Food is simply too good to waste
How to change consumers’ perception of imperfectly shaped fruits and
vegetables.
Jeanine de Vos
II
Food is simply too good to waste
How to change consumers’ perception of imperfectly shaped fruits and vegetables.
University of Groningen
Faculty of Economics and Business
MSc. Marketing Management
Master Thesis
July 2017
First supervisor: Dr. J. Wan
Second supervisor: Dr. M. Keizer
Watergeusstraat 43A2
3025HJ Rotterdam
06 43 94 86 25
j.p.de.vos.1@student.rug.nl
III
ABSTRACT
IV
PREFACE
Before I started my Master’s degree in Marketing Management, I got the opportunity to work closely with a Dutch supplier of fruits and vegetables. On a daily basis, this company needs to deal with tons of food that do not meet the high appearance quality standards of retailers. Therefore, this research topic interests me very much as I experienced close by the urgency of this problem. I strongly believe that changing consumers’ perception of imperfectly shaped fruits and vegetables can lead to a diminishment of food waste in the supply chain.
Herewith, I would like to share my deepest gratitude for the people who helped me finishing this thesis. I want to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Jing Wan, my supervisor, who helped me during the research. I am especially grateful because she gave me the opportunity to write my thesis about a subject that is close to my heart. I would like to thank my family, friends and Sebastiaan for motivating and supporting me in every possible way during the Master’s degree. Lastly, I would like to thank the fellow students from my research group for supporting each other during the process of finalizing my thesis.
Rotterdam, July 17, 2017
V Table of contents
1. INTRODUCTION ... 6
2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ... 8
2.1 The occurrence of imperfections in the growth process ... 9
6 1. INTRODUCTION
Many studies have been giving increasing attention to the issue of food losses and food waste in society (Brautigam, Jorissen & Priefer, 2014; Gunders, 2012). In developed countries, one-third of food that is produced is wasted (Loebnitz, Schuitema & Grunert, 2015). According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2011), in Europe alone 90 million tons of food is wasted annually by European consumers. Food losses are defined as a decrease in edible food throughout the supply chain (FAO, 2011). In the supply chain, food losses happen at different stages like production, postharvest, and processing (Parfitt, Barthel & Macnaughton, 2010). In particular, food losses that happen at the end of the food chain are called food waste, based on retailers and consumers’ behavior (Parfitt et al., 2010).
A significant driver of food waste are retailers who have the right to reject products based on visual appearance. If the physical appearance of the product is not in line with standards, it is assumed that consumers simply will not buy the products (Loebnitz et al., 2015). These products are for instance slightly crooked, curvy squad, and smaller than usual fruits and vegetables. The researcher Stuart (2009) visited several British farms in order to gain a better understanding about the level of food waste caused by appearance standards. An example is the M.H. Poskitt Carrots in Yorkshire, a supplier of the supermarket chain Asda. In the packing house, all carrots were checked on physical or aesthetic defects by passing through a photographic sensor machine. The carrots that had the wrong shape or size, broken or with a blemish, were not allowed to be delivered to the retailer. Therefore, 25-30% of all carrots handled by the farm were out-graded (Stuart, 2009).
Since 2009, official quality standards for fruits and vegetables from the European Union have been rewritten. The EU regulation has imposed fewer specific quality standards, only on 10 instead of 36 products, in order to simplify checking operations (European Commission, 2017). The general quality standards only mention that the products need to be of “marketable
quality” (European Commission, 2017). Nevertheless, food rejection based on appearance still
7 Additionally, wholesalers came with several initiatives to re-educate on the perspective towards imperfect fruits and vegetables. The supermarket chain Intermarché in France, decided to sell imperfectly shaped fruits and vegetables named “Inglorious fruits and vegetables ” for a cheaper price. Also the United States’ largest grocery store Wal-Mart, decided to start selling oddly shaped products to fight against food waste (Wahba, 2016). In the Netherlands, the supermarket chain Albert Heijn also sells irregular-shaped fruits and vegetables called
“buitenbeentjes” (Albert Heijn, 2017). These campaigns are seen as successful as consumers
get the same quality products for less money, the growers receive money for products that are normally thrown away and the retailer increases its business by creating a separate product line for selling aesthetically imperfect products (Intermarché, 2014). It should be argued whether decreasing the price and giving names like “buitenbeentjes” is not devaluing the products. It emphasizes that the imperfectly shaped products differ from the perfectly-shaped products while research of Willmot (2016) found that imperfections in the shape of fruits and vegetables has no influence on the nutritious value nor the taste.
Fruits and vegetables may have irregular shapes and sizes, which cannot be completely controlled during cultivation. However, little research has been found on how consumers perceive irregularities that occur during the growth process of fruits and vegetables. Research of Rozin (2004; 2005) found that the process of an entity is perceived as important and natural products are more desirable compared to processed non-natural alternatives. Moreover, the concept natural seems to improve the perception of any product to which it applies (Rozin, 2006).
With this in mind, I want to research how to increase consumers choice towards irregular fruits and vegetables in order to reduce food waste. Therefore, it will be examined how you can convince consumers that imperfectly shaped fruits and vegetables are as natural as perfectly shaped products by targeting the customers assumption about the growth process of these products.
8 important aspect of this research is to find out how consumers perceive the naturalness of the irregular fruits and vegetables. The assumption people make about the growth process of irregular fruits and vegetables is tested in order to find out how natural oddly shaped products are perceived. The relation between the growth process and acceptance of imperfect products can give new insights which may lead to a diminishment of the food waste in the supply chain. Since the importance of this study is explained, the research question for this study will be as follows:
Are consumers more willing to accept imperfectly shaped fruits and vegetables when they are aware of when the imperfections in the growth process happen and will they perceive irregularities that occur earlier in the growth process as more natural?
The second chapter of this research focuses on providing a better understanding of the influence of the growth process and an explanation to why and how it might be related to the acceptance of imperfect products. Existing literature is analyzed in order to define the hypothesis, and a mediator is introduced. Subsequently, the methodology and results of study one are explained, followed by the methodology and results of the second study. Then, the results of both studies are interpreted. Lastly, the final chapters contain a general discussion, limitations, implementation, and future research.
2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
According to the Cambridge Dictionary (2017) the word “deviation” is defined as: “a
difference from what is usual or expected”. This suggests that consumers perceive a product as
different, even if the deviation does not affect its functionality. In the food domain, researchers often talk about deviations when products differ from the high quality standards imposed by retailers (de Hooge, Oostindier, Aschemann-Witzel, Normann, Loose, & Almi, 2017; Loebnitz et al., 2015). Research of Kays (1999), explains how deviations in terms of appearance of fruits and vegetables are characterized by size, shape, form and color. For some products, what is considered a desirable appearance differs during the supply chain. For example, bananas are preferred to be green when arriving at the distribution center, while the retailer prefers yellow bananas (Kays, 1999). It can be said that the visual appearance of some products is not consistent while the visual appearance of other products remains relatively constant.
9 characteristics of the product like color or shape, whereas extrinsic cues are based on price, brand and/or product label (Loebnitz & Grunert, 2015). It is likely that fruits and vegetables are often evaluated on their intrinsic cues, as there is a lack of strong and recognizable brands in this category. As mentioned before, imperfectly shaped products are rarely seen in supermarkets. This means that the visual appearance offers a cue that activates consumers’ inferences about expected quality (Loebnitz & Grunert, 2015).
Research of Hooge et al. (2017) showed that a distinction can be made between deviations in appearance that influence consumers’ quality perceptions. Consumers are less willing to buy products with a deviation in terms of colors (e.g. a spot on an apple), compared to products with shape irregularities (e.g. a wonkey carrot). This is because deviations in terms of colors are perceived as unattractive, unsafe or bad-tasting (Hooge et al., 2017). Based on this, the present study will focus on deviations in terms of shape as consumers appeared more willing to purchase products as long as there are no safety concerns.
2.1 The occurrence of imperfections in the growth process
Rozin (2006) found that the idea of process is related to the history of an object. For instance, two current products that are identical may take a different path to their present status, which involves history and a sequence of processes. In order to increase consumer’s acceptance of imperfectly shaped products, it might be insightful to explain the process responsible for the occurrence of these imperfections.
10 gradually becomes more and more shaped or is going through some kind of transformation. A transformation may be that a seed unfolds into a fruit. In the late stage of the growth process, the product is almost grown into a mature product and ready to be harvested.
As mentioned previously, the occurrence of imperfections can happen early or later on in the growth process. When an imperfection emerge in the beginning of the growth process, it is likely that most of its life the product looked irregular. For instance, a strawberry takes twenty weeks to grow and the irregularities emerged around week two of the growth period. When choosing among products, people have a tendency to stick with the status quo alternative. An explanation for this is the status-quo bias (Samuelson & Zeckhauser, 1988). Status quo bias refers to people’s tendency to prefer options that cause no change (Samuelson & Zeckhauser, 1988). The occurrence of irregularities in the begin stage of the strawberries maintained until the end of the growth period. Therefore, imperfections that emerge in the begin stage can be seen as a status-quo or default option. A default option is often evaluated positive by individuals (Masatlioglu & Ok, 2005). When imperfections emerge later on in the growth process, an alteration will cause a change in the intended shape of the product. Therefore, it is less likely that people prefer products where imperfections emerge later on, as they have a bias towards sticking with the status quo. Thus, framing imperfections that occur early on in the growth process as a status quo can affect the likelihood of being chosen.
Research of Adaval and Wyer (1998) found that information we acquire in daily life is transmitted to us in the form of narrative processing. That is, causally and temporally related sequences of events (Adayal & Wyer, 1998). This means that when new information is presented in a temporal sequence that has a beginning, middle or end, it is easier to understand and seems intuitively correct (Adayal & Wyer, 1998). Therefore, it seems logical to explain to consumers when imperfections occur during the growth process as it will help to better understand the sequence of these events. Especially, explaining that the imperfections happen early on in the growth process, which seems almost to be part of a product’s original intended shape and therefore more intuitively correct.
11 H1: Consumers who perceive that the imperfection occur at the beginning of the growth process (vs. late in the growth process), are more willing to buy (vs. not buy) imperfectly shaped fruits and vegetables.
2.2 Naturalness
According to Rozin, Fischler, and Shields-Argeles (2012), people in developed countries have a strong preference for natural foods. Natural foods can be characterized by minimal processing and no artificial additives. The concept of “natural” seems to improve the perception of any product to which it applies (Rozin, 2006). For instance, it is seen that the word “natural” is often written on as many food labels as possible. Research of Rozin (2005) found that consumers perceive naturalness as a positive food product attribute. Additionally, results of the Nielsen Global Health and Wellness Survey (2015) revealed that the most desirable food attributes are naturalness, freshness, and minimal processing. Moreover, the term naturalness has a wide variety of associations and individual interpretations by consumers (Román, Sánchez-Siles, & Siegrist, 2017). In several studies, the researcher Rozin has examined the meaning of the food attribute naturalness (Rozin, 2005, 2006; Rozin et al., 2004, 2012). The results of their research will be used as a main building block to explain what consumers understand by naturalness.
Rozin (2005) proposed a distinction between instrumental and ideational beliefs for natural preference. The instrumental beliefs explain that consumers have a stronger preference for natural foods compared to artificial counterparts regardless of healthfulness (Rozin, 2005). This suggests that naturalness per se is perceived as a desirable product attribute. Moreover, natural entities are perceived as better because people perceive the senses as more appealing (Rozin, 2005). For example, in the food domain, the claim is that natural foods taste better. Thus, based on instrumental beliefs natural products are often thought to be healthier and more appealing. The ideational beliefs refer to the idea that natural is just better, in moral and aesthetic senses (Rozin, 2005). This is supported by the finding that people still prefer natural even when they are informed that the natural and commercial products are chemically identical (Rozin et al., 2004).
12 transformation but with a different content. Moreover, as the number of processes increases for an item, it will be perceived as less natural (Evans et al., 2010). This suggests that a product can undergo several processes, but the perceived naturalness will decrease, and therefore the preference for the product.
Another important factor that is responsible for the reduction of naturalness is contamination. Rozin (2005) found that when adding small amounts of non-natural entities to an object, it makes people perceive them as less natural whereas adding small amounts of natural entities does little to improve the naturalness of unnatural objects. This finding is supported by the principle of contagion. This principle explains that when two objects get in contact with each other, features of each pass into the other and stay there permanently (Rozin et al., 2004). It is explained by Rozin and Royzman (2001) hat contact with negative entities is much more contaminating than when an object has contact with a positive entity. This suggests that when a natural object comes in contact with an intervention, the contamination is stronger than when a non-natural object comes in contact with nature (Rozin et al., 2004). It is likely that when a human, machine or chemical intervention happens, the contamination is transmitted to the food. In the late stage of the growth process the occurrence of an imperfection can be seen as a negative contamination, as it alters the origin of the product and changes the original or intended shape of a product. This negative contamination effect will reduce the perceived naturalness. On the contrary, in the early stage of the growth process the occurrence of an imperfection will be rather seen as natural as it seems to be part of a product’s original intended shape. Thus, a products naturalness is retained.
Another claim that increases the understanding of naturalness is related to the authenticity of food. In the food domain, the term “authentic” has several different meanings. Research of Sagoff (2001) state that authenticity is seen as the opposite of artificial or synthetic. An example made by Sagoff (2001) involves authentic vanilla which comes from the plant, whereas vanillin, imitation of vanilla, is an artificial synthetic product. Thus, authenticity can be seen as an instance of naturalness as there is a lack of human influence.
13 naturalness of any product (Rozin, 2005). This is based on the idea that a modification of genes was not part of a product’s true essence, and thus jeopardize its purity and authenticity. It is reasonable to argue that appeals on naturalness are expressions of resistance towards change. According to Siipi (2013), the unnaturalness of genetical modified products can be interpreted as not willing to accept changes to the food people are used to. In fact, these findings can be applied to the current research because the occurrence of imperfections in the growth process can be seen as an alteration of the true essence of such product. Hence, the later the occurrence of an imperfection, the more likely it will be seen as a change, and thus reduces its naturalness.
Based on the aforementioned arguments, it is assumed that the perceived naturalness of the imperfectly shaped products explains the effect of consumers’ assumptions towards the moment in the growth process the imperfections occur and the consequently increased acceptance of irregular products. Hence, when consumers assume the imperfection happens early on in the process, they are more willing to accept the flawed products due to their perceived naturalness. On the contrary, it is expected that when it is assumed that the imperfections occur later on in the growth process, irregular products will be perceived as less natural. This leads to the following hypothesis:
H2: Perceived naturalness mediates the effect of when the consumer thinks the imperfection occurs in the growth process on the willingness to buy imperfectly shaped fruits and vegetables.
The previously mentioned arguments and hypotheses can be summarized in the following proposed conceptual framework. Figure 1 shows a depiction of the hypotheses and their assumed relation.
14 3. METHODOLOGY STUDY 1
This present paper is to the author’s knowledge the first to examine how consumers perceive the growth process and the influence on the acceptance of fruits and vegetables. As no literature has been found about how consumers perceive the growth process of fruits and vegetables, it is measured in study 1 if the perception of the growth process has an impact on the acceptance of irregular-shaped fruits and vegetables.
3.1 Participants
A total of eighty-four participants voluntary and anonymous filled in an online survey. Twenty-five participants are male and fifty-nine are female. The participants have an average age of 32 (Mage=32.15, SDage = 11.56). The online survey was distributed among family, friends
and acquaintances located in the city area of Groningen and Rotterdam.
3.2 Product selection
The products selected for this study were apples, strawberries, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots and bell peppers. These were carefully chosen because they are locally grown and available in all grocery stores during the current season. The images used for the survey are similar in size and pixel quality, to minimize any extraneous variance. To control for additional factors, the images only contain irregularly shaped products and did not have any deviations in terms of bruises or spots (see appendix III).
3.3 Procedure
The participants were shown pictures of three irregular-shaped fruits (apple, strawberry and tomato) and three irregular-shaped vegetables (potato, carrot and bell pepper). The participants were informed about the growth period of each product (e.g., a tomato typically takes 17 weeks to grow) and were asked to indicate when they assume the product would begin to look irregular on a scale of 0 to 100. Following the picture of each product, participants were asked about their perceptions of the naturalness, tastiness of the product, how strange-looking the product is and how much they like the product in general. The last part of the survey contained additional questions by asking if participants are familiar with campaigns promoting irregularly shaped fruits and vegetables and how knowledgeable they are about the growth pattern of fruits and/or vegetables. The last questions were related to the demographics (age, gender, education and nationality) of the participants (See appendix II).
15 information of the growth period of each product is an indication based on the information retrieved from the wholesaler van Gelder groenten & fruit.
The dependent variable willingness to buy imperfect fruits and vegetables was tested by asking participants on a 7-point Likert scale how likely they are to buy such a product (1= very unlikely, 7 = very likely). Besides that, it is also asked how tasty they think the product is (1 = not at all tasty, 7 = very tasty), how strange-looking the product is (1 = very normal, 7 = very strange) and how much they like the product (1 = not at all, 7 = very much). The answers of the strange-looking questions have been reversed.
4. RESULTS STUDY 1
A total of eighty-four participants filled in the online survey completely. There were no participants excluded from the dataset. Therefore, a total of eighty-four participants could be used for the analysis of study 1. It is predicted that consumers are more willing to accept imperfectly shaped fruits and vegetables when they assume imperfections occur early on in the growth process.
A one-sample T-test was conducted to determine if a statistically significant difference exists between people that assume imperfections occur early or later on in the growth process. The participants were able to indicate on a scale of 0 to 100 when they thought the product began to look irregular. Table 1 shows an overview of when participants assumed imperfections occur in the growth process. The test value 50 is chosen as a mean. The results are highly significant (p < .005) for each product. This shows that participants assume irregularities occur early on in the growth process.
Fruits N Mean Std. Deviation
Tomato 84 38.06 25.05 Potato 84 32.55 20.63 Strawberry 84 39.73 26.73 Carrot 84 31.74 21.09 Bell pepper 84 32.39 22.28 Apple 84 35.65 22.84
Table 1: participants’ perception about the growth process
16 equation found (F(1, 82) = .392, p = .533). This shows that the occurrence of the imperfections, early or later on, in the growth process has no impact on the willingness to buy irregular shaped fruits and vegetables.
An additional linear regression analysis is performed to examine on the individual level of each fruit or vegetable if the perception of the growth process has an effect on the willingness to buy irregular-shaped products. Table 2 shows an overview of the results. The findings show that for each product the perception of the growth process has no impact on the willingness to buy an irregular-shaped item.
Product N df F Sig. Tomato 84 1, 82 .000 .995 Potato 84 1, 82 2.534 .115 Strawberry 84 1, 82 .507 .478 Carrot 84 1, 82 .834 .364 Bell pepper 84 1, 82 1.046 .309 Apple 84 1, 82 .051 .823
Table 2: the perception of the growth process of each product on the willingness to buy
The variables tastiness and how much people like the product are examined on an individual level of each fruit or vegetable. As the variables show no correlations for the items tomato and potato, it is decided to measure the variables separately.
A linear regression was calculated to predict the perceived tastiness of the fruits and vegetables based on the perception of the growth period. The results showed no significant regression equation (F(1, 82) = .058, p = .811). This reflects that the perception of the growth period has no impact on the tastiness of the fruits and vegetables.
17 It is predicted that the variable naturalness mediates the effect between perception of growth process and willingness to buy irregularly shaped products. Therefore, a linear regression is performed to predict if the perception of the growth process has an effect on the variable naturalness. The results showed no significant regression equation (F(1, 82) = .151, p = .699). Therefore, no mediation analysis is performed as the independent variable shows no influence on the predicted mediator.
5. DISCUSSION STUDY 1
The outcome of the analysis of study 1 showed that there is no relationship between when participants perceive the imperfections to occur and liking of the product. It shows that participants assumptions towards the moment in the growth process the imperfections occur has no impact on the acceptance of irregular-shaped fruits and vegetables. This means that irregular-shaped products are not more accepted when consumers assume imperfections occur early on in the growth process. This outcome was obtained through participants’ intuitive understanding rather than from reasoning, as it is likely that they have no or little knowledge about growth patterns. More precisely, 79.8% of the participants indicated that they have no or little knowledge about growth periods of fruits and vegetables (Appendix X). Thus, people’s intuitive about the growth process has no impact on the acceptance of irregular-shaped products.
Furthermore, the results of study 1 showed that participants assumptions towards the occurrence of the imperfections in the growth process has no influence on the perceived naturalness, tastiness and how much people like the products.
6. METHODOLOGY STUDY 2
18 irregularities as less natural when they occur later on in the growth process, which should decrease the acceptance of irregular-shaped products.
As experimental research a field study is conducted where shoppers are in their natural environment which leads to a high external validity. The research is a one factor (imperfections in the growth process) between participants design with two levels: early growth vs. late growth. 6.1 Participants
A total of hundred fifty-two participants took part in the field experiment. Eighty one participants are male and seventy one are female. The participants have an average age of 32 (Mage=32.34, SDage = 13.82). 88.8% of the participants are Dutch.
6.2 Experimental site
The field study is carried out at the exit of a supermarket in Delfshaven, located in Rotterdam. As consumers walked towards the exit, they were approached by asking if they would like to participate in a field study on fruits and vegetables. Nearby the exit, a counter was available to put the baskets with fruits and vegetables on. In appendix XI pictures can be seen of the two different baskets. The field study was carried out on two consecutive days (Monday 8th of May and Tuesday 9th of May) and the conditions were counterbalanced between the days. There were no holidays or other special days that could have influenced the usual stream of customers. The research was carried out at the same time periods (13:00/15:00 and 16:00/18:00) on each day. During these two days, an observer was present to make notes about the participants. The privacy of the participants is assured and the e-mail addresses will not be used for other purposes. Every participant received a number, corresponding to the notes of the observer. This guaranteed that later participants could be excluded that were influenced by people next to them or who did not take it seriously.
6.3 Product selection
19 6.4 Procedure
The participants were presented a basket with perfectly shaped and a basket with imperfectly shaped products. The products were positioned similarly in the baskets. After asking if consumers would like to participate, a survey was handed out on a clipboard. The participants were able to read the purpose of the survey and it was explained that they had a chance to win a box of fresh fruits and vegetables. Information was given about when in the growth process the imperfections happen. In the early condition, participants read that imperfections often happen early on. The following example was given: tomatoes take 17 weeks to grow. The irregularities you see here emerged around week 2 of the growth period. Whereas in the later condition, participants read that imperfections often happen later on. Also, an example was given: tomatoes take 17 weeks to grow. The irregularities you see here emerged around week 15 of the growth period.
After reading the information about the growth period, participants were asked to indicate how natural and healthy the products look, and how much they like these products on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = not at all, 7 = very much). Then, several demographic questions were asked to be filled in. Lastly, it was explained that two boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables will be prepared to raffle off at the end of the month. The participants needed to indicate if they would like to win a box with perfect products or imperfect products, and fill in their email address when they wished to participate in the raffle. In appendix XII the survey can be found of study 2.
7. RESULTS STUDY 2
20 A logistic regression was performed to ascertain the effect of the condition (early vs. late) on the likelihood that participants prefer imperfect products. The logistic regression model was marginal significant X2 (1) = 3.077, p = .079. This means that 61.8% of the cases is correctly classified by the model. The Wald criterion demonstrated that condition was marginally significant (Wald (1) = 3.034, p = ,082). It shows that participants in the early condition were 1.80 times more likely to choose imperfect products. This means that hypothesis 1 is partially supported. Figure 2 shows that in the early condition there is a stronger preference towards imperfect products than in the late condition. Whereas in the late condition there is a decrease in preference for imperfect products.
An additional logistic regression was performed to find out if age and gender have an effect on the likelihood that participants prefer imperfect or perfect products. The logistic
regression model was statistically not significant X2 (2) = .187, p = .911. This means that the variable age and gender have no influence on the preference of imperfect or perfect fruits and vegetables.
Several one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) are performed to see if the early and late conditions have an effect on people’s perception about naturalness, health and how much they like the product. The means and standard deviations are presented in table 3.
68,9%
55,1%
31,1%
44,9%
Early in growth process Late in growth process
Win imperfect products Win perfect products
21
Variable Condition N Mean Std. Deviation
Natural Early 74 5.92 1.586 Late 78 5.78 1.792 Health Early 74 6.00 1.499 Late 78 6.00 1.579 Like Early 74 4.92 1.611 Late 78 4.85 1.961
Table 3: the effect of the condition on people’s perception of naturalness, health and like
The analysis for naturalness perception (F(1, 150) = .248, p = .619), health perception (F(1, 150) = .000, p = 1.000) and how many people like the product (F(1, 150) = .062, p = .804) showed no significant results. Taken together, these results indicate that the different conditions do not influence the variable naturalness, health and how much they like the products. Therefore, no mediation analysis of Hayes (2009) has been conducted as the independent variable growth period shows no effect on the predicted mediator naturalness.
8. DISCUSSION STUDY 2
The outcome of the analysis of study 2 showed that the occurrence of the imperfections in the growth process has an impact on the acceptance of irregular-shaped products. The hypothesis is partially supported. This suggests that irregular-shaped products are more accepted when people are informed that imperfections occur early on compared to later on in the growth process. The analysis showed a preference for irregular-shaped products in the early condition and a decrease in preference in the late condition. The control variables age and gender have no influence on the interaction between growth process and acceptance of irregular-shaped products.
Another remarkable finding showed that the occurrence of the imperfections in the growth process has no effect on the perceived naturalness, health and how much participants like the product. Therefore, no mediation analysis was performed as the results showed that the perceived growth process has no impact on the predicted mediator naturalness.
9. GENERAL DISCUSSION
22 produce and re-educate people’s perspective towards imperfect fruits and vegetables (Ruiz-Grossman, 2016). In relation to this, the intention of this research was to examine if people’s perception of the occurrence of imperfections in the growth process has an influence on the acceptance of irregular-shaped fruits and vegetables. It was also researched if the perceived naturalness mediated the effect of the growth process and the acceptance of imperfect products. The main assumptions were that imperfections that emerge early on in the growth process, are more likely to be perceived as natural by consumers, and this would consequently increase the acceptance if irregularly-shaped fruits and vegetables.
The results of study 1 demonstrated that based on people’s intuitive understanding about when imperfections emerge in the growth process, there was no influence on the willingness to buy imperfectly shaped fruits and vegetables. In study 2 this assumption was researched by explicitly informing participants when the imperfections emerge in the growth process. The outcome of study 2 showed a marginal significant effect for the growth process on the preference for imperfectly shaped fruits and vegetables. Consumers who were informed that imperfections occur at the beginning of the growth process showed a higher preference for irregular-shaped products. As in line with the general expectations, there was a decrease in preference when consumers were informed that imperfections occur later on in the growth process.
With regard to the occurrence of the imperfections, consumers’ intuitive understanding about this growth process demonstrated to have no influence on the acceptance of imperfectly shaped products. This finding is likely based on the fact that people in daily life are not concerned about growth processes. Therefore, it is probable that they have little knowledge about growth processes, which makes it difficult to indicate on the basis of intuition when imperfections occur and whether this affects their choices regarding imperfectly shaped fruits and vegetables.
23 In both studies the outcomes of the analyses showed that the growth process has no impact on the perceived naturalness and therefore no mediation analysis could be performed. Hence, hypothesis 2 is not supported. When consumers were informed that imperfections occur at the beginning of the growth process, they showed a high naturalness degree but also consumers who were informed that imperfections emerge at the end of the growth process. Thus, in either way consumers perceived it as highly natural. An explanation for this effect could be that consumers where exposed to novel products, as imperfectly shaped products are seldom seen in supermarkets. This novel perception could have caused a curiosity tendency towards the products. Berlyne (1950) found that curiosity is most often aroused not by just any novel product but by some unexpected features of a product. In particular, by something that is in some degree similar and in some degree dissimilar to what is well known for customers (Berlyne, 1950). Thus, this curiosity tendency might have influenced people’s perception and therefore indicated a high naturalness. It is plausible that this curiosity tendency has also influenced people’s like, tastiness and health perception. Here also, the occurrence of the imperfections in the growth process showed no influence on each of these variables.
10. LIMITATIONS
This study has several limitations that were present during the research. These limitations have to be taken into account when interpreting the results.
A limitation of the field study was that many participants mentioned by word of mouth that they were pressed for time. Due to a lack of time, participants may have processed the occurrence of imperfections in the growth process superficially. Therefore, pictures could be used to help the participants imagine the sequence of events that occurs in the growth process (Adaval & Wyer, 1998). This should facilitate a construction of the sequence of events in the participants’ minds, which would make it more easy to process the information that they can use as a basis for decision-making. Thus, the pictures should increase the impact of the information and help to make a judgement about the imperfectly shaped fruits and vegetables.
24 Loewenstein (1994) state that curiosity can be seen as a knowledge gab perspective, which can be defined as the difference between what a person knows and what a person would like to know. The curiosity of people arises when they become aware of a knowledge gab or when they encounter a novel product (Berlyne, 1950). However, some studies hint that people will make different choices when their curiosity for knowledge is decreased (Loewestein, Prelec, & Shatto, 1998; van de Ven, Zeelenberg, & van Dijk, 2005). This suggest that overcoming the curiosity bias, may lead to different outcomes.
The last limitation of this research were the specific fruits and vegetables chosen. The products were well-considered in consultation with the wholesaler who was responsible for delivering the products. However, it was not taken into account the difficulties with peeling the imperfectly shaped fruits and vegetables. It was mentioned by participants of study 1 that they perceive it as inconvenient for them dealing with irregularities as it would take up too much of their time. Time can be seen as an important resource (Furst, Connors, Bisogni, Sobal, & Falk, 1996) and spending it on inconveniences might influence the likelihood of choosing irregular-shaped fruits and vegetables.
11. MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS
The results of this study suggest that it is plausible for marketers to inform consumers about the occurrence of the imperfections in the growth process as it can lead to a higher preference for irregular-shaped fruits and vegetables. This indicates that giving information about the occurrence of imperfections in the growth process might change people’s perception towards irregular-shaped fruits and vegetables. Besides that, when informing consumers they will gain a better understanding about growth processes. This might help more easily to perceive imperfections that occur early on in the growth process, as part of the original intended shape of a product.
25 12. FUTURE RESEARCH
The literature study found that authenticity is related to being pure and the essence of a product (Sagoff, 2001). It may be possible that imperfections that occur early on in the growth process are perceived as more authentic, as it will be seen as the true essence of the product. Therefore, it might be interesting to examine by future research if authenticity plays a mediation role of when the consumers thinks the imperfections occur in the growth process on the acceptance of imperfectly shaped fruits and vegetables.
Another interesting aspect which can be addressed by future research is the fact that personality characteristics might play a role in consumer preferences for irregular-shaped fruits and vegetables. For instance, consumers have a higher likelihood to act environmentally friendly when they value biospheric aspects (Alcock, 2012). When choosing an imperfectly shaped product, it might be perceived as a way to act environmentally friendly. This might exert the likelihood of choosing imperfectly shaped fruits and vegetables.
Another factor which can be examined by future research is the actual purchase intention of irregular-products. It would be interesting to investigate if people are willing to pay the same amount of money for irregular as for regular products. The price is an extrinsic cue of a product and has a strong impact on the purchase intention (Loebnitz & Grunert, 2015). Therefore, it should be examined how consumers will behave when they have to pay the actual price for irregular-shaped products in the supermarket.
26 REFERENCES
Adaval, R., & Wyer, R.S. (1998). The role of narratives in consumer information processing.
Journal of Consumer Psychology, 7(3), 207-245.
Alcock, I. (2012). Measuring commitment to environmental sustainability: the development of a valid and reliable measure. Methodological Innovations Online, 7(2), 13-26.
Berlyne, D. E. (1950). Novelty and curiosity as determinants of exploratory behaviour. British
Journal of Psychology, 41(1‐2), 68-80.
Brautigam, K. R., Jorissen, J., & Priefer, C. (2014). The extent of food waste generation across EU-27: Different calculation methods and the reliability of their results. Waste
Management & Research, 32(8), 683–694.
Buitenbeentjes. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2017, from https://www.ah.nl/buitenbeentjes
Creusen, M. E., & Schoormans, J.P. (2005). The different roles of product appearance in consumer choice. Journal of product innovation management, 22(1) ,63-81.
De Hooge, I.E., Oostindier, M., Aschemann-Witzel, K., Normann, A., Loose, S.M., & Almi, V.L. (2017). This apple is too ugly for me!: Consumer preferences for suboptimal food products in the supermarket and at home. Food Quality and Preference, 56, 80-92.
Deviation. (n.d.). Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved May 5, 2017, from http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/deviation
European Commission (2017, May 5). Fruits and vegetables: marketing standards. Retrieved May 5, 2017, from
https://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/fruit-and-vegetables/marketing-standards_en
Evans, G., de Challemaison, B., & Cox, D.N. (2010). Consumers’ ratings of the natural and unnatural qualities of foods. Appetite, 54(3), 557-563.
27 Furst, T., Connors, M., Bisogni, C.A., Sobal, J., & Falk, L.W. (1996). Food choice: a
conceptual model of the process. Appetite, 26(3), 247-266.
Gunders, D. (2012).Wasted: How America is losing up to 40 Percent of its food from farm to fork to landfill. Natural Resources Defense Council, 1-26.
Intermarché. Inglorious fruits & vegetables. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2017, from http://itm.marcelww.com/inglorious/
Kays, S.J. (1999). Preharvest factors affecting appearance. Postharvest Biology and
Technology, 15(3), 233-247.
Li, M., & Chapman, G.B. (2012). Why do people like natural? Instrumental and ideational bases for the naturalness preference. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42(12), 2859-2878.
Loebnitz, N., & Grunert, K.G. (2015). The effect of food shape abnormality on purchase intentions in China. Food Quality and Preference, 40, 24-30.
Loebnitz, N., Schuitema, G., & Grunert, K.G. (2015). Who buys oddly shaped food and why? Impacts of food shape abnormality and organic labeling on purchase intentions. Psychology &
Marketing, 32(4), 408–421.
Loewenstein, G. (1994). The psychology of curiosity: A review and reinterpretation.
Psychological bulletin, 116(1), 75.
Loewenstein, G., Prelec, D., & Shatto, C. (1998). Hot/cold intrapersonal empathy gaps and the under-prediction of curiosity. Unpublished manuscript, Carnegie-Mellon University,
Pittsburgh, PA.
Masatlioglu, Y., & Ok, E.A. (2005). Rational choice with status quo bias. Journal of
28
Olson, J. C. (1978). Inferential belief formation in the cue utilization process. NA-Advances in
Consumer Research Volume 05.
Parfitt, J., Barthel, M. & Macnaughton, S. (2010). Food waste within food supply chains: quantification and potential for change to 2050. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society B: Biological Sciences, 365(1554), 3065-3081.
Román, S., Sánchez-Siles, L.M., & Siegrist, M. (2017). The importance of food naturalness for consumers: Results of a systematic review. Trends in Food Science & Technology.
Rozin, P. (2005). The meaning of “natural” process more important than content. Psychological science, 16(8), 652-658.
Rozin, P. (2006). Naturalness judgements by lay Americans: process dominates content in judgements of food or water acceptability and naturalness. Judgement and Decision Making,
1(2), 91.
Rozin, P., & Royzman, E.B. (2001). Negativity bias, negativity dominance, and contagion.
Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5(4), 296–320.
Rozin, P., Fischler, C., & Shields-Argelès, C. (2012). European and American perspectives on the meaning of natural. Appetite, 59(2), 448-455.
Rozin, P., Spranca, M., Krieger, Z., Neuhaus, R., Surillo, D., Swerdlin, A., & Wood, K. (2004). Preference for natural: instrumental and ideational/moral motivations, and the contrast between foods and medicines. Appetite, 43(2), 147-154.
Ruiz-Grossman, S. (2016, July 21). Walmart Unveils New Lines of Ugly Apples and
Potatoes. Retrieved July 13, 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/walmart-ugly-vegetables-produce-apples-potatoes-spuglies-texas-florida_us_578fafefe4b07c722ebd5623
Sagoff, M. (2001). Genetic Engineering and the Concept of the Natural. Philosophy & Public
29 Samuelson, W., & Zeckhauser, R. (1988). Status quo bias in decision making. Journal of risk
and uncertainty, 1(1), 7-59.
Siipi, H. (2013). Is natural food healthy?. Journal of agricultural and environmental ethics,
26(4), 797-812.
Stuart, T. (2009). Waste: uncovering the global food scandal. WW Norton & Company.
Van de Ven, N., Zeelenberg, M., & van Dijk, E. (2005). Buying and selling exchange goods: Outcome information, curiosity and the endowment effect. Journal of Economic Psychology,
26(3), 459-468.
Wahba, P. (2016, July 22). Walmart Will Start Selling ‘Ugly’ Fruit to Reduce Food Waste. Retrieved March 22, 2017, from http://fortune.com/2016/07/22/walmart-apples/
Willmot, R. (2016, February 15). Wonky veg and ugly fruit are making a comeback- here’s why. Retrieved on May 5, 2017, from
30 APPENDIX
Appendix I: experimental stimuli designed by Loebnitz et al. (2015)
Appendix II: survey (study 1)
The below mentioned questions were asked for the following products: tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, carrots, bell peppers and apples.
A tomato typically takes 17 weeks to grow.
31 How likely would you buy this tomato if you saw it in the grocery store?
Very unlikely Moderately unlikely Slightly unlikely
Neither likely or unlikely Slightly likely
Moderately likely Very likely
How natural do you think this tomato is?
Not at all natural Moderately unnatural Slightly unnatural
Neither natural or unnatural Slightly natural
Moderately natural Very natural
How tasty do you think this tomato is?
Not at all tasty Moderately not tasty Slightly not tasty
Neither tasty or not tasty Slightly tasty
Moderately tasty Very tasty
How strange-looking do you find this tomato to be?
32 Neither strange or normal
Slightly strange Moderately strange Very strange
How much do you like tomatoes in general?
Not at all
Moderately dislike Slightly dislike Neither like or dislike Slightly like
Moderately like Very much
In general, are you willing to purchase irregularly shaped fruits and vegetables?
Not at all willing 2 3 4 5 6 Very willing
Are you familiar with campaigns for promoting irregularly-shaped fruits and vegetables (e.g., Albert Heijn's "Buitenbeentjes", KromKommer, Intermarché's "Inglorious Fruits and
Vegetables", etc.)?
I have heard of such campaigns and have purchased irregular fruits and/or vegetables I have heard of such campaigns, but have never purchased irregular fruits and/or
vegetables
33 In your own opinion, are you knowledgeable about the growth pattern of fruits and/or vegetables?
Not knowledgeable at all 2 3 4 5 6 Very knowledgeable
What is your gender?
Male Female
What is your age?
__________
What is your highest degree or level of education you have completed?
Less than high school High school graduate Bachelor's degree Master's degree Ph.D.
What is your nationality?
Dutch
34 Appendix III: pictures used for the survey (study 1)
36
40 Appendix IX: Linear regression – The effect of growth process on naturalness (study 1)
41 Appendix XI: pictures of the two baskets used for the field study (study 2)
Appendix XII: survey (study 2)
The following survey is an example that is used for the late condition.
Dear participant,
You are asked to participate in a research study as part of a MSc thesis project conducted by Jeanine de Vos (supervised by dr. Jing Wan). The purpose of this short survey is to examine how people evaluate imperfectly shaped fruits and vegetables. You will have a chance to win a box of fresh fruits and vegetables (€25,-)! If you are interested, we will ask you to write down your email address at the end of the survey, and if you are randomly selected to win a box, you will be contacted at the end of this month.
As you can see in the basket, each fruit and/or vegetable is either perfectly or imperfectly shaped. The imperfectly shaped fruits and vegetables began to look irregular during the end phase of the growth period. With the end phase we mean during the last few weeks of the growth period.
For example:
42 - Strawberries take 20 weeks to grow. The irregularities you see here emerged
around week 16 of the growth period.
Please examine the fruits and vegetables in both baskets. After you have done so, please turn to the next page to answer a few questions about your opinions on these fruits and vegetables.
1. How natural do you think these imperfect fruits/vegetables are? (check one) Not at all natural | | Completely natural
2. How healthy do you think these imperfect fruits/vegetables are? (check one) Not at all healthy | | Completely healthy
3. How much do you like these imperfect fruits/vegetables? (check one) Dislike | | Like
4. What is your age? __________ 5. What is your gender? _________
6. What is your nationality? Dutch
Other: _________________
43 I would like to win a box of imperfect fruits and vegetables!
I would like to win a box of perfect fruits and vegetables!
My email address is: ________________________
Please note that we will only contact you if you win. Your information will remain confidential and will not be shared with any third parties.
Thank you for your participation!
