Assessing Consumers’ Preference and Loyalty towards Biopolymer Films for Food Active Packaging

Abstract

Contemporary society faces numerous food-related challenges: on the one hand, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ensure that people have access to fresh, nutritious, and safe food products around the world, while on the other hand, consumers from ‘low income’ countries are starving, while food products are sometimes discarded because it is difficult to prolong shelf-life. To overcome such challenges, edible active films, called biopolymer films, were developed as materials to cover or wrap food products to extend their shelf-life, as they can offer additional protection. Therefore, this article aims to study consumers’ preference and loyalty towards the innovative, active, green, and sustainable characteristics of biopolymer films for the active packaging of food products. A quantitative empirical investigation was carried out among consumers in an emerging market, pinpointing their behavior toward such a novel food packaging material. The conceptual model designed was assessed using structural equation modelling. The results show that consumers tend to accept and prefer biopolymer-film packaging, as it maintains the characteristics of the product and thus extends its shelf-life. The results also revealed consumers’ openness to eco-sustainable consumption and willingness to pay more for the benefits of this packaging.