Impact of Nutritional Information on Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Meat Products in Traditional Wet Markets of Taiwan

Abstract

The application of nutritional labels provides information regarding the health and nutritional value of products and allows consumers to engage in healthier dietary habits. However, not all types of retail markets provide full nutrition information for meat products. Since there is no nutritional information for fresh meat products in traditional wet markets, this study aimed to investigate consumer purchasing intention and willingness to pay (WTP) for this nutritional information in Taiwanese traditional wet markets. A total of 1420 valid respondents were examined using the random utility theory to explain consumer purchasing intention and WTP for nutritional information. Results showed that most (over 60%) consumers in traditional wet markets have positive purchasing intent for meat products with the nutrition information provided. Furthermore, the nutrition information in traditional wet markets significantly boosts consumers’ purchasing intention and WTP when consumers have a personal health awareness on meat, have proficient experience in buying meat, and continuously receive information from health-related media. Specifically, consumers’ shopping background and their level of health consciousness would be the key factors that would alter their WTP, if provided nutritional claims.