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Eden, S. Bear, C.Walker, G. (2008) The sceptical consumer? Exploring views about food assurance

Paper, Food Policy
Elsevier Ltd.

Document:

Abstract
The problem of trust in food production and regulation has increasingly been raised as a practical and policy issue in recent years and one solution has been to provide more and better information about food production and regulation, especially through food assurance schemes. To look for evidence that this might be successful, this paper uses a small empirical study of how UK consumers think about food information and food assurance claims, using a statement sorting exercise (Q methodology) to identify key factors or shared views. We found that our consumers, despite differences in sociodemographics, gender, diet and shopping habits, tended to share a baseline of scepticism about food information and food assurance
claims. We speculate that such scepticism may mean that, rather than providing a solution to the
problem of distrust, food assurance schemes may themselves come to be distrusted.

Keywords: Consumers, UK, Food Assurance, Scepticism, Q methodology

Relevance to our study:
The report focuses consumer scepticism relating to food assurance schemes within the UK. It provides interesting information on consumers views on regulation and assurance schemes and suggestions the limitations to scuh schemes.

Relevancy on a scale from 1 to 5 = 4

Review status: Finished
Review started on 2009–06–19
Reviewed by Jane Vine?

Comments: