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Influencing Factors for Sustainable Dietary Transformation—A Case Study of German Food Consumption

In a case study of Germany, we examine current food consumption along the three pillars of sustainability to evaluate external factors that influence consumers’ dietary decisions. We investigate to what extent diets meet nutritional requirements (social factor), the diets’ environmental impact (ecol...

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Autores principales: Seubelt, Nadine, Michalke, Amelie, Gaugler, Tobias
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8775007/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35053959
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods11020227
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author Seubelt, Nadine
Michalke, Amelie
Gaugler, Tobias
author_facet Seubelt, Nadine
Michalke, Amelie
Gaugler, Tobias
author_sort Seubelt, Nadine
collection PubMed
description In a case study of Germany, we examine current food consumption along the three pillars of sustainability to evaluate external factors that influence consumers’ dietary decisions. We investigate to what extent diets meet nutritional requirements (social factor), the diets’ environmental impact (ecological factor), and the food prices’ influence on purchasing behavior (economic factor). For this, we compare two dietary recommendations (plant-based, omnivorous) with the status quo, and we examine different consumption styles (conventional, organic produce). Additionally, we evaluate 1446 prices of food items from three store types (organic store, supermarket, and discounter). With this, we are able to evaluate and compare 30 different food baskets along their health, environmental, and economic impact. Results show that purchasing decisions are only slightly influenced by health-related factors. Furthermore, few consumers align their diet with low environmental impact. In contrast, a large share of consumers opt for cheap foods, regardless of health and environmental consequences. We find that price is, arguably, the main factor in food choices from a sustainability standpoint. Action should be taken by policy makers to financially incentivize consumers in favor of healthy and environmentally friendly diets. Otherwise, the status quo further drives especially underprivileged consumers towards unhealthy and environmentally damaging consumption.
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spelling pubmed-87750072022-01-21 Influencing Factors for Sustainable Dietary Transformation—A Case Study of German Food Consumption Seubelt, Nadine Michalke, Amelie Gaugler, Tobias Foods Article In a case study of Germany, we examine current food consumption along the three pillars of sustainability to evaluate external factors that influence consumers’ dietary decisions. We investigate to what extent diets meet nutritional requirements (social factor), the diets’ environmental impact (ecological factor), and the food prices’ influence on purchasing behavior (economic factor). For this, we compare two dietary recommendations (plant-based, omnivorous) with the status quo, and we examine different consumption styles (conventional, organic produce). Additionally, we evaluate 1446 prices of food items from three store types (organic store, supermarket, and discounter). With this, we are able to evaluate and compare 30 different food baskets along their health, environmental, and economic impact. Results show that purchasing decisions are only slightly influenced by health-related factors. Furthermore, few consumers align their diet with low environmental impact. In contrast, a large share of consumers opt for cheap foods, regardless of health and environmental consequences. We find that price is, arguably, the main factor in food choices from a sustainability standpoint. Action should be taken by policy makers to financially incentivize consumers in favor of healthy and environmentally friendly diets. Otherwise, the status quo further drives especially underprivileged consumers towards unhealthy and environmentally damaging consumption. MDPI 2022-01-15 /pmc/articles/PMC8775007/ /pubmed/35053959 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods11020227 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Seubelt, Nadine
Michalke, Amelie
Gaugler, Tobias
Influencing Factors for Sustainable Dietary Transformation—A Case Study of German Food Consumption
title Influencing Factors for Sustainable Dietary Transformation—A Case Study of German Food Consumption
title_full Influencing Factors for Sustainable Dietary Transformation—A Case Study of German Food Consumption
title_fullStr Influencing Factors for Sustainable Dietary Transformation—A Case Study of German Food Consumption
title_full_unstemmed Influencing Factors for Sustainable Dietary Transformation—A Case Study of German Food Consumption
title_short Influencing Factors for Sustainable Dietary Transformation—A Case Study of German Food Consumption
title_sort influencing factors for sustainable dietary transformation—a case study of german food consumption
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8775007/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35053959
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods11020227
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