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• Interpretation of Health-conscious Food Consumption Behavior on the Basis of LOHAS Concept

  39-46

  József Lehota

  Éva Csíkné Mácsai

  Georgina Rácz

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  281

  In our study, the information search behavior of sustainability committed consumer group is analyzed. Furthermore, consumer opinions about nutrition labels on food packaging are highlighted. According to the international literature, LOHAS (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability) group is the most committed consumer segment to sustainability.
  Exploration of Hungarian sustainability committed consumer groups’ opinion about food labels is supported by the closing part of a research chain which was started in 2010. This, last research was carried out in 2012, where, with the aid of quota sampling, Trend followers’ and Unconcerned’s judgment on food labels was investigated. The quota and the two mentioned groups were formed on the basis of a national representative research, which was performed in 2011. Information search behavior was evaluated according to the structure of Grunert-Wills’ information search model. In this study we focus on our research results, which connect to the last two steps (understanding, interferences and use) of the mentioned model.
  Goal of this research is to investigate in a practical aspect of information search behavior of domestic sustainability committed consumer group (“Trend followers”) in connection with food labels proving health effects of foodstuffs. Four hypotheses were defined to reach our goal:
  H1: Among health information on food packaging, labels stating energy value, are getting a higher influencing role in food purchasing process, where conscious consumer groups have a deeper knowledge about the objective meaning of food labels.
  H2: Consumer knowledge about objective meaning of food labels is getting a highlighted role in formation of brand loyalty.
  H3: Trust has an essential role in consumer acceptation of food labels, where common qualifier activity of different organizations (state, profit and nonprofit area) come into the front.
  H4: Correct understanding of food labels has a positive influencing effect on acceptation of higher prices and on real use of food labels during food purchasing.
  One- and multivariate analysis and cross table analysis were calculated to investigate our assumptions. In the closing part of our study, three practical recommendations are defined, which relate to follows: optimization of communication strategy of food industries, way of introduction of new food labels and need of objective guidance of consumers about food information.