Do Consumers Adhere to a Sustainable Mediterranean Food Pattern? An Analysis of Southern Italian Consumer Practices

The Mediterranean diet (MD) concept has evolved in recent decades, moving from the perception of a healthy diet model to the awareness that it is also a sustainable food model. This dietary model, in fact, brings benefits in terms of nutrition, health, and maintenance of local traditions and food culture, but it also has a better impact in terms of the emission of greenhouse gasses, water and land use, energy consumption, and environment contamination. The aim of this study is to analyze the knowledge of and the adherence to the Mediterranean diet in a sample of adults in southern Italy during 2022, as well as their orientation towards the social dimension of sustainability (in terms of human health and animal welfare) and towards environmental sustainability. To collect information, a questionnaire was prepared for a population of 570 Italian consumers. Using the data from the questionnaires, a multivariate analysis was developed by performing a principal component analysis and a cluster analysis. The results of the empirical analysis proposed by the present study confirm the fact that the analyzed sample lacks adequate knowledge of the MD and, as a result, does not satisfactorily adhere to a healthier lifestyle marked by the criteria of this diet. Most of the clusters derived from the empirical analysis demonstrate low-to-moderate adherence to the MD. There is a need to generate renewed interest in the general population in a sustainable dietary pattern that provides nutritional, environmental, and social benefits. This requires effective health promotion and national interventions to promote the health benefits of the MD.