Raptou, E.; Tsiami, A.; Negro, G.; Ghuriani, V.; Baweja, P.; Smaoui, S.; Varzakas, T. Gen Z’s Willingness to Adopt Plant-Based Diets: Empirical Evidence from Greece, India, and the UK. Foods2024, 13, 2076.
Raptou, E.; Tsiami, A.; Negro, G.; Ghuriani, V.; Baweja, P.; Smaoui, S.; Varzakas, T. Gen Z’s Willingness to Adopt Plant-Based Diets: Empirical Evidence from Greece, India, and the UK. Foods 2024, 13, 2076.
Raptou, E.; Tsiami, A.; Negro, G.; Ghuriani, V.; Baweja, P.; Smaoui, S.; Varzakas, T. Gen Z’s Willingness to Adopt Plant-Based Diets: Empirical Evidence from Greece, India, and the UK. Foods2024, 13, 2076.
Raptou, E.; Tsiami, A.; Negro, G.; Ghuriani, V.; Baweja, P.; Smaoui, S.; Varzakas, T. Gen Z’s Willingness to Adopt Plant-Based Diets: Empirical Evidence from Greece, India, and the UK. Foods 2024, 13, 2076.
Abstract
Comprising the largest population cohort on this planet, Gen Z presents a future-oriented consumer segment driven by climate change and food. This study sought to investigate Gen Zs’ perceptions to-ward plant-based foods and diets, and explore the relationship between attitude components, meal preparation involvement, personal and lifestyle factors, and perceived barriers in adopting a plant-based diet with willingness to adopt green-eating practices. Using cross-sectional data from uni-versity students in Greece, India and UK, various tools were employed to determine the factors influ-encing youths’ consumer behavior toward animal-protein substitutes. PCA indicated the underlying dimensions of students’ viewpoints on plant-based foods, whereas hierarchical and k-means clustering provided the cluster structure. An ordered probit model was estimated to delineate Gen Zs’ willingness to adopt plant-based diets and distinguish among mostly unwilling, somewhat willing and mostly willing youths. Our findings identified two consumer segments, namely proponents and opponents toward plant-based foods and diets, with statistically significant differences in the perceived health benefits of plant-based diets, attachment to animal-based proteins, perceived exclusion of ani-mal-based foods, dissatisfaction with plant-based foods attributes and demand for ensuring adequate protein intake. The ordered probit model estimates showed that there is a rather «homogeneity» in the factors influencing youths’ intention to adopt plant-based diets, with attitude components, meal prep-aration indicators, perceived barriers to eating “green” and personal factors, viz. self-assessed knowledge on healthy eating and physical activity, being strongly associated with students’ willingness to switch to plant-based diets in all three countries. Mapping potential obstacles and enablers in terms of shifting to more green-eating behaviors, our findings could add information to better understand the factors affecting food choice and youths’ transition to a more sustainable lifestyle.
Keywords
attitudes toward plant-based foods; willingness to adopt plant-based diets; meal preparation involvement; ordered probit model analysis; PCA; cluster analysis
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Food Science and Technology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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