Food quality perception in the Czech Republic: trial study results

Introduction. The article presents outputs of a trial which discovered consumers' opinions on food quality labels in the Czech Republic and their influence on shopping behaviour in the process of purchasing foodstuff. Materials and methods. Questionnaire research is a basis for further research realized in 2016. In the trial, 36 respondents over 18 years of age were interviewed in front of grocery stores in the period from December 2015 to January 2016, their distribution roughly corresponded the Czech population sample. Individual semi-structured interviews were used where the respondents answered a set of 13 questions. Results and discussion. Three most influential factors that affect consumers shopping food are price in the first place, origin of the product in the second, and its appearance as third. However, more accurate results will appear with a higher number of respondents in further research. So far the trial leads to the conclusion that quality labels are not the key factor having significant influence on shopping behaviour. In naming quality labels, Klasa appears to be the most recognized label of quality and shows the highest awareness. Other featured labels were Cesky vyrobek and Bio. Nevertheless, consumers do not have an accurate understanding of quality labels meaning in general. In 95% of cases, the respondents agree that labelled products meet their expectations, but only 58% consider labelled products to have higher quality. Almost 61% of the respondents agree that quality labels are trustworthy, and 72% of the sample are willing to pay extra money for labelled food products. Conclusion. About two thirds of consumers trust quality labels and nearly three quarters are willing to pay more for labelled products than unlabelled.