Sustainability and organic production: How information influences consumer’s expectation and preference for yogurt

• Consumers are aware of sustainability but they are not able to define this concept.
• Consumers perceive a lack of information about sustainable products.
• Organic production information affects consumer’s expectation.
• Organic production information is stronger for sustainable and uncertain subjects.

The purposes of this experimental study are to investigate consumers’ attitude and general knowledge about sustainability; to evaluate how information about organic production may affect consumers’ food acceptability and expectations; to establish whether and how much commitment to sustainability influences individuals’ preferences for organic products. Results showed that consumers are aware of the sustainability concept, but they are not able to define it precisely thus indicating that sustainability is a widespread issue in individuals’ mind. This was confirmed also by the lack of information perceived by respondents about sustainable products. When subjects were grouped according to their sustainability level, the majority of them (74%) were defined as “uncertain”. A major difference was found between “sustainable” and “non-sustainable” individuals in the attitude, purchase intentions, and behaviors as regarding organic products. Sustainable subjects were more interested in and proactive for such products. This behavioral discrepancy is in line with the liking gap for organic products found between the two groups. Indeed, when organic and conventional yogurts were evaluated for liking in blind, expected and informed conditions, sustainable subjects had a higher expectation towards organic yogurt than non-sustainable individuals. Furthermore, non-sustainable subjects expressed lower expectations from organic samples than from conventional ones, whereas the opposite behavior was observed in Sustainable subjects. Only for sustainable and uncertain subjects, organic yogurts produced negative disconfirmation, which was associated with an incomplete assimilation effect. Hence, the information about yogurt’s organic origin may affect people’s expectations, and this influence is especially found in the case of respondents which are committed to sustainability or are uncertain about this issue as compared to non-sustainable individuals.