure consumer preference for 12 juice attributes. Consumer trust in nine sources of information on product quality was measured. Cluster analysis was used to segment consumers into groups based on their preference for juice attributes and trust in information sources, respectively. A multinomial logistic model was used to determine the impact of trust, demographic and behavior variables on the preference of juice attributes.

Consumers rate manufacture date, taste and food safety labels as the most important attributes of fruit juice products. Among different information sources, consumers place more trust in private information sources and traditional media. The low trust in different information sources impedes consumer preference for processed food quality attributes.

This research is among the few that examine consumer preference for processed food, such as juice. It identifies four distinct preference groups and trust groups, respectively, based on consumer preference for juice attributes and trust in different information sources. This paper provides important information for processed food companies and policymakers to effectively enact marketing strategies in China.

Salt is one of the most valuable substances available to man, with a definitive role in the human body and in food production. However, the continued use or indeed misuse of salt has led to adverse effects on health. The increasing consumption of convenience foods has contributed greatly to a high salt intake. Highly processed, convenience foods are known to contain large quantities of salt to optimise storage stability and flavour acceptability. Current high salt intakes have therefore been attributed to processed foods, accounting for 75‐85 per cent of total salt intake. Such findings and associated health implications have prompted a call from health professionals and food researchers to reduce salt intake. Effective salt reduction, however, can only be achieved with the co‐operation and commitment of the food industry in the development of lower‐salt processed foods.

This is an exploratory study on consumer information and behaviour towards green, health, local, social and environmental credentials on labels. It focusses on many dimensions of sustainability in the food products that affect consumer choices with a dual purpose: to identify and define “sustainable consumption” behaviour in broad sense and to investigate empirically the factors affecting the real consumption behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on consumers’ understanding, motivation and use of sustainable labelling in order to understand the role sustainability information plays in the food products market.

Two focus groups in order to investigate consumer motivation and behaviour in-depth and to prepare the questionnaire. Identification of the outcomes that could summarize sustainable consumption combining: purchase of local products, consume only seasonal fruit, prefer products with recyclable packaging, attention to the fat content in foods, give importance to traceability and purchase products only in the place of origin. Identification of the “at risk” virtuous consumer, using a binary logistic regression approach, taking into account demographic characteristics, the food and nutrition value system, experience, knowledge, institutional factors and marketing.

Results from the focus groups are mainly in line with the empirical analysis, highlighting the key role of education in influencing consumer attitude and behaviour. Consumers give little attention to information provided on the label for sustainable food consumption and environmental protection and have little knowledge of environmental problems. The virtuous consumer appears to give importance to a better food nutrition value system, to pay more attention to ingredients and instructions on the label, to be more attentive to environmental and sustainable attributes, to be concerned about product quality and to be slightly influenced by brands and special offers.

The findings from the empirical analysis confirm the results from focus groups even if it was not possible from the empirical analysis to investigate in-depth the marketing aspects concerning the food choice. This limit probably comes from the low number of observations. Further research will focus on these marketing aspects.

Products with sustainable attributes can become a strategic variable and allow companies to gain a competitive advantage, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises. This may encourage the development of new marketing channels based on the direct relationship between producer and the new consumer demand, increasingly sensitive to the food security issues.

There is a potential interest and sensitiveness to having sustainable behaviour in a broad sense, but there is a lack of knowledge about how to behave to be sustainable. In the absence of binding rules, it is necessary that government promote information and campaigns to generate greater awareness on sustainability, aiming at increasing knowledge to drive the consumer’s choices. This may lead to virtuous results in terms of reducing social costs related to an unhealthy diet, food waste and unsustainable consumption.

The results show that despite the appearance of attention to the environment and to healthy food which is associated with this emerging critical consumer in the literature, there remains the problem of the consumer giving little attention to information provided on the label for sustainable food consumption and environmental protection. This is the problem of “rules of thumb” in purchasing decisions that prevail in the following situations: when consumers have an overload of information that exceeds their processing limits; when they tend to base their decision making on heuristics, focussing their choices on brands as a proxy for high-quality, product-related characteristics.

A model for analysis of consumer behaviour towards food is developed. This model is intended to bridge the gap between the objective quality approach pursued in food sciences, the product characteristics approach, and the subjectively perceived quality approach, the product attribute approach as pursued in the consumer behaviour literature. The focus is on the information processing by the consumer. Information on the product quality is supplied to the consumer in the form of cues received while shopping or consuming. A distinction is made between extrinsic and intrinsic cues, and between search‐, experience‐, and credence‐quality attributes. Within the credence attributes, three categories are distinguished: food safety, health, and all other credence quality attributes. It is demonstrated that public policy should use minimum standards for regulating food safety, information and consumer education on health issues and definitional standards to regulate the other credence qualities. In the case of search quality, no public intervention is needed. In the case of experience quality, reputation is a means of reducing the quality erosion inherent for experience quality attributes. In the case of those foods which are not sold prepacked over the counter, these means are restricted. Here the public regulators could consider backing up the private quality policy efforts on labelling by implementing traceability schemes and defining the requirements for specific label claims.

The purpose of this paper with pork as a case is to analyze Chinese consumer preference and demand for traceable food attributes, in order to provide a useful reference for Chinese Government in developing the safe food market and preventing food safety risks.

This research surveyed 1,380 consumers in seven pilot cities that designated by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce for the construction of a meat and vegetable circulation traceability system. A choice-based conjoint analysis and multinomial logit model were used to study consumer preferences and demand for traceable pork attributes.

The results demonstrated that certification of traceable information was the most important characteristic, followed by appearance and traceable information. Significant heterogeneity was obtained in consumer preferences for the attributes of traceable pork. Also, consumers’ preferences for traceable attributes were memorably influenced by age, education level, and income level.

Based on these results, the government should encourage and support the production of traceable food with different certification types and different traceability levels. Meanwhile, the development of food traceability systems should be combined with a quality certification labeling system.

This study extends the applicability of the setting of traceable food attributes and levels in China, and it will improve Chinese food traceability systems through multilateral cooperation.

The purpose of this study was to explore the possibilities of utilization of chicken meat in the preparation of chicken meat noodles and subsequent storage at ambient temperature.

Chicken meat was incorporated at the levels, viz., 0 and 40 per cent, replacing refined wheat flour in the formulation. Proximate composition, pH, water activity (a_w), free fatty acid (FFA), thio-barbituric acid reacting substances (TBARS), water absorption index (WAI), water solubility index (WSI), textural profile analysis (TPA), microbial quality and sensory evaluation were assessed at 10-day interval up to 30 days.

Moisture, a_w, TBARS, FFA, WAI, crispiness, total plate count (TPC) and yeast and mould values increased significantly (p < 0.05), whereas, fibre, ash, pH, WSI, hardness, work of shearing and sensory attributes showed significant (p < 0.05) decrease. However, all these parameter, viz., microbial quality, TBRS, FFA and sensory attributes, were within the acceptable limit during the entire storage study.

Quality of the products may be improved by the incorporation of some natural antioxidant and antimicrobial agent in chicken meat noodles.

Consumption and demand of the noodles is increasing due to its easy preparation and taste; however, it is poor in nutritive quality. Incorporation of the chicken meat in the noodles improves the nutritive values and sensory attributes, which is important for the marketability of the meat products. The keeping quality of chicken meat noodles was comparable to the control noodles at ambient temperature up to 30 days. Noodles industry provides an alternate sector for the utilization of meat and enhancing its overall quality attributes.

The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated modelling framework that links management action to supply chain processes and then to competitive advantage.

Using survey responses about supply chain management in the Australian beef processing industry, regression analysis was used to develop a model simultaneously explaining the links from management action to supply chain processes and on to competitive advantage.

A relatively simple regression model was established that should be widely applicable in agri‐food processing industries. In the context of our example industry, the results suggest that there is a strong link from some supply chain practices to competitive advantage, with trust and information quality being important drivers of the process.

Being based on a survey approach, a limitation is that that the results show managers' perceived influences on supply chain performance, not the influences observed by the researchers.

The regression method provides an easy way of summarising the links between supply chain practices and competitive advantage. This method may be generally applicable across agri‐food industries, particularly those with many small and medium‐size food enterprises.

This research provides a new method of integrating various aspects of supply chain management and competitive advantage. The method has the great advantage of parsimony.

The importance of sustainable supply chain management practices (SSCMPs) in the financial performance of firms is increasing significantly. However, the influence of SSCMPs on financial performance can vary across sectors and contexts. This research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the influence of SSCMPs on the financial sustainability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the food processing industry. For this, the influence of sustainable environment practices, customer and supplier relationships, social SCMPs and lean supply chain on the financial sustainability of food processing SMEs is studied.

A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data from 56 food processing SMEs in Mbeya, Tanzania. The study employed a cross-sectional research design and a census approach to capture data from all eligible SMEs in the target population. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and multiple linear regression (MLR) were utilized as the primary data analysis techniques.

The findings of the study revealed a positive and significant influence of various SSCMPs on the financial sustainability of food processing SMEs. Specifically, sustainable environment management practices (β = 0.147, p = 0.000), supplier relationship management (SRM) (β = 0.715, p = 0.001), customer relationship management (CRM) (β = 0.894, p = 0.016), social SCMP (β = 0.901, p = 0.005) and lean supply chain practices (β = 0.675, p = 0.003) were all found to have a significant effect on the financial sustainability of the surveyed food processing SMEs.

The study recommends the need to plan and integrate SSCMPs in firms’ operation processes, promote collaboration and networking and offer capacity-building initiatives that equip food processing SMEs with the necessary skills and knowledge to implement SSCMPs effectively. These will nurture effective adoption of SSCMP, leading to improved operations, environmental performance, financial sustainability and long-term viability of the sector.

While SSCMPs have gained attention in the literature, the specific focus on its impact on financial sustainability in the context of food processing SMEs adds originality to this research. Industry stakeholders and policymakers can utilize the findings of this study to develop supportive policies and programs that promote sustainable supply chain practices and enhance financial sustainability in the food processing sector.

Recently, several regional protected geographical indications (PGI) have been introduced in Italy for extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) with the aim of coping with the substantial failure of protected designations of origin (PDO). This study aims to identify which characteristics consumers expect, in order to anticipate the market success.

In this study, a survey has been used on a sample of consumers from Sicily, one of the first regions which recently developed a regional PGI for EVOO. Data have been analyzed with a rank-ordered logit model.

Results yielded that consumers would accept this new product and their expectations correspond to a product with attributes such as: green color, not filtered, not with a sweet taste and with a known brand. A possible target can be represented by young men.

The results obtained anticipate whether this product would be accepted and provides direct indications for producers who wish to enter the market with a PGI EVOO.

This work focuses on consumer behavior toward products that are specifically certified with a recently introduced PGI label, and they still are not so common on the market.