Consumer preferences for tofu characteristics in Sweden : a discrete choice experiment

Abstract: The extensive consumption of meat products is increasingly criticized as it is associated with environmental, ethical, and social dilemmas. This is closely related to production systems and factory farming, which lead to high emissions and strain on planetary boundaries. Based on plant-based ingredients, meat substitutes are a healthy source of protein that offer a number of social, environmental and health benefits compared to meat and therefore play an important role in reducing the consumption of meat products. However, the market shares of plant-based meat substitutes are quite low in many countries and need to increase to reinforce sustainable consumption and production. As a consequence, research needs to investigate where consumers stand in this regard and what their preferences are as the knowledge about these aspects is critical to develop a market that benefits food industry and government policies. The subject of the study is tofu, an important plant-based protein source with a long tradition in Asian cuisine. I used a discrete choice experiment with the product attributes origin (non-EU vs. EU vs. Sweden), production type (organic vs. conventional) and price to get insights into how consumers make choices. Using latent class analysis, five distinct consumer classes have been identified: price-insensitive consumers, eco-conscious consumers, price-conscious consumers, sustainability-conscious consumers, and random clickers. The origin of the tofu and the soy beans used for production as well as organic cultivation have big influence on consumers' preferences. Female consumers and those who do not consume meat regularly are found to have a generally higher willingness to pay for tofu, local production and organic cultivation.