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Evidence from Retail Food Markets That Consumers Are Confused by Natural and Organic Food Labels

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  • F. Kuchler

    (Economic Research Service)

  • M. Bowman

    (Economic Research Service)

  • M. Sweitzer

    (Economic Research Service)

  • C. Greene

    (Economic Research Service)

Abstract

In the USA, food producers can label their products as organic only if they are certified by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as having met comprehensive regulatory standards for environmental stewardship. In contrast, the Federal Government has not defined the term natural for most food products. Survey and experimental studies suggest that consumers are confused by the meanings of natural and USDA Organic on food labels, and often believe that these two label claims have similar meanings. In this paper, we examine whether this confusion influences aggregate retail food expenditures. High-frequency Google Trends data on the volume of web searches for “organic food” and for “natural food” are used as indicators of consumer interest in those food attributes. Results from a vector autoregression model show that web searches for both terms are correlated with retail purchases of organic food. Web searches for both help predict retail purchases. If consumers were aware of differences implied by the two label claims, searches for natural food would be uncorrelated with decisions to purchase organic products. These results are therefore evidence that consumers view the two claims as related, or even view the two claims as identical.

Suggested Citation

  • F. Kuchler & M. Bowman & M. Sweitzer & C. Greene, 2020. "Evidence from Retail Food Markets That Consumers Are Confused by Natural and Organic Food Labels," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 379-395, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jcopol:v:43:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s10603-018-9396-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10603-018-9396-x
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    Cited by:

    1. Kelly R. Wilson & Robert L. Myers & Mary K. Hendrickson & Emily A. Heaton, 2022. "Different Stakeholders’ Conceptualizations and Perspectives of Regenerative Agriculture Reveals More Consensus Than Discord," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-14, November.
    2. Kuchler, Fred & Sweitzer, Megan & Chelius, Carolyn, 2023. "The Prevalence of the “Natural” Claim on Food Product Packaging," Economic Brief 340804, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. Ralf Buckley, 2023. "Sector-Scale Proliferation of CSR Quality Label Programs via Mimicry: The Rotkäppchen Effect," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-11, July.
    4. Karolina Woś & Lisa Marie Borghoff & Andrijana Horvat & Flavio Paoletti & Eleonora Saggia Civitelli & Ewa Rembiałkowska, 2022. "Preliminary Analysis of Voluntary Information on Organic Milk Labels in Four European Union Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-18, December.
    5. Carlson, Andrea & Greene, Catherine & Raszap Skorbiansky, Sharon & Hitaj, Claudia & Ha, Kim & Cavigelli, Michel & Ferrier, Peyton & McBride, William, 2023. "U.S. Organic Production, Markets, Consumers, and Policy, 2000-21," USDA Miscellaneous 333551, United States Department of Agriculture.

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