FITM Frontiers of Scholarship Series Seminar: Upcycled Foods: How Certification Drives Consumer Choices and Willingness to Pay
In this seminar, Professor Hwang will present one of her recent research papers about upcycled foods. As a promising solution to global food waste, the upcycled food market is growing. While the “Upcycled Certified” mark helps regulate the market and ensure food safety, limited research has explored consumer responses to this certification and its relative importance compared to price, taste, nutritional, and environmental benefits. To address this gap, this research examines willingness to pay a premium for the “Upcycled Certified” mark and assesses its importance relative to other upcycled food attributes. Study 1, a field survey, demonstrated consumers’ willingness to pay a significant premium for Upcycled Certified (vs. uncertified) dried fruits. Study 2, a conjoint experiment, revealed that the importance of certification is moderated by food type, with greater weight given to utilitarian foods than to hedonic ones. These findings provide useful insights for policymakers and food service businesses, highlighting the economic value of the Upcycle Certified program and suggesting that communication strategies should be tailored based on food types.
