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Psychological factors, such as body image dissatisfaction and the negative feelings associated with it may be related to the adoption of unhealthy eating behaviours. Also, body image dissatisfaction may lower the likelihood of engaging in long-term healthy eating habits and in the level of attention paid to the quality of the food consumed. As a result, body image may be related to consumers’ choice to purchase and consume health-enhancing food products. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A pilot study of a small sample of Italian yogurt consumers was employed to explore if there is a relationship between respondents’ level of body image dissatisfaction and the number of health-enhancing yogurt choices. The data were collected by means of a virtual-shelf technique and were analysed using a negative binomial regression.

Results indicate that body image dissatisfaction is inversely related to the number of yogurt packages with health-enhancing features chosen from the virtual shelf. Also, respondents who read the nutrition label and those with more knowledge regarding leading functional yogurt brands, selected a higher number of functional yogurts from the virtual shelf compared, especially among women.

The results indicate that body image dissatisfaction is inversely related to the number of yogurt packages with health-enhancing features chosen from the virtual shelf. Also, respondents who read the nutrition label and those with more knowledge regarding leading health-enhancing yogurt brands selected a higher number of health-enhancing yogurts options from the virtual shelf compared to others, especially among women.

The relationship between body image dissatisfaction and health-enhancing food choices has not been investigated in the consumer science and marketing literature. Additionally, this is one of the few papers that use a virtual shelf as a data-collection method.

Geographical indication (GI) labels aim to improving farmers' and processors' income. This article studies how characteristics related to GI groups and their reputation (e.g. the producer group size, longevity and production decisions) are related to prices at the origin, final (consumption) prices and marketing margins.

The authors use 8 years of annual data for the Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) GI market encompassing 46 GI EVOOs. Estimated parameters characterizing the relationship between the GI's group features and prices (at origin and at consumption) are obtained via Three-Stage Least Squares (3SLS).

Results show that the number of GI operators is related to consumption prices, while is weakly related to prices at the origin. GIs' age is not associated with higher consumption prices, while origin prices are lower for older GIs compared to younger ones. Higher farmers' olive/oil conversion rate is associated with lower origin and consumption prices, whereas the extent of vertical integration is related to higher prices at the origin and a higher share of the marketing margins going to producers.

To the best of their knowledge, the authors offer the first empirical evidence on how structural characteristics and production decisions of a GI group relate to prices and marketing margins.

Geographical indications (GIs) provide a strong differentiation tool for firms. Whether this statement is confirmed at aggregate level in terms of market independence of different GIs is not tested yet. The purpose of this paper is to provide demand estimates and elasticities (own‐price and substitution) in order to test this hypothesis and verify the differentiation effect of GIs at aggregate level.

The analysis consists of the application of a quadratic almost ideal demand on a four equation system. Estimates are obtained through an iterated version of a generalized method of moments, which corrects for endogeneity determined by expenditure and prices in case of promotional activities.

Estimates prove the existence of a differentiation effect of GIs in terms of magnitude of elasticities and substitution effects. GIs corresponding to higher quality generate lower price sensitiveness and product substitution, contrarily to wine without GI. Controlled origin denomination (DOC) wine demand results are price sensitive and they substitute for wines of different GI. Controlled and guaranteed origin denomination (DOCG) is the most profitable GI. In fact, because of its inelastic demand, DOCG price could be potentially increased, to a certain extent, without having significant effects on volumes consumed.

Foreign wine should also be included in the demand system in order to understand the whole Italian wine market. Data concern retail level demand. The whole market, including hotels, restaurants and catering, should be included to offer a wider set of implications.

Marketers and producers could use the information provided by the estimates in order to forecast Italian wine demand. Elasticities and substitution effect provide them with a precise measure of consumers' price sensitiveness, which would be beneficial for their pricing strategies.

The paper provides, for the first time, estimates of a demand system relative to GI differentiated Italian wine.

Improving access to healthy foods is currently on the European Union health policy agenda, as a means to mitigate obesity. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between access to food stores and adult BMI in Italy, accounting also for the synergic role of individuals’ eating habits.

To study the relationship between access to different food outlets, eating habits, and adult BMI in Italy, the authors combine three years of individual-level data with region-level food stores’ density measures and account for store location endogeneity using a Generalized Method of Moment estimator.

While large stores and specialty fruit and vegetable stores show a BMI decreasing effect, local/convenience stores show little to no effect on adult BMI. The effect of access on adult BMI varies conditionally on dietary habits, since access to food outlets and healthy eating can have a synergic impact on reducing Italian adults’ BMI.

The authors highlight how, the effectiveness of policies aimed to curb obesity may vary according with the food environment consumers live in as well as on individuals’ eating habits.