Consumer Attitudes Towards Health, Nutritional and Environmental Concerns of Beef Consumption by Confronting...

The purpose of this study is to explore markets for fresh beef in Serbia by assessing consumers' attitudes and awareness of three aspects, health, nutrition, and the environment, after being given information. Our working hypothesis was to explore the "halo" and "horn" effects of information about beef production and consumption on consumers. Surveys were carried out with a total sample of 956 beef consumers in order to analyze what they take into account in their buying decisions when they are directly informed. Consciously, we explored three different groups of consumers, consumers conscious about health, nutrition and the environment, which was confirmed after cluster analysis was done. The most numerous groups were customers conscious about health and nutrition, with 39.6% and 35.6% shares of the total number of consumers, respectively. Finally, our results show that consumers value health and environmental information the most, while they were not significantly affected by information about the nutritional benefits of beef.