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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
This work intended to explore some motivations that influence people’s eating habits to-
wards sustainability. This was an observational, cross-sectional study, carried out by questionnaire
survey on a non-probabilistic sample of 10,067 participants from 13 countries (Argentina, Brazil,
Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Romania and
United States). Results indicated that people prefer fresh local foods from the season, being im-
portant because it allows transportation and storage to be reduced, which in many cases implies
refrigeration systems and consequent energy expenditure. Although people avoid food waste at
home, the awareness for the waste at restaurants still needs to be improved. Consumers seem to
prefer foods that have been produced and packed in sustainable ways but still give importance to
the package—understandable for food products. The results also indicated significant differences
in the food choice motivations between groups for all sociodemographic variables tested (age, sex,
marital status, education, professional area, living environment and country), but the association
was high only for variable country. Additionally, a tree classification analysis allowed to identify
the relative importance of the influential variables on the sustainable food choices, with country
being the most important, followed by age and sex. Additionally, discriminant function analysis
allowed establishing a model for the relation between country and six variables accounting for
preservation of biodiversity, respect for life, save natural resources, save energy, reduce industrial pollution and minimal packaging. Although with some limitations, this study brings valuable in-
sight into some aspects linked with sustainable food choices on a number of countries and how
people shape their food choices according to some sustainability issues.
Description
Keywords
Food choice Food waste Sustainable agriculture Sustainable packaging
Citation
Guiné RPF, Bartkiene E, Florença SG, Djekić I, Bizjak MC, Tarcea M, Leal M, Ferreira V, Rumbak I, Orfanos P, Szűcs V, Klava D, Korzeniowska M, Isoldi K, Correia P, Ferreira M, Cardoso AP. (2021) Environmental Issues as Drivers for Food Choice: Study from a Multinational Framework. Sustainability, 13(5), 2869:1-19.