YOUNG ADULTS OVERLOOK SUSTAINABILITY LABELS ON SEAFOOD

Young adults overlook sustainability labels on seafood. Why do young adults eat less seafood than before despite increased awareness of sustainable food choices?

Summary:

• A specially developed VR grocery store was used to simulate real shopping experiences.
• Eye-tracking data showed that sustainability labels receive little attention.
• Price, habits, and taste influence choices more than sustainability information.
• The majority want the government to convey information about sustainability.
• The study indicates that economic barriers hinder sustainable choices.

To investigate this, researchers at the food research institute Nofima used advanced VR technology to create a virtual grocery store resembling a typical Norwegian supermarket. Virtual reality (VR) is a immersive technology  that allows you to experience and do things in a computer-generated world that feels real.

In the VR store, participants could choose between nine different seafood products: salmon, Norwegian cod, gourmet cod, fish casserole, shrimp, saithe, pickled herring, and whale.

A total of 18 young adults aged 18 to 35 participated in the study, which is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries. Equipped with VR glasses, which also recorded eye-tracking data, and sensors on their hands to measure emotional arousal, participants were asked to choose two of nine different seafood products and placing them in a shopping cart.

Some of the products had food labels such as the “Nyt Norge” label and the “Nøkkelmerke” label, others had sustainability labels from MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) in regular size. One product had an enlarged MSC label.

This method gave researchers unique insights into how participants used their vision and evaluated the products and whether the food labelling had any impact on their choices.

After the VR session, participants were interviewed about their choices and reflections on sustainability and seafood.

Taste and habit

The results show that participants’ choices were often driven by taste and habits. Products such as salmon and trout were the most popular along with Norwegian cod. Only salt cured herring  was not chosen by anyone.

Eye-tracking showed that participants focused mostly on the producer’s brand, origin labelling such as “Norwegian”, and product image on the packaging. The participants chose products mainly based on habits and taste preferences.

“Our cooking skills play an important role when we as consumers choose what to buy to eat. Many people tend to choose what they have the most experience with. Several participants regarded salmon and trout as easier and faster to prepare than other types of fish. This may be related to the heavy investment in advertising for salmon in recent years,” says Kamilla Bergsnev, a researcher at the food research institute Nofima.

Price a challenge

In the interviews, some participants justified their choices based on other factors, such as price, even though the products in the VR grocery store were not labelled with prices. The assumed lower price for a low-price branded product was decisive for one of the participants.

When asked what types of information were crucial for their choice in everyday life, most mentioned price.

Several participants in the study stated that they tried to make sustainable choices, although life as a student made it economically challenging. Also, several believed that sustainable products were more expensive than other products.

The majority of the participants pointed out that they were concerned about where the fish came from and considered Norwegian products to be more sustainable than foreign ones.

Reducing food waste was mentioned by several as an alternative to living more sustainably, and several participants stated that they often buy products that are approaching their expiration date due to reduced price.

“Several also expressed scepticisms towards fish farming and referred to a lot of negative media coverage. However, they still often chose farmed salmon or trout in the VR store. This was justified by several as being difficult to find wild-caught salmon and trout in general. Many were also concerned about how the seafood was produced. Several said they preferred products such as fillets over processed products such as fish casserole, and many were sceptical of ultra-processed food,” says researcher Kamilla Bergsnev.

About half pointed out that health is important when choosing seafood. Most said they wanted to eat more seafood than they do today.

Frustration

Participants were asked if they manage to choose seafood products that match their own values in life, such as sustainability or animal welfare. Many find this difficult and report experiencing both frustration and hopelessness. Only a few of the participants answered that it felt okay.

“It was clear that the majority of participants have a desire to choose more sustainably when they shop for food, but they find it a difficult or impossible task. Many said they did not know what is sustainable or not, and pointed to a lot of contradictory information,” says researcher Bergsnev.

Many of the participants wanted more visible and clear information about sustainability on the packaging and preferred that this information came from the authorities rather than commercial actors.

At the same time, both eye-tracking and interviews show that most had little knowledge of the labels used today. Some said they were familiar with the “Nøkkelhull” and “Nyt Norge” labels, but few knew about the MSC sustainability label. Only two participants observed that there were MSC labels on some of the products. Most pointed out that labels such as the Norwegian flag or similar, indicating that the product is Norwegian, were important for their choice.

“Several of the young participants do not want market-driven systems to determine what is sustainable seafood. Several expressed lacked trust in various forms of food labelling, especially when they came from commercial actors. They had great trust in the authorities in Norway. We cannot generalise the findings in the VR test to apply to all young adults in Norway, but we should investigate this further,” says the researcher.

VR Technology Reveals New Perspectives

VR technology makes it possible to map participants’ shopping patterns in a detailed way. Eye-tracking showed which products participants focused on, while interviews revealed how taste, habits, and perceived complexity influence choices.

“There is great potential for using VR as a research tool in market research. We can observe behaviour in a more detailed way than we can do in physical grocery stores,” says Bergsnev.

She researches consumer behaviour and looks at how consumers’ emotions, attitudes, and preferences influence choices.

Image: Cabinet with seafood products in the VR grocery store. Photo: Nofima

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