Consumers' attitudes towards sustainable food: a cluster analysis of Italian university students

Public and academic attention towards sustainable consumption has been impressive in the last decade, but consumer attitudes and buying behaviours of sustainable food are still not completely understood. The current paper explores Italian university students' (N= 500) attitudes towards sustainable foods through factor analysis and cluster analysis (K-means method). Three different consumer types were identified: the responsible food consumer, the inattentive food consumer and the potentially sustainable food consumer. The first and third segments, revealing high interest levels and awareness of sustainability issues in food, worth further analysis by food producers and policy makers concerned with fostering market development of these products.