Marleen C. Onwezen

• Wageningen University & Research

A dietary shift to more plant-based and less animal-derived proteins is needed to counter environmental, public health, and animal welfare problems. Although many consumers find this important, consumers do not regularly consume plant-based proteins. Plant-based proteins are often perceived as one overarching category by consumers. We investigate a...

Positioning of retail assortments is a powerful way to create a choice architecture that facilitates consumers' sustainable product choices, for example the shift from animal-derived to plant-based proteins which benefits both planetary and public health. From the perspective of categorisation theory, we investigate whether changing choice architec...

Many citizens experience ambivalence – having simultaneously positive and negative evaluations – about changing their behaviour towards a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. Based on 36 studies, this study identifies and synthesises the current evidence on how ambivalence impacts environmental behaviours. In most studies, ambivalence is sho...

Replacing animal-derived proteins with plant-based proteins has environmental and health benefits. Despite increasing consumer acceptance of plant-based proteins, most individuals do not frequently consume them. Understanding how different consumer groups perceive and categorise plant-based proteins in comparison to animal-derived proteins can supp...

Consumer literature has looked into how consumers respond to protein alternatives, but this comparison has been haphazard. Sometimes alternatives are lumped together, sometimes individual cases are picked up and comparisons are made in various manners showing no consistency across studies. In the current chapter, we compare a range of protein alter...

Conventional meat consumption has triggered an environmental burden along with effects on different disease spectrums according to existing research. The dietary patterns adopted by consumers significantly impact both planetary and individual health. Interventions are needed to support the protein transition. However, there is not yet an overview o...

Supporting sustainable consumer choices is critical as consumers show inconsistencies in their sustainable behaviour. Consumers indicate to value the environment but do not consistently behave in a sustainable manner. This article builds upon goal-framing theory to understand and support the consistency of sustainable behaviours across contexts. Mo...

Developing alternative protein products—based on protein sources other than regular meat—is a possible pathway to counter environmental and health burdens. However, alternative proteins are not always accepted by consumers, and more research is needed to support a shift to more alternative proteins. Prior studies have mainly focused on individual d...

Reducing global meat consumption can improve animal welfare, environmental and health issues. Although many people recognize this, they also continue eating meat. When people become aware of their conflicting cognitions regarding meat consumption, such as finding both animal welfare and eating meat important, it can result in aversive feelings, kno...

Reduced meat intake by Western consumers would benefit public health and the environment. However, meat consumption is notoriously difficult to change, among other things because it is often the outcome of automatic and habitual behavior. Interventions that make use of automatic decision-making processes are therefore promising, but these too vary...

Background: the last decade has witnessed an explosion of new consumer behaviour research technology, and new methods are published almost monthly. To what extent are these methods applicable in the specific area of food consumer science, and if they are, are they any good? Methods: in this paper, we attempt to give an overview of the developmen...

Background Protein transition, i.e. the transition from high levels of traditional meat consumption towards consuming less meat or more plant-based or alternative animal-based proteins, is highly dependent on consumer behaviour. This position paper adds to the literature by integrating the research streams on behavioural sciences and meat reducing...

Food choice motives (FCMs) such as price, sensory appeal and health are important in understanding food consumption. FCMs are traditionally investigated at a general level, for food choices on ‘a typical day’. However, food choices have been shown to differ across temporal, situational and social contexts. This suggests that measuring FCMs at a con...

Transitions in consumer diets towards a more ‘meat-less’ diet are stated to result in various health and environmental benefits. Consumption of alternative proteins provides one of the alternatives towards more meat-less diets. Alternative proteins receive a lot of attention, however it is unclear whether consumer acceptance is changing over time....

In view of all kinds of sustainability concerns related to our current diet, it is essential to gain a good understanding of the sustainability motives consumers have for selecting their food. A comprehensive and validated scale to measure sustainability motives within the full range of food choice motives could contribute to this understanding, es...

A trend is visible in the food literature showing an increasing number of publications on studies that incorporate some form of participant engagement, such as citizen science and community-based participatory research. This “participation trend” will inevitably affect the scientific field of food behaviour research. This new trend is however not o...

Virtual Reality (VR) has evolved rapidly and has been increasingly used in research aimed at promoting behaviour change within consumer domains, particularly since the introduction of head-mounted displays (HMDs). The aim of this systematic review is to examine 1) the validity of VR in this type of research (i.e. is behaviour in VR accurately captu...

Consumers’ dietary patterns have a significant impact on planetary and personal health. To address health and environmental challenges one of the many possible solutions is to substitute meat consumption with alternative protein sources. This systematic review identifies 91 articles with a focus on the drivers of consumer acceptance of five alterna...

The present study focuses on the emotional factors and their influence in the decision-making process for the purchase of green products. To provide theoretical and practical support to existing literature, we evaluating individually the role of emotions that are part of the Consumption Emotions Set Scale (CES). The majority of the sample studied p...

Purpose Self-efficacy has often been found to play a significant role in healthy dietary behaviours. However, self-efficacy interventions most often consist of intensive interventions. The authors aim to provide more insight into the effect of brief self-efficacy interventions on healthy dietary behaviours. Design/methodology/approach In the prese...

To realize the potential environmental benefits that recycling and/or composting bio-based plastic packages can deliver, it is important that consumers view bio-based packaging as environmentally-friendly, but also correctly dispose of the packaging. The current experimental lab-in-the-field study was conducted among German consumers (n = 281) and...

Purpose – Generally, food intake of older consumers is not in line with dietary guidelines. Insight into personal health-related motive orientations (HRMO) in this target group is useful for developing tailored interventions that support healthy food consumption, a better understanding is needed. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to iden...

Based on the multi-item Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) originally developed by Steptoe and colleagues (1995), the current study developed a single-item FCQ that provides an acceptable balance between practical needs and psychometric concerns. Studies 1 (N = 1851) and 2 (2a (N = 3290), 2b (N = 4723), 2c (N = 270)) showed that the single-item FCQ sc...

Consumer segmentation is often used as a helpful tool to classify consumers into heterogeneous groups, for example, for marketing strategies or customized policy. Although previous studies generally show the relevance of context in understanding consumer choices, the amount of segmentation studies that include context is limited. This chapter provi...

To reduce human dependency on fossil fuels, increasing attempts are being made to substitute synthetic materials in products with bio-based materials. Global brands attempt to differentiate themselves by adding bio-based materials to their products. However, little is known about consumers' reactions regarding brands that use bio-based materials. T...

This article aims to explore whether subjective ambivalence increases the understanding of consumers' intentions to buy bio-based products. Subjective ambivalence is the aversive feeling that accompanies evaluations containing both negative and positive elements. Two studies (N = 1851) in six European countries show that subjective ambivalence incr...

Understanding consumer food choices is crucial to stimulate sustainable food consumption. Food choice motives are shown to be relevant in understanding consumer food choices. However, there is a focus on product motives, such as price and taste, whereas process motives (i.e. environmental welfare) are understudied. The current study aims to add to...

Even when individuals are aware of long-term health effects of their diet, and form healthy intentions, they often engage in relatively unhealthy snacking habits. Some individuals fall back on unhealthy habits more easily than others. We aim to explore whether time perspective can explain why some individuals are more prone to rely on habits and ot...

Meat consumption is associated with a tension, for example the tension between love of meat and concern about animal welfare or health. Based on the literature we propose four consumer segments that each respond differently to (potential) conflicting thoughts in the context of meat: struggling-, coping-, strategically ignoring-, and indifferent con...

This study explores people's perceptions (i.e., positive and negative associations, mixed feelings) regarding the concept of 'bio-based' in general and specific bio-based products. This exploratory study is one of the first consumer studies in the field of bio-based research. Three focus group discussions were organized in the Czech Republic, Denma...

Informational governance refers to a societal transformation caused by information generation, processing, transmission and use in the domain of environmental governance. If information has a transformative capacity for the society as whole, then transformation will also affect the role of citizens. This article addresses the potential of citizen c...

The purpose of this study was to compare the influence of four different marketing claims and price information on consumers’ product choices for novel fruits and novel fruit products, using a choice experiment. In total, 1,652 people in Greece (n = 400), the Netherlands (n = 419), Poland (n = 423), and Spain (n = 410) participated in the study. Th...

Consumers’ food consumption patterns are one of the main problems that is associated with environmental concerns. Emotions play an important role in guiding consumers toward pro-environmental consumption, although it is not clear how the functions of emotions that are experienced due to one’s own behavior (private emotions) or due to the behavior o...

In deze studie zijn de mogelijkheden verkend om natuur en biodiversiteit op biologische melkveebedrijven te vermarkten. Er is consumentenonderzoek uitgevoerd, er zijn pakketten van maatregelen opgesteld en getoetst op hun bijdrage aan biodiversiteit en de haalbaarheid voor de biologische melkveehouders. De burger verwacht van boeren en tuinders dat...

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Although individuals generally value health and sustainability, they do not always behave in a manner that is consistent with their standards. The current study examines whether attitudes and social norms (i.e., descriptive and injunctive norms) can evoke anticipated pride and guilt, which, in turn, guide behavioural intentions. This self-regulator...

In dit rapport wordt de maatschappelijke waardering van de Agri & Food sector en zijn subsectoren gemeten. Ook wordt in kaart gebracht of de waardering van de Agri & Food sector is veranderd ten opzichte van 2012. Ten slotte wordt inzicht gegeven in de factoren die maatschappelijke waardering beïnvloeden en of deze factoren stabiel zijn over de tij...

This study investigates how social representations and consumers' identification with organic food consumers affects intentions to buy products that make environmental and ethical claims. For the purposes of the study, an online panel study was conducted on a representative sample of consumers (n = 1006) in the United Kingdom. The results demonstra...

The original 27-item social representations scale, developed by Bäckström et al. (2004), consists of five dimensions: suspicion, adherence to technology, adherence to natural food, eating as an enjoyment, and eating as a necessity. The aim of the present study is twofold. First, in study 1, we assessed the psychometric properties of the original so...

Hoewel de rol en impact van internet en de sociale media in de samenleving algemeen worden aangenomen, is het nog niet duidelijk of en hoe het communiceren en delen van informatie via internet en de sociale media bijdragen aan het ontstaan van sociale innovatie. Hoofdvragen van deze verkenning zijn daarom: Bieden de sociale media nieuwe wegen waarl...

Deze Agrofoodmonitor beoogt de maatschappelijke waardering van de Agro & Food sector te definiëren, meetbaar te maken en aangrijpingspunten te identificeren die de waardering kunnen beïnvloeden. De aanleiding voor de agrofoodmonitor is de wens van de Agro & Food sector haar 'licence to operate' in Nederland te borgen en om duurzaam te groeien. Maat...

One of the greatest challenges to developing more successful marketing strategies in the food sector is gaining an understanding of the diversity of consumer needs. The current study aims to identify consumer segments based on consumers’ self-stated general importance ratings of a range of food benefits. It also aims to explore whether these segmen...

Sustainable food consumption is an important aspect of sustainable development. When adopting a sustainable food lifestyle, consumers are confronted with complex choices. Today's food consumption is too complex to be explained by socio-demographic factors exclusively. A broader perspective is needed. In order to explain behaviour across different c...

In 2009 is een enquêteonderzoek uitgevoerd onder een representatieve steekproefgroep van circa 500 jongeren tussen 12 en 18 jaar in Nederland. In het eerste onderdeel is het eetgedrag van de jongeren onderzocht en hoe ze tegen voeding aankijken. Het tweede onderdeel ging in op de groenteconsumptie en de groentebeleving van de jongeren en de factore...

In dit rapport is onderzocht op welke manier scholen en zorginstellingen voedsel aanbieden en hoe dit aanbod het voedselkeuzegedrag van leerlingen en de eetlust van ouderen beïnvloedt.

In general, fruit consumption in the EU does not meet governments' recommended levels, and innovations in the fruit industry are thought to be useful for increasing fruit consumption. Despite the enormous number of product innovations, the majority of new products in the market fail within the first two years, due to a lack of consumer acceptance....

In dit rapport worden zes verschillende groepen van consumenten beschreven om aanknopingspunten te bieden voor de ontwikkeling en implementatie van het beleid gericht op duurzame voedselconsumptie. In het rapport wordt per consumentengroep beschreven wie de consumenten zijn, wat ze denken en wat ze doen.

De Voedselbalans werkt met een model waarin het gedrag van consumenten en aanbieders wordt beschreven. Daarbij gaat het om wetenschappelijk onderbouwde factoren. De resultaten van het onderzoek worden vertaald in handelingsperspectieven.

In dit deelrapport van de Voedselbalans is een grootschalig vragenlijst-onderzoek gehouden onder een groep consumenten die representatief voor de Nederlandse bevolking is. Het belangrijkste doel van dit onderzoek was om te begrijpen waarom consumenten de voedingsmiddelen kiezen die ze kiezen.

The present report, deliverable D.1.2.7, gives a final view of the work done in ISAFruit Work Package (WP) 1.2. Average Europe fruit consumption is below the recommended level and moreover the consumption level is still decreasing in Europe. A large survey was carried out in four European countries that consisted of questions regarding the importan...

This report presents an overview of the Deliverable 1.3.1 to 1.3.9 of WP1.3 and, from their conclusions, derives guidelines for stimulating consumer innovative behaviour with respect to novel fruit products. First every deliverable is briefly introduced. Second the methods used in every deliverable are described and discussed. Third, some major con...

Dit rapport gaat in op opvattingen van consumenten over duurzame voeding. In het rapport worden verschillende voedselkwaliteitswaarden (gezondheid, voedselveiligheid, dierenwelzijn, milieuvriendelijkheid, ambachtelijkheid, rechtvaardigheid en productkwaliteit) in onderlinge samenhang onderzocht. Nagegaan wordt of consumenten deze voedselkwaliteitsw...

This report presents results of the consumer survey that was conducted in November, 2009, in four European countries – Poland, the Netherlands, Greece and Spain within WP 1.3 of ISAFRUIT Project. In the current deliverables (D1.3.5 and D1.3.8), the authors first focused on the influence of personal characteristics of the respondents, the evaluation...

Een beschrijving van een wetenschappelijk gefundeerd instrument dat de perceptie ('het denken') en het gedrag ('het doen') van consumenten en het verschil daartussen inzake voedselkwaliteitswaarden meet en verklaart. Een beschrijving van de toepassing ervan om inzichten te genereren hoe de Nederlandse consument anno nu denkt over voedsel, wat dieze...

Het doel van deze verkenning is om op basis van literatuur en interviews met belangrijkste stakeholders een visie te formuleren over de wijze waarop het groene onderwijs een bijdrage kan leveren aan het verminderen van voedselverliezen binnen alle schakels van de keten inclusief de consument, en aan de nuttige toepassing van reststromen.

In dit rapport wordt aangegeven wat de belangrijke aanknopingspunten vormen voor vermindering van voedselverspilling, welke aandachtspunten prioriteit hebben voor de korte en lange termijn, en met welke partijen samengewerkt kan worden om de reductiedoelstelling te behalen.