Comparing fish to meat: Perceived qualities by food lifestyle segments

ABSTRACT

This article compares consumers’ quality perceptions (in freshness, taste, food safety, value for money, and availability) of proteins from the sea (salmon and cod) and land (chicken, pork, and beef) using intensity of consumers’ food involvement measured by food-related lifestyles (FRL) as an explaining factor. Based on an international survey of around 2000 consumers in four countries, the analysis finds that consumers with high food involvement scores rate fish higher than low involvement score consumers, often favorably to terrestrial meats. Low involved consumers perceive terrestrial meats more favorably than seafood. Seafood struggles with perceived value for money and availability compared to terrestrial meats, particularly among the low and middle involvement groups. The results indicate that low involvement consumers might not consider seafood a substitute for terrestrial meats, in contrast to higher food involvement groups.

KEYWORDS:

• Cod
• food-related lifestyle
• perception
• salmon
• seafood consumption

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments are given to the Norwegian Seafood Research Fund’s (FHF) project: “Positioning study on salmon products” (Project No: 900990) for providing the data set used. We would also like to thank Ragnar Tveterås and Steven Johnson for helpful comments. Any remaining shortcommings are the responsibility of the authors.