IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i14p6611-d1705510.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Consumer Perspective on the Valorization of Forest Fruit By-Products in a Dairy Product: Opportunity or Challenge?

Author

Listed:
  • Mădălina Ungureanu-Iuga

    (Mountain Economy Center (CE-MONT), National Institute of Economic Research (INCE), Romanian Academy, 49 Petreni Street, 725700 Vatra Dornei, Romania
    Integrated Research, Development and Innovation Center for Advanced Materials, Nanotechnologies and Distributed Manufacturing and Control Systems (MANSiD), “Ștefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, 13 University Street, 720229 Suceava, Romania)

  • Emanuela-Adina Nicula

    (Mountain Economy Center (CE-MONT), National Institute of Economic Research (INCE), Romanian Academy, 49 Petreni Street, 725700 Vatra Dornei, Romania)

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of monthly income level (low, medium, and high) on consumer behavior regarding a newly launched cream cheese product enriched with berry by-products. A panel of 345 participants was surveyed, and data were analyzed using the Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney tests. Most consumers were environmentally aware, recognizing the impact of personal food waste and expressing support for food products incorporating by-products. Respondents also favored the use of renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the food industry. Higher income levels were associated with greater health awareness and increased acceptance of cream cheese with berry by-products, with the high-income group showing a greater willingness to pay a premium. Health benefits and the product’s natural character were the main advantages identified. Individuals with lower incomes were more open to trying unfamiliar foods when ingredient details were not provided, while higher-income respondents expressed greater hesitation and distrust toward new products. Willingness to try novel items decreased with income level. Statistically significant differences ( p < 0.05) were found between income groups for label reading, support for mountain dairies, and the influence of product origin, health benefits, nutrient diversity, pricing concerns, and consumer confidence in purchasing cream cheese with berry by-products. These findings are important for understanding how income affects consumer perceptions and willingness to consume innovative, sustainable food products like berry-enriched cream cheese, highlighting key areas for targeted marketing and product development.

Suggested Citation

  • Mădălina Ungureanu-Iuga & Emanuela-Adina Nicula, 2025. "A Consumer Perspective on the Valorization of Forest Fruit By-Products in a Dairy Product: Opportunity or Challenge?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-20, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:14:p:6611-:d:1705510
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/14/6611/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/14/6611/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elena Sandri & Agnese Broccolo & Michela Piredda, 2025. "Analysis of the Importance of Food Sustainability and the Consumption of Organic and Local Products in the Spanish Population," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-18, January.
    2. Mette Wier & Katherine O'Doherty Jensen & Laura Morch Andersen & Katrin Millock, 2008. "The Character of Demand in Mature Organic Food Markets: Great Britain and Denmark Compared," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-00343683, HAL.
    3. Mette Wier & Katherine O'Doherty Jensen & Laura Morch Andersen & Katrin Millock, 2008. "The Character of Demand in Mature Organic Food Markets: Great Britain and Denmark Compared," Post-Print halshs-00343683, HAL.
    4. Silvia Coderoni & Maria Angela Perito, 2020. "Sustainable consumption in the circular economy. An analysis of consumers’ purchase intentions for waste-to-value food," Post-Print hal-03385002, HAL.
    5. Wen-Shin Huang & Tzung-You Tsai & Kung-Ling Lai & Han-Shen Chen, 2024. "Analyzing Consumer Motivations and Behaviors Towards Upcycled Food from an Environmental Sustainability Perspective," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-18, November.
    6. Xiaoke Yang & Yuanhao Huang & Xiaoying Cai & Yijing Song & Hui Jiang & Qian Chen & Qiuhua Chen, 2021. "Using Imagination to Overcome Fear: How Mental Simulation Nudges Consumers’ Purchase Intentions for Upcycled Food," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-21, January.
    7. Isabelle Cristina Galindo Curvelo & Eluiza Alberto de Morais Watanabe & Solange Alfinito, 2019. "Purchase intention of organic food under the influence of attributes, consumer trust and perceived value," Revista de Gestão, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 26(3), pages 198-211, June.
    8. Briz, T. & Ward, R.W., 2009. "Consumer awareness of organic products in Spain: An application of multinominal logit models," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 295-304, June.
    9. Maria Angela Perito & Silvia Coderoni & Carlo Russo, 2020. "Consumer Attitudes towards Local and Organic Food with Upcycled Ingredients: An Italian Case Study for Olive Leaves," Post-Print hal-04554343, HAL.
    10. Wier, Mette & O'Doherty Jensen, Katherine & Andersen, Laura Mørch & Millock, Katrin, 2008. "The character of demand in mature organic food markets: Great Britain and Denmark compared," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 406-421, October.
    11. Aschemann-Witzel, Jessica & Stangherlin, Isadora Do Carmo, 2021. "Upcycled by-product use in agri-food systems from a consumer perspective: A review of what we know, and what is missing," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shahjahan Ali & Shahnaj Akter & Csaba Fogarassy, 2021. "Analysis of Circular Thinking in Consumer Purchase Intention to Buy Sustainable Waste-To-Value (WTV) Foods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-14, May.
    2. Shahnaj Akter & Shahjahan Ali & Mária Fekete-Farkas & Csaba Fogarassy & Zoltán Lakner, 2023. "Why Organic Food? Factors Influence the Organic Food Purchase Intension in an Emerging Country (Study from Northern Part of Bangladesh)," Resources, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, January.
    3. repec:zib:zbseps:v:2:y:2022:2:1:p:44-52 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Roman Ostapenko & Yuliia Herasymenko & Vitalii Nitsenko & Svitlana Koliadenko & Tomas Balezentis & Dalia Streimikiene, 2020. "Analysis of Production and Sales of Organic Products in Ukrainian Agricultural Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-15, April.
    5. Mahnaz Mansoor & Justin Paul, 2022. "Consumers' choice behavior: An interactive effect of expected eudaimonic well‐being and green altruism," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 94-109, January.
    6. Francisco José Torres‐Ruiz & Manuela Vega‐Zamora & Manuel Parras‐Rosa, 2018. "Sustainable Consumption: Proposal of a Multistage Model to Analyse Consumer Behaviour for Organic Foods," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 588-602, May.
    7. Krystyna Mazurek-Łopacińska & Magdalena Sobocińska & Joanna Krupowicz, 2022. "Purchase Motives and Factors Shaping Consumer Behaviour on the Ecological Product Market (Poland Case Study)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-29, November.
    8. Phani Kumar Chintakayala & William Young & Ralf Barkemeyer & Michelle A. Morris, 2018. "Breaking niche sustainable products into the mainstream: Organic milk and free‐range eggs," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(7), pages 1039-1051, November.
    9. Bergès, Fabian & Monier-Dilhan, Sylvette, 2013. "Do consumers buy organic food for sustainability or selfish reasons?," TSE Working Papers 13-372, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Aug 2013.
    10. Ahsan Akbar & Saqib Ali & Muhammad Azeem Ahmad & Minhas Akbar & Muhammad Danish, 2019. "Understanding the Antecedents of Organic Food Consumption in Pakistan: Moderating Role of Food Neophobia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-20, October.
    11. Gratiela Dana Boca, 2021. "Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior in Sustainable Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in Maramures County, Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    12. Jibonayan Raychaudhuri & Ada Wossink, 2023. "Ecolabels and the economic recession," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(12), pages 1-27, December.
    13. Michael Grimm & Nathalie Luck & Franziska Steinhübel, 2023. "Consumers' willingness to pay for organic rice: Insights from a non‐hypothetical experiment in Indonesia," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 67(1), pages 83-103, January.
    14. Chen, Xuqi & Gao, Yujuan & Gao, Zhifeng, 2022. "Impacts of color-coded nutrition facts panel and consumer responses," 2024 Annual Meeting, July 28-30, New Orleans, LA 322206, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Oliver Meixner & Felix Katt, 2020. "Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Consumer Food Safety Perceptions—A Choice-Based Willingness to Pay Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-18, September.
    16. Laura Mørch Andersen & Thomas Bøker Lund, 2011. "Digging deeper: How do different types of organic consumers influence the increasing organic market share?," IFRO Working Paper 2011/15, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    17. Jelena Vapa-Tankosić & Svetlana Ignjatijević & Jelena Kiurski & Jovana Milenković & Irena Milojević, 2020. "Analysis of Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Organic and Local Honey in Serbia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-23, June.
    18. Vuk Radojević & Mirela Tomaš Simin & Danica Glavaš Trbić & Dragan Milić, 2020. "A Profile of Organic Food Consumers—Serbia Case-Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-22, December.
    19. Blaće, Ante & Čuka, Anica & Šiljković, Željka, 2020. "How dynamic is organic? Spatial analysis of adopting new trends in Croatian agriculture," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    20. Hoang Viet Nguyen & Ninh Nguyen & Bach Khoa Nguyen & Antonio Lobo & Phuong Anh Vu, 2019. "Organic Food Purchases in an Emerging Market: The Influence of Consumers’ Personal Factors and Green Marketing Practices of Food Stores," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-17, March.
    21. Eriksson, Mattias & Strid, Ingrid & Hansson, Per-Anders, 2014. "Waste of organic and conventional meat and dairy products—A case study from Swedish retail," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 44-52.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:14:p:6611-:d:1705510. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.