Kolber, A.; Meixner, O. Effects of Multi-Level Eco-Labels on the Product Evaluation of Meat and Meat Alternatives—A Discrete Choice Experiment. Foods2023, 12, 2941.
Kolber, A.; Meixner, O. Effects of Multi-Level Eco-Labels on the Product Evaluation of Meat and Meat Alternatives—A Discrete Choice Experiment. Foods 2023, 12, 2941.
Kolber, A.; Meixner, O. Effects of Multi-Level Eco-Labels on the Product Evaluation of Meat and Meat Alternatives—A Discrete Choice Experiment. Foods2023, 12, 2941.
Kolber, A.; Meixner, O. Effects of Multi-Level Eco-Labels on the Product Evaluation of Meat and Meat Alternatives—A Discrete Choice Experiment. Foods 2023, 12, 2941.
Abstract
Eco-labels are an instrument for enabling informed food choices and supporting a demand-sided change towards a more and urgently needed sustainable food system. Lately, novel eco-labels that depict a product’s environmental life-cycle assessment on a multi-level scale are being tested across Europe’s retailers. This study elicits consumers preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for a multi-level eco-label. A Discrete Choice Experiment was conducted in Austria. Individual partworth utilities were estimated by means of Hierarchical Bayes. Results show higher WTP for a positive evaluated multi-level label, revealing consumers’ perceived benefits of colorful multi-level labels over binary black-and-white designs. Even a negative evaluated multi-level label showed higher WTP compared to no label, pointing towards limited effectiveness of eco-labels. Respondents’ preferences for eco-labels were independent from their subjective eco-label knowledge, health consciousness, and environmental concern. The attribute “protein source” was most important, and preferences for animal-based protein source (beef) was strongly correlated with consumers’ meat attachment, implying that a shift towards more sustainable protein sources is challenging and sustainability labels have only a small impact on the meat product choice of average consumers.
Copyright:
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