Journal
BRITISH FOOD JOURNAL
Volume 118, Issue 8, Pages 1878-1893Publisher
EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1108/BFJ-04-2016-0176
Keywords
Food safety; Discrete choice models; Food fraud; Horsemeat scandal; Ready meals; Ready to heat
Funding
- EC
- Framework Programme 7 [289262]
- UKCRC Centre of Excellence for Public Health Northern Ireland MRC [MR/K023241/1]
- Financial Aid Programme for Researchers of BIZKAIA: TALENT Transportation Policies: Emissions Reductions, Public Health Benefits, and Acceptability
- Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [ECO2014-52587-R]
- Medical Research Council [MR/K023241/1, MC_CF023241] Funding Source: researchfish
- MRC [MR/K023241/1] Funding Source: UKRI
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Purpose - In 2012, the European food industry was hit by a food fraud: horsemeat was found in pre-prepared foods, without any declaration on the package. This is commonly referred to as the horsemeat scandal. The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers' preferences across Europe for a selected ready meal, ready to heat (RTH) fresh lasagne, to consider whether the effects of potential food frauds on consumers' choices can be mitigated by introducing enhanced standards of RTH products. Design/methodology/approach - An online survey was administered to 4,598 consumers of RTH lasagne in six European countries (Republic of Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Norway), applying discrete choice experiments to estimate consumers' willingness to pay for enhanced food safety standards and highlight differences between countries. Findings - Many similarities across countries emerged, as well as some differences. Consumers in Europe are highly concerned with the authenticity of the meat in ready meals and strongly prefer to know that ingredients are nationally sourced. Strong regional differences in price premiums exist for enhanced food safety standards. Originality/value - This research adds relevant insights in the analysis of consumers' reaction to food fraud, providing practical guidelines on the most appropriate practices that producers should adopt and on the information to reduce food risk perception among consumers. This would prove beneficial for the food processing industry and the European Union. The survey is based on a representative sample of European consumers making this the largest cross-country study of this kind.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available