Determinants of the willingness to buy products certified by omics technology: differences between regular and occasional consumers of organic food

Consumers’ demand for organic food has increased in the last years, together with a growing request for food authentication and safety. Omics technologies represent a viable analytical strategy to respond to such needs, strengthen food safety information transmission between consumers and industry, and differentiate between organic and conventional products. However, little is known about consumers’ perception of such a novel certification approach. The present research ought to provide insights into the perspectives of consumers, exploring the antecedents of their intention to purchase organic vegetables certified through omics technologies and differentiating between regular and occasional consumers of organic foods. Data were collected from a representative sample of 807 Italian respondents who completed a self-report questionnaire, and Structural Equation Modeling was performed to analyze the data. Results show that several factors influence consumers’ approach to omics technology, among which trust in actors in the food industry, attitudes towards the technology and environmental food concerns. In addition, the study drew attention to the differential path impacting consumers with distinct eating habits. Indeed, the degree of importance attributed to food in one’s life and the interest towards innovative food are significant predictors of the intention to adopt omics technology only for people consuming organic products with higher frequency. Also, trust in industry actors follows a different path for regular and occasional organic food consumers. The present study sheds light on consumers’ perspective on omics technologies, a relatively unexplored topic. Moreover, it allowed to differentiate consumers based on their organic consumption habits, which has been rarely done in previous research. The evidence collected suggests the need for tailored communication programs to stimulate the adoption of omics technologies and foster consumers’ confidence in novel food technologies.