Carla Cavallo

University of Naples Federico II | UNINA · Department of Agriculture

Purpose The scenario of clean wines is rather articulated, and many consumers perceive diverse types of wines as a homogeneous category, not actually related with the true characteristics of the products. Additionally, most often, individuals turning to these wines are driven either by health concerns or environmental consciousness or by curiosity....

Fish is an important source of healthy proteins and an important economic sector in Mediterranean countries. Despite the wealth of knowledge acquired in Western countries, a gap has been found in studies in developing countries, as in the Mediterranean southern shore. Therefore, we aimed to investigate consumers’ perceptions of finfish attributes,...

Purpose This study aims to investigate consumer acceptance for a set of innovations that can be applied to the production process of extra-virgin olive oil. The final purpose is to verify whether, and to what extent, consumer acceptance of innovations varies depending on the type of technology used and the profile of consumers. Design/methodology/...

Wildfires are one of the most important natural disturbances in vegetation biomes. In recent decades, both the number and severity of fires have significantly increased in Mediterranean forests, frequently resulting in catastrophic events. In this scenario, we aimed to explore the flow of ecosystem services and their related economic value that was...

This study started from the assumption that children’s healthy diets are primarily determined by their parents and their intentions towards serving fruit and vegetables. Although it is widely known that a significant share in fruits and vegetables in children’s diets has several advantages, there are some safety issues that can act as barriers in p...

The present study aims to extend the existing literature on EVOO consumers by assessing the importance of health claims in selecting EVOO products by jointly accounting for consumer preferences for the many search, experience, and credence attributes potentially available on EVOO, as well as by accounting for attitudinal and psychographic individua...

Natural labels are increasingly present in the market and appreciated by consumers, despite formal regulation still missing. Knowing the psychosocial factors that may predict natural food choice may be useful to understand what drives consumers to choose this category of food. We analyzed the antecedents of consumers’ intention to purchase natural...

Purpose: Recently, several regional Protected Geographical Indications (PGI) have been introduced in Italy for Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) with the aim of coping with the substantial failure of Protected Designations of Origin (PDO). This study aims to identify which characteristics consumers expect, in order to anticipate the market success. Met...

Health claims have been introduced in food labelling to support consumers’ awareness of healthy food choices and to enhance a healthy diet. Even though many countries around the world have developed legislation and guidelines to regulate the introduction of health claims on food labels, there is the evidence that many consumers do not understand th...

The Covid-19 pandemic lead Italy to undertake a severe lockdown for almost two months. All of a sudden, the lives of Italians were forced to shift in accordance with the regulations issued by government. This change in the lives of Italians can be mirrored by an adjustment in food consumer behaviour that, consequently, brought about a transition in...

The use of ultrasounds for the extraction of extra-virgin olive oil is an emerging technology capable of improving both the efficiency of the process and the quality of the final product. However, this technology has not been introduced yet on the market mostly because of the uncertainty about consumers’ acceptance. This study aimed to investigate...

Innovation is fundamental for all agri-food companies to increase competitiveness. Being extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) a traditional food product (TFP), the main obstacle to innovation is its traditional nature. This study evaluated consumers’ acceptance for an EVOO with a naturally increased content of poliphenols, as it has been extracted through...

Globally, bitterness in food is not a preferred attribute by consumers, for several reasons. In the case of Extra Virgin Olive Oil its presence is fundamental as it is a healthiness indicator, being strictly linked to the antioxidant content. The current study aimed to assess the extent of Italian consumers' preferences for bitterness taste of Extr...

Can nudging be used as a strategy helpful to lower consumers’ aversion to bitter taste? Is there a possibility to identify characteristics of consumers that are more likely to not avoid bitter products?

The presence of some healthy phytochemicals in food can be paired with high bitterness, and consumers have a widespread avoidance toward bitter-tasting food. This causes a gap between preferences and healthy needs of consumers. Therefore, this review collected insights from literature belonging to different discipline domains in order to have a bro...

Food marketing strategies constantly use trendy messages, novel displays, colourful floor decals, compelling store arrangements and other environmental triggers to exploit consumers; nudges hold the promise to adopt the same interventions to increase healthier choices. The purpose of this systematic review is to frame the state of the art and resea...

In recent years, the certification of environmental sustainability has been adopted by a large number of farms. A wide range of recent literature proved consumers’ preference and willingness to pay (WTP) for certification claiming for reduced environmental impact of food production, whereas the literature on farmers’ preference for a specific schem...

The present study aimed to investigate, from a psychological perspective, the elements that are able to predict attitudes to, and purchases of, organic products. Our specific focus was organic milk due to the reputation established by this product over the years, especially thanks to sales by large retailers. The analysis was performed within the t...

The current study combined hedonic liking with non-hypothetical experimental auctions to measure consumer preferences for bitter tasting food and identify individual socio-demographic and psychographic characteristics that influence bitter aversion. Furthermore, the research analyzed whether consumer preferences for bitter food were influenced by s...

Nowadays, food has reached a great level of differentiation, linked to processes, products, and ethical issues as well (Aprile, et al., 2012; Grunert, 2002). Growing consumers awareness of specific product attributes related to health, origin, environment and ethical concerns is shaping a wider concept of food quality (Feldmann & Hamm, 2015; Gruner...

The production of proteins from insects is the next big challenge for Western countries. Although several benefits have been highlighted, mainly regarding their high environmental, social and economic sustainability, the use of insect-based ingredients is a radical break with tradition and encounters a very low acceptance among consumers. In this s...

Innovation is fundamental for all agri-food companies to increase competitiveness, however the industrial process of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) has changed very little over the last few decades. As it is a traditional food product (TFP), the main obstacle to innovation is precisely its traditional nature. According to the literature, any innovat...

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest towards the concept of sustainable consumption, besides academic literature policymakers and international organizations also claimed the importance of this issue. The relevance of sustainable consumption in modern society is also demonstrated by the proliferation of terms which mainly refer to...

Background: Over the years, niche-differentiation strategies and food policies have pushed quality standards of European extra-virgin olive oil towards a product that has a sensory profile consisting of fruity, bitter and pungent notes, as such oils have excellent healthy features. However, whether typical consumers are ready for a richer and more...

The transport phase is one of the crucial stages that can be improved to reduce the environmental impact of the fresh fruit and vegetables supply chain. In this paper, we calculate the environmental impact of feasible logistic alternatives for the above supply chain so as to identify the type of transportation that incurs the lowest environmental c...

Visual elements of food products can play an important role in determining food choice through shaping the attributes perception of consumers. Symbols and logos have the role of conveying information, but they can be interpreted in different ways. The product used as a case study is Extra‐Virgin Olive Oil. The elements tested are: color of the bott...

Olive oil is one of the leading products for Southern Europe economy and it is an important products for consumers as well: in fact, it has an important role in determining the healthiness of diets. In light of those elements it is important to explain what is valued by consumers in order to focus the development of the product toward what the cons...

As the overall demand for food increases, there is an urgent need of sustainable proteins. To what extent European consumers are willing to accept innovative ingredients in their diet is the main research question we address. Interviews are conducted on a sample of 45 Italian consumers and results are analysed through the laddering method with the...

The literature on food economics has extensively analyzed consumer preferences for extra-virgin olive oil attributes. In order to summarize and systematize the information gained in recent years, it seems appropriate to make a critique of the existing literature. First, we carry out a narrative systematic review of the literature on the topic. Sub...