Vegetarian, vegan, or plant-based? Comparing how different labels influence consumer evaluations of plant-based foods

Matthew B. Ruby*, João Graça, Eero Olli

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
43 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Market actors have a role to play in enabling sustainable food transitions. One challenge for these actors is how to promote plant-based foods in ways that appeal to a growing number of consumers. Here we test how different plant-based related labels affect consumer appraisals of a range of foods (cookies, sausages, cheese, chocolate, pasta). In two studies (pre-registered; NUSA = 1148, NGermany = 491), we examined the effects of a ‘vegetarian’, ‘vegan’, or ‘plant-based’ label (compared to no label) on five attributes (healthy, tasty, ethical, pure, environmentally friendly) related to the products. We also measured self-reported likelihood to purchase the products. Overall, the results indicated that the ‘plant-based’ label was slightly more appealing to participants than the ‘vegetarian’ and ‘vegan’ labels. However, contrary to our expectations, neither consumers' information-seeking tendencies nor their pre-existing attitudes toward plant-based foods influenced (i.e., moderated) the effects of the labels. Anticipated taste was a strong and consistent predictor of purchase likelihood for all labeled products, but the ethical and pure attributes also accounted for unique variance in this outcome variable. Taken together, our findings and discussion provide insights into the role of labels and label terminology on consumer appraisals of plant-based foods.

Original languageEnglish
Article number107288
Number of pages10
JournalAppetite
Volume197
Early online date11-Mar-2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1-Jun-2024

Keywords

  • Consumer evaluations
  • Food labeling
  • Plant-based
  • Sustainability
  • Vegan

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