Consumer Awareness and Purchase Intention towards Packaged Sustainable Food in Delhi NCR an Empirical Study

Abstract

This study aims to develop the concept of packaged sustainable food and assess its awareness towards purchase intention among the consumers in Delhi NCR. In this era of globalisation and economic liberalisation, people in countries like India are undergoing a paradigm shift in their socioeconomic positions. It reflects in their lifestyle, diet habits and food culture. Consequently, diet-related diseases such as undernutrition and obesity mushroomed within the populations. Unsustainable food consumption is a significant cause of such health risks. From this perspective, food packaging has a significant role in the reorganisation of healthy foodstuffs for consumers. Food packaging not only extends the food shelf life but also reducing food loss during transportation, distribution and storage of food. At the same time, unsustainable food packaging causes several environmental issues like generating solid waste. Thus, unsustainable food and unsustainable packaging create a double burden on health and the environment. Based on these issues, the current study identified the desperate need for sustainability in food and food packaging. newlineThe study has been conducted in two phases. The first phase was carried out by qualitative descriptive studies and proposed the concept of packaged sustainable food . The second phase was focused on an empirical study through primary data collection. In the second phase, the study investigated awareness of consumers towards packaged sustainable food and whether they have an intention to purchase such food product. newlineFrom the analysis, the study points out that the overall awareness of packaged sustainable food concept is highly relevant to the sustainability literacy of the consumer. At the same time, sustainable food labels have a vital role in recognition of packaged sustainable food. It also profoundly influences consumer purchase intention.