Understanding food sustainability from a consumer perspective: a cross-cultural exploration

Abstract

To successfully transition to more sustainable diets, it is necessary to understand consumers’ demands and expectations. The present exploratory research shows a cross-cultural study (Spain, Slovakia, Denmark) in which different aspects were included in an online survey: (i) food choice motivations, (ii) the importance that consumers give to different attributes of four product categories: fruit and vegetables, bakery, meat, and fish, and (iii) the concepts that consumers’ relate to the term “sustainability”. The results showed preliminary significant differences among countries, suggesting that developing strategies and new products to promote sustainable consumption habits must address these cultural differences.