Dataset Information

Food purchase behaviour in a Finnish population: patterns, carbon footprints and expenditures.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To identify food purchase patterns and to assess their carbon footprint and expenditure.

Design

Cross-sectional.

Setting

Purchase patterns were identified by factor analysis from the annual purchases of 3435 product groups. The associations between purchase patterns and the total purchases' carbon footprints (based on life-cycle assessment) and expenditure were analysed using linear regression and adjusted for nutritional energy content of the purchases.

Participants

Loyalty card holders (n 22 860) of the largest food retailer in Finland.

Results

Eight patterns explained 55 % of the variation in food purchases. The Animal-based pattern made the greatest contribution to the annual carbon footprint, followed by the Easy-cooking, and Ready-to-eat patterns. High-energy, Traditional and Plant-based patterns made the smallest contribution to the carbon footprint of the purchases. Animal-based, Ready-to-eat, Plant-based and High-energy patterns made the greatest contribution, whereas the Traditional and Easy-cooking patterns made the smallest contribution to food expenditure. Carbon footprint per euros spent increased with stronger adherence to the Traditional, Animal-based and Easy-cooking patterns.

Conclusions

The Animal-based, Ready-to-eat and High-energy patterns were associated with relatively high expenditure on food, suggesting no economic barrier to a potential shift towards a plant-based diet for consumers adherent to those patterns. Strong adherence to the Traditional pattern resulted in a low energy-adjusted carbon footprint but high carbon footprint per euro. This suggests a preference for cheap nutritional energy rather than environment-conscious purchase behaviour. Whether a shift towards a plant-based pattern would be affordable for those with more traditional and cheaper purchase patterns requires more research.

SUBMITTER: Meinila J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9991547 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Food purchase behaviour in a Finnish population: patterns, carbon footprints and expenditures.

Meinilä Jelena J Hartikainen Hanna H Tuomisto Hanna L HL Uusitalo Liisa L Vepsäläinen Henna H Saarinen Merja M Kinnunen Satu S Lehto Elviira E Saarijärvi Hannu H Katajajuuri Juha-Matti JM Erkkola Maijaliisa M Nevalainen Jaakko J Fogelholm Mikael M

Public health nutrition 20220818 11

<h4>Objective</h4>To identify food purchase patterns and to assess their carbon footprint and expenditure.<h4>Design</h4>Cross-sectional.<h4>Setting</h4>Purchase patterns were identified by factor analysis from the annual purchases of 3435 product groups. The associations between purchase patterns and the total purchases' carbon footprints (based on life-cycle assessment) and expenditure were analysed using linear regression and adjusted for nutritional energy content of the purchases.<h4>Partic ...[more]

PMID: 35979803

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Dataset Information

Food purchase behaviour in a Finnish population: patterns, carbon footprints and expenditures.

Objective

Design

Setting

Participants

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Food purchase behaviour in a Finnish population: patterns, carbon footprints and expenditures.

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