A study on consumer characteristics of processed rice and meat products on food-related lifestyles using beta regression model

This study compares consumer characteristics of processed rice and meat products on food-related lifestyles. As the social environment changes and household income improves, the trend of diet change and single-person households is diversifying the food consumption patterns of consumers. The food industry and production technology has developed and the consumption of processed or convenience food is increasing. The existing studies are mostly related to the riskiness and disease-causing factors of processed food. In the Asian markets such as Korea and Japan and the North American and European markets, the processed rice industry is rapidly developing. In this study, we analyze the purchasing characteristics of processed rice consumption as compared to processed meat products. We used consumer panel purchase data of 703 housewives in South Korea from the Rural Development Administration. The data includes household purchasing scanner panel data for the year 2014 and questionnaires related to food-related lifestyle. We used confirmatory factor analysis and the beta regression model to identify processed food consumer characteristics. The purchase rate of processed food over the total amount has a range from ‘0’ to ‘1’. To correct for heteroscedasticity and statistical errors in the dependent variable, we use the beta regression model for the rate from ‘0’ to ‘1’. . The social democratic variables such as age and number of family members from the beta regression have a negative relationship and the eating out purchase amount has a positive relationship with both processed rice and meat products (p <0.05). The food-related lifestyles variables of the price criteria for quality and the cost performance for ways of shopping and eating out in a consumption situation increased the rate of purchasing processed meat. However, health quality decreased the consumption rate of processed meat (p <0.05). In the case of processed rice, the propensity to seek a cooking method increased the rate of purchasing processed rice (p <0.05), and the price criteria for ways to shop and propensity to cook with a plan decreased the rate of purchasing amount (p <0.05). According to the results, consumers who purchase a high proportion of processed meat usually consider more price information and consume relatively less healthy products. However, consumers of processed rice tend to purchasing for a new cooking method and consider less a price criteria and cooking plan for consumption.