12 pages, This paper addresses consumer trust in organic food in order to find out which aspects increase and decrease trust and which trust expectations consumers have. The aim is to strengthen consumer trust on the basis of the findings and to develop trust-building measures. To this end, ten focus groups with German consumers were conducted online in February 2021 and evaluated using content analysis. The results show that there is a predominant lack of trust in organic food. This is based in particular on the fact that organic production is often doubted and there are from the consumer’s point of view too many organic labels. This can be attributed not only to a lack of knowledge on the part of consumers, but also to a lack of transparency within the organic sector and in relation to organic food. Results from the consumer's point of view show that the possibility of control, information and transparency are relevant for trust in organic food and the development of knowledge about organic food can positively influence this trust.
Online from publication. 5 pages., Summary of a survey among U.S. consumers, performed by Aimpoint Research for The Packer. Findings suggested that the lack of a concrete definition of sustainability points to the need to earn consumers' trust regarding the food industry.
4pgs, The U.S. Department of Agriculture has reinforced oversight on organic certification and enforcement to prevent mislabeled products, in what advocates are calling the biggest update in decades.
7 pages, Pecans are a heart-healthy food, serving as an excellent source of unsaturated fatty acids, micronutrients, and phytochemicals. Despite rapid growth of the U.S. pecan export in global market, domestic pecan consumption has been stagnating, especially in attracting young consumers. This study seeks to investigate the effectiveness of nutrition education brochure that utilizes two information formats-rich media and traditional media-for promoting nutritional knowledge of pecans among young consumers. The experiment followed a between-subjects 2 x 2 design. Four versions of digital brochures were developed to manipulate two independent variables: video (absent vs. present) and recipe (absent vs. present). The findings indicated that including a video in the digital brochure can help increase consumers’ perceived information quality, and recipe content can help increase consumers' trust in the nutrition information and information source. The results also showed that for consumers with a lower prior knowledge regarding pecans, educational materials including a video were more effective than materials without a video. Such strategies to promote pecan consumption could benefit the pecan industry as well as public health.
