Zhifeng Gao, professor in the Food and Resource Economics Department at the University of Florida, will give the talk "How availability and accessibility shape online grocery choices: evidence from hypothetical and real choice experiments," at noon on Wednesday, Sept. 30, in 157 Hosler Building on Penn State's University Park campus.
The event is part of a fall seminar series hosted by the Initiative for Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy (EEEPI). The talk is free and open to the public.
The United States Food and Drug Administration requires nutrition facts panels (NFP) on all packaged food. However, FDA labeling requirements don't extend to online grocery store platforms, which makes the NFP availability and placement inconsistent. Some products lack nutrition information entirely, while others display it only in secondary images, according to Gao.
"This variability may reduce consumers' ability to evaluate a product's healthfulness in digital shopping environments, which are becoming increasingly popular among consumers for grocery shopping," Gao said. "This study examines how NFP availability and accessibility influence consumer online grocery choices using both hypothetical and real choice experiments."
In the study, participants made purchase decisions for two cereal products under three conditions: no NFP; NFP displayed as the primary product image; or NFP shown in a secondary thumbnail.
"Our results show that displaying NFP as the primary product image significantly increases consumer preference for the healthier product, whereas presenting it in a secondary thumbnail has no effect," Gao said. "In addition, both hypothetical and real choice experiments reveal a significant positive effect of prominent NFP placement."
Gao's research uses primary data from surveys and lab/field experiments to examine the factors that shape individual behavior regarding food choices and agricultural technology adoption. He said much of his work focuses on strategies and policies that promote sustainable food consumption and the adoption of sustainable technologies among farmers.
Gao has published more than 100 peerreviewed articles in journals such as Food Policy, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Ecological Economics, Agricultural Economic, and Food Quality and Preference. He earned his doctorate in agricultural economics from Kansas State University.
About EEEPI
Established in 2011, EEEPI operates as a University-wide initiative at Penn State with support from the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute and the Institute of Energy and the Environment. EEEPI seeks to catalyze research in energy and environmental systems economics across the University and to build a world-class group of economists with interests in interdisciplinary collaboration.
