Introduction
Fostering significant transformations in culture, the food value chain, and policy within the food system is essential to ensure that sustainable food becomes desirable and trustworthy for consumers. This transformation requires the collaboration of all stakeholders in the food industry, including consumers, policymakers, and researchers. Consumer choices for healthy, nutritious, and sustainable food are critical to achieving the EU’s climate ambitions for 2030 and 2050. The recently adopted Green Deal Industrial Plan and the recent EU Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture emphasize the importance of enabling consumers to make informed choices based on transparent and reliable information regarding the sustainability of products. Despite many consumers showing a preference for sustainable food options, changing consumption patterns remains challenging (i.e., the attitude-behaviours gap).
Consumer trust in environmental product claims is generally low, largely due to widespread greenwashing and the abundance of unverified sustainability labels. To help consumers make more sustainable food choices, it is essential to provide transparent, traceable, and credible sustainability information about food products, both within the retail environment (e.g. on packaging) and beyond (e.g. in media). Papers in this SI will investigate the factors influencing sustainable food behavior, including perceptions of social, environmental, and economic sustainability, consumer considerations and comprehension of current food labels, and the primary causes of greenwashing suspicions. Previous empirical research within this area mainly recruited higher SES participants, resulting in a blind spot on how to approach this urgent issue for lower social class consumers (both in the objective and subjective interpretation of class). Also on the policy level this is seen as a blind spot that needs to be addressed.
Both conceptual (theoretical, literature review) and empirical (quantitative, qualitative, case studies) submissions are invited to explore consumer knowledge and behaviours in the food industry at the organizational (micro) level, the industry (meso) level, and the policy (macro) level from various theoretical and practical perspectives.
- How can the food system redesign the food industry for the future?
- How can food sustainability contribute to achieving the EU’s climate ambitions for 2030 and 2050 in the food industry?
- What challenges do managers face in adopting a food value chain in the food industry?
- How can food sustainability enhance economic, social, and ecological sustainability and contribute to the realization of the Global Development Goals?
- How is food labelling reshaping consumer habits in the food industry?
- What are the best practices to implement in the food industry?
- What are the trends in new patents and trademarks in the food industry?
- How can SMEs benefit from citizens making sustainable food choices through locally co-created interventions across different food environments?
- How can policies transform the food system towards a more sustainable and fair value chain?
- What are the individual and social factors that influence consumers' sustainable food choices?
- How are technological, organizational, and social innovations created and tested in the agri-food value chain, from production, processing, and packaging plant-based and circular products to short supply chains?
- What is the dark side of food labelling?
- What role does digital technology play in enhancing transparency and traceability in the food value chain?
- How can educational initiatives be designed to improve consumer understanding of sustainable food choices?
- What impact do cultural differences have on consumer attitudes towards sustainable food? And what is the role of perceived and actual social class?
- How can urban agriculture contribute to food system sustainability?
- What are the implications of sustainable food practices for rural development and local economies?
- How can partnerships between public and private sectors promote food system sustainability?
- What are the environmental impacts of different dietary patterns and how can they be mitigated?
- How do packaging innovations influence consumer behaviours and sustainability in the food industry?
- What are the barriers and opportunities for integrating circular economy principles in the food value chain?
- How can consumer trust in sustainable food labels be increased?
- How do environmental concerns affect organic food consumption?
- How do health consciousness impact on organic food consumption?
- Does behavioural control influence the consumption of organic food?
- How do health consciousness impact consumer willingness to change diet?
- Which are the values associated to plant-based, meat-based or vegetarian diets?
List of topic areas
- Food value chain, food policy
- Food production consumer trust
- Food consumption
- Sustainable food attitudes
- Sustainability information through labelling, nudging, cost and availability
- Environmental concern
- Health consciousness
- Behavioural control
- Willingness to change diet
- Organic food buying intention
- Plant-based diet
- Meat-based diet
- Vegetarian consumers
Guest Editors
Marina Dabić,
University of Zagreb Faculty of Economics and Business, Croatia,
[email protected]
Tim Smits,
KU Lueven, Belgium,
[email protected]
Elísabet Mora,
University of valencis, Spain,
[email protected]
Submissions Information
Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available by clicking the button below.
Submit your paper here!
Author guidelines must be strictly followed.
Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”.
Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.
Key Deadlines
Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 31 January 2025
Closing date for manuscripts submission: 31 March 2025
Closing date for abstract submission: 1 December 2024
Email for abstract submissions: [email protected]