Consumer associations about other buyers of suboptimal food – And what it means for food waste avoidance actions

Take it or leave it? Investigating the ambivalence and willingness to pay for suboptimal fruits and vegetables among organic consumers in Germany

Organic fruits and vegetables are often visually “suboptimal” because organic farming uses neither pesticides nor synthetic fertilisers to improve the cosmetic appearance of the produce. Despite the organic sector's natural and sustainable image, such foods often never reach the market or are left on the shelf, greatly increasing food waste. The current work hypothesised that an important factor in the rejection of suboptimal food is consumers' experience of ambivalence regarding these products. Data were collected through an online survey of (occasional) organic consumers in Germany (n = 493), including an online mouse-tracking experiment. We investigated the interplay of ambivalence with environmental concerns and attitudes towards suboptimal food that influence people's willingness to pay (WTP) for suboptimal fruits and vegetables. Our findings suggest that environmentally concerned consumers have more favourable attitudes and experience less ambivalence towards suboptimal food. Only subjective ambivalence was found to be directly associated with consumers' WTP, however, while attitudes were not. Based on these results, we propose measures for policymakers and food retailers to reduce such ambivalence and thus increase organic consumers' acceptance for suboptimal food.

Consumer responses to suboptimal food products

Suboptimal food is defined as physically imperfect food product that deviates from the normal visual standards without intrinsic quality or safety concerns. The forms of suboptimal food can be visual (e.g., cosmetic appearance), temporal (e.g., close to or past expiration date), or peripheral (e.g., superficially damaged packaging). This study aimed to identify the salient inferential determinants, attitudinal determinants, and behavioral intentions toward the three suboptimal food types and to evaluate the associations between the determinants and consumers' behavioral intentions. Results from an experimental research showed that consumers associated temporally suboptimal food with the highest financial loss and discard intentions, yet lowest moral concerns. This research also revealed that consumers regarded peripherally (damaged package) suboptimal food with lower taste perception compared to conventional food. Moreover, consistent association patterns appeared between a certain set of inferential and attitudinal determinants and distinctive behavioral intentions across the three suboptimal types.