Food Choice Motives When Purchasing in Organic and Conventional Consumer Clusters: Focus on Sustainable Concerns (The NutriNet-Sante Cohort Study)

The purpose of this study was to examine food choice motives associated with various organic and conventional dietary patterns among 22,366 participants of the NutriNet-Sante study. Dietary intakes were estimated using a food frequency questionnaire. Food choice motives were assessed using a validated 63-item-questionnaire gathered into nine food choice motive dimension scores: absence of contaminants, avoidance for environmental reasons, ethics and environment, taste, innovation, local and traditional production, price, health and convenience. Five consumers' clusters were identified: standard conventional food small eaters, unhealthy conventional food big eaters, standard organic food small eaters, green organic food eaters and hedonist moderate organic food eaters. Relationships between food choice motive dimension scores and consumers' clusters were assessed using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) models adjusted for sociodemographic factors. Green organic food eaters had the highest mean score for the health dimension, while unhealthy conventional food big eaters obtained the lowest mean score for the absence of contaminants dimension. Standard organic food small eaters, green organic food eaters and hedonist moderate organic food eaters had comparable scores for the taste dimension. Unhealthy conventional food big eaters had the highest mean score for the price dimension while green organic food eaters had the lowest mean scores for the innovation and convenience dimensions. These results provide new insights into the food choice motives of diverse consumers' profiles including green and hedonist eaters.