Sustainability labels: a key component of food quality? Impact of food-processing information on the appreciation of bread

Abstract

The environmental problem is causing growing concerns and the food industry is sometimes perceived as one of the main contributors to environmental degradation. But, at the same time, the rapidly growing world’s population requires increased food production. In addition, the industry is becoming more environmentally conscious and so food companies are looking for new processes, called “clean processes,” to reduce energy use, water consumption, CO₂ emission and waste generation, as well as decreasing production cost. In parallel, consumers in a purchase situation are exposed to various types of information such as brand, price, packaging, product origin, nutritional values, etc., often mentioned by claims or labels. The question that naturally arises is: Is it necessary to communicate with consumers about the notion of clean food-processing? And if so, would this information modify their product quality perception? The aim of this study was to explore the influence of communication about foodprocessing environmental impact on the global liking of food products for French consumers and to investigate the link with their knowledge about sustainability and behavior. To address this issue, a consumer test with two different industrial breads in two conditions (one blind and one with a food-processing labelling) was carried out with 209 consumers. At the end of the test, participants were administrated a questionnaire to assess their general knowledge and behaviors related to sustainability. Results show that the most preferred product in blind condition was perceived as better when presented with a clean process label, and was not affected by an energy-consuming process label. Conversely, the least liked product was not affected by a clean process label but was depreciated by a negative one. These results suggest that the quality perceived by the consumer can be influenced by labelling products with information about sustainably.