As the demand for beef products grows in the Chinese market, understanding consumer preferences for beef, especially those related to quality labelling, is essential. The recent agreement between China and the European Union to promote Geographical Indications (GIs) provides a new insight into preferences for beef with quality labelling. This paper assesses consumer preferences for beef products with GIs and other attributes. A nationwide survey is conducted including 1210 respondents in China by a choice experiment attributing GI label, 'green', 'hazard-free', and 'organic' labels, feeding regimes (grain-fed, grass-fed), country of origin (China, Ireland, Australia, Brazil), and price (30, 40, 80, 100 ¥/500 g). The random parameter logit model with error component reveals that Chinese consumers have a significant preference for grain-fed beef and domestic beef, and they are willing to pay a premium price for GI-labelled beef compared with other attributes. The interaction between GIs and country of origin is included to indicate the positive price impact of GIs on imported beef products. Demographic factors such as place of residence and occupation are found to affect consumer preferences for GIs.

Purpose: Following the standard practice of using nutrition claims to denote food functionality, this study empirically explores Chinese consumers’ willingness-to-pay for functional processed meat products by using three nutrition claims (namely “increased calcium,” “containing omega-3”, and “reduced salt”) made on pork sausages. It also aims to outline the typical characteristics of Chinese consumer segments based on preferences.Design/methodology/approach: A choice-based choice experiment is utilized to investigate Chinese consumers’ valuation on attributes of interest regarding functional sausage products. First-hand data was collected in the two cities of Xi'an and Beijing.Findings: There are market potentials for domestic and/or imported functional processed meat products among Chinese consumers. Nutrition claims made on pork sausages are appealing to Chinese consumers, and therefore, monetarily rewarded by them. Being imported from a more developed country of origin could both positively and negatively impact consumers’ WTP for nutrition claims made on pork sausages. Furthermore, specific functional modification strategies should be taken into account when addressing different segments of the Chinese market. In addition, regional impacts between Xi'an and Beijing are implied in terms of consumers’ valuation for functional pork sausages.Research limitations/implications: Limitations in the current study are mainly two folds. First, the WTP estimation magnitudes are subject to a hypothetical bias by using a stated preference approach. Second, this study only focuses on pork sausages to explore consumers’ perceptions and selects three nutrition claims among many other relevant options.Practical implications: Implications are provided for meat marketers and for Chinese official food policymakers, such that promoting meat products with a nutrition claim is an attractive marketing strategy for foreign food manufacturers in China, and more reformulated meat products with better nutritional compositions should be allowed in the Chinese market.Originality/value: To the best of the author’s knowledge, this research is the first to fill in the literature blank on investigating the consumers’ valuation for functional meat in the emerging market of China. Because when taking Chinese consumers as a target market and evaluating their perceptions of food quality-related labeling and certifications, the existing literature is mainly limited to topics of product safety, organic/green products, and geographical origins. However, nutrition claims, as marketable credence attributes that associate closely to the main characteristics of the functional food products, have been explored to a much lesser extent among Chinese consumers.

Purpose: Continuing economic growth in emerging markets offers large market opportunities to producers and marketers worldwide; however, market failures due to asymmetric information are often seen when high-quality products enter these “new markets” where recognition rates among consumers are low. The use of “geographical origin” labels as quality signals to overcome asymmetric information problem plays an important role. The purpose of this paper is to compare consumers’ perception and willingness to pay (WTP) for different levels of geographic origin labels to provide insights to the strategic use of origin labels in emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach: A consumer survey on geographic labeling for imported dairy products was carried out in Beijing, China in May 2015. Under the “products of European Union (EU)” range, the authors used “product of Ireland” as a case study for the country-specific origin label. Information on consumer demographic, dairy consumption, safety perceptions, knowledge on Ireland and Irish products, as well as WTP for different geographic labeling and product attributes were collected from 307 face-to-face interviews. WTP was elicited using double-bounded contingent valuation method, and estimated with maximum log-likelihood function. Findings: The authors found that consumers are willing to pay premium prices for both of these geographical origin indicators, but the EU label had slightly higher WTP results. However, the controversial situation is that although the EU label has a better chance than the country-specific label in signaling premium quality to Chinese consumers, EU labeling at its best signals an average quality across the EU counties. For premium products with above average quality, using generic EU labeling has a potential drawback to the establishment of product differentiation. Originality/value: This study is the first to evaluate Chinese consumers’ WTP for EU generic origin label for dairy products in comparison to country-specific origin label. Findings of the study have immediate policy and marketing implications in emerging markets.

Despite the fast-rising popularity of whey protein sports supplements over recent years, there has been little research to investigate the driving forces behind the consumer choices. Using a consumer dataset collected in Ireland, we applied the ordered Heckman two-stage method to examine the evolving consumer trend and to determine the key factors that affect consumers’ choices. The study found that demographic variables, such as gender and income, do not significantly influence the decision on whether or not to consume whey, but exercise type is highly influential. The desire for power and strength is a stable key consumption driver, with endurance and flexibility becoming more important in the expansion of this industry. The study also found that whey is under-consumed by older age groups and under-promoted based on country of origin affiliation. Findings of the study provide further insights to relevant literature and have direct implications to the sports supplement industry as well as the dairy ingredient industry.

As marketing tools, nutrition claims (NCs) and health claims (HCs) can be used to convey the nutritional properties and health benefits of food to consumers, but their respective effects on consumers’ perceptions of healthier meat products are inconsistent in the literature. Using a physical prototype of omega-3-enriched sausages as a research interest, this paper explores how HCs and NCs differently influence consumers’ sensory preferences and willingness to pay (WTP). Sensory tests were carried out among 330 participants, followed by a choice-based conjoint (CBC) experiment to measure consumers’ WTP. Results indicate that, in comparison with the uninformed condition, labeling an omega-3 nutrition claim increased consumers’ sensory liking for omega-3-enriched sausages in the attributes of appearance and texture. Moreover, consumers were willing to pay more for healthier sausages, but labeling HCs did not significantly improve participants’ WTP for omega-3-enriched sausages more than NCs. Hence, HCs did not significantly outperform NCs, when it comes to positively influencing consumers’ sensory liking and paying intentions for omega-3-enriched sausages. The findings of this study have implications for the meat industry in developing healthier sausage formulations with greater likelihood of success in the market.

Consumption trends demand healthier meat products and require research into reformulation strategies. Ambiguities in consumer preferences for two processed meat reformulation strategies (i.e., ingredient “reduction” and nutrient “addition”) were investigated. Using physical prototypes of omega-3-enriched pork sausages and sensory evaluation to reduce hypothetical bias, followed by a choice-based conjoint experiment, results suggested that consumers valued both “addition” and “reduction” reformulation strategies, and consumers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) premiums were the highest for omega-3 addition, followed by fat reduction, and were lowest for salt reduction. Moreover, WTP was influenced by sensory preferences and was positively correlated with sensory liking levels. Providing health-related information improved consumers’ sensory perceptions of omega-3-enriched sausages. Findings imply that reformulated healthier meat products are acceptable to consumers. Moreover, to enhance consumers’ valuation on new launches of healthier processed meat products, meat manufacturers should inform consumers of health-related reformulation information, provide consumers with opportunities to taste newly developed healthier processed meat products, and continuously optimize consumers’ sensory experience.