Food behaviours of Italian consumers at risk of poverty
Abstract
Purpose
At a European level, Italy experiences one of the highest percentages of population at risk of poverty (AROP). However, studies on this consumer segment are scarce. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the food behaviours of Italian female consumers, distinguishing similarities and differences due to age and level of income.
Design/methodology/approach
The investigation adopted an inductive approach in order to analyse and confirm the determinants of food behaviours. Data were collected through four focus groups. Data elaboration included content analyses with term frequency – inverse document frequency index and multidimensional scaling technique.
Findings
The food behaviours of Italian female consumers are based on a common set of semantic categories and theoretical dimensions that are coherent with those applied by previous studies. The age of consumers impacts the relevance attributed to the categories and income contributes to the explanation of the conceptual relations among the categories that determine food behaviours. The approach to food of younger and mature consumers AROP is strongly driven by constraints such as price and time. The study did not confirm a link between a poor health attitude and low socio-economic status.
Research limitations/implications
The outcomes achieved can be strengthened by quantitative analyses to characterise the relations occurring among the factors and dimensions that influence the food behaviours of consumers AROP.
Originality/value
The study increases knowledge about Italian female consumers and provides an initial contribution to the analysis of the food behaviour of the population AROP.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This investigation was carried out within the project “CHANCE – Low cost technologies and traditional ingredients for the production of affordable, nutritionally correct foods improving health in population groups at risk of poverty”, co-financed by the European Union 7th Framework Programme. Detailed information on the project are available at: www.chancefood.eu (accessed 3 December 2014).
Citation
Ruggeri, A., Arvola, A., Samoggia, A. and Hendrixson, V. (2015), "Food behaviours of Italian consumers at risk of poverty", British Food Journal, Vol. 117 No. 11, pp. 2831-2848. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-12-2014-0417
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited