Core Organic Taste: Preferences for Naturalness-Related Sensory Attributes of Organic Food Among European Consumers

ABSTRACT

Consumers’ preferences for organic food have evolved in recent years, moving from altruistic values to more egoistic buying motivations, such as health promoting or nutritional aspects and sensory properties. Hypothesizing that organic consumers have peculiar preferences for naturalness-related sensory attributes, we developed the concept of the “core organic taste” based on the principles of a wholesome nutrition. This article investigates to what extent the “core organic taste” is relevant across different European countries and its potential relevance for food marketing. A sample of 1,798 organic food consumers was interviewed during 2010–2011 in six European countries. Explorative factor analysis, correlation analysis, ANOVA, and post hoc tests were applied to analyze the data. Results show that the “core organic taste” is not applicable for all countries. Indeed, for most countries only single elements seem to be relevant. However, for Germany and Switzerland the “core organic taste”—representing the first “taste style”—has proven its potential value and points at the need for more research in this field. Depending on the country, product developers and marketers could potentially use different elements of the “core organic taste” to better meet organic consumers’ wishes and expectations. Finally, recommendations and suggestions for practitioners and academia are provided.

KEYWORDS:

• Core organic taste
• European consumers
• marketing
• naturalness
• organic food
• preferences
• sensory attributes

Funding

Financial support from the Commission of the European Communities and organic SMEs of Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Italy, and France for Project 218477-2 (ECROPOLIS) is acknowledged.

Notes

¹ Sensory and nutritional qualities of food products are also called “intrinsic” attributes.

² Accordingly, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of 0.66 indicates a mediocre relationship between the items for the total sample.

Additional information

Funding

Financial support from the Commission of the European Communities and organic SMEs of Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Italy, and France for Project 218477-2 (ECROPOLIS) is acknowledged.