Understanding the Predictors of Sustainable Food Consumption Behavior: A Pathway to Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

Sustainable consumption behavior (SCB) has emerged as a critical area of inquiry within consumer research, particularly in response to escalating global sustainability challenges. While existing literature has increasingly addressed SCB, much of this work remains narrowly concentrated on the acquisition phase, with limited attention to the usage and disposal stages. Addressing this gap, the present study develops an integrated, stage‐wise model of sustainable food consumption encompassing acquisition, usage, and disposal behaviors. Grounded in the Norm Activation Model (NAM), the framework incorporates consumer attitude and consumer minimalism to provide a more comprehensive understanding of sustainable food behavior. Data were collected from a sample of 373 Indian consumers via a structured questionnaire and analyzed using SmartPLS v.4. The findings indicate that sustainable intention significantly predicts SCB across all three consumption stages, exerting the greatest influence during the acquisition phase, followed by disposal and usage. Moreover, responsibility attribution partially mediates the relationship between personal norms and consequences perception. Consumer attitude partially mediates the effect of personal norms on consumer minimalism, which in turn partially mediates the relationship between personal norms and sustainable intention. These insights offer valuable theoretical contributions and practical implications, particularly for policymakers and marketers in the food sector aiming to advance sustainable consumption in emerging markets. This study is among the few empirical investigations to systematically explore SCB across the full consumption cycle, thereby enriching the discourse on consumer behavior in alignment with Sustainable Development Goal 12.