Meat-free diets and their relationship with the meaning of food and eco-friendly purchase and consumption behaviours

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to determine whether people with different eating patterns, specifically meat-free diets, engage in other types of eco-friendly behaviours and whether the meanings attributed to food allow for a better understanding of this relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected between 2019 and 2020, on the island of Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. Different instruments were used: The meaning of food in life questionnaire (MFLQ; Arbit et al., 2017); the dietarian identity questionnaire (DIQ; Rosenfeld and Burrow, 2018) and the frugal behaviour scale (Muiños et al., 2015) and two items were used to identify the frequency with which participants purchased ecological or second-hand products. The final sample consisted of 202 participants who ate a vegan, vegetarian or omnivorous diet. Spearman's Correlations were performed and the Kruskal–Wallis statistical test was used.

Findings

People with a vegan or vegetarian diet purchased ecological (p ≤ 0.001) and second-hand products (p = 0.006) more frequently compared to omnivores. Furthermore, the meanings attributed to food, specifically the moral, sacred and health meanings, were related to differences in eating patterns (p ≤ 0.001), while also being related to some eco-friendly purchase and consumption behaviours. Lastly, frugal behaviour was only found to be related to the health factor of meaning in food (rs = 0.27).

Research limitations/implications

The measurement used to evaluate the purchase of ecological and second-hand products is very simple/the role of the meaning of food in guiding more eco-friendly behaviours and promoting less ecologically impactful eating patterns.

Originality/value

The study provides valuable information on how vegan, vegetarian and omnivorous diets relate to eco-friendly behaviours.

Citation

Chinea Montesdeoca, C., Suárez, E., Hernández, B. and Rolo-González, G. (2022), "Meat-free diets and their relationship with the meaning of food and eco-friendly purchase and consumption behaviours", British Food Journal, Vol. 124 No. 9, pp. 2761-2771. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-03-2021-0309