Typology of French Consumers According to Their Sustainable Food Practices and Their Level of Trust in the Food System

For many years, the food industry has been hit by numerous scandals. These events have made consumers mistrust the food system, which shows that it is urgent to understand what consumers expect from the food system's actors. This paper aims to establish an original typology of sustainable food consumers based on their sustainable food practices (low level of sustainable food practices/high level of sustainable food practices) and their level of trust in food products and food system actors (high level of trust/low level of trust). A quantitative study was conducted in March 2024 with data collected from French consumers via a questionnaire in order to meet the research objectives. Four separate groups were found: 1) the organised mistrustful (24.16%) who have an average level of trust in food and food industry, 2) the uninvolved mistrustful (28.62%) that are also highly critical of the relevance and honesty of most food system actors, 3) the sustainable selective (35.85%) who have strong sustainable food practices and trust in sustainable products when these products are produced locally or in France and when they are sold in short or organic supply chains, and 4) the highly involved and trustworthy families (11.33%) that have a high level of trust in food and in the ability of all actors to provide sustainable food. By identifying these different consumer archetypes, food system actors can better recover trust and promote sustainable food consumption behaviours.