nutrients

Article
Relationships Between Health and Environmental
Information on the Willingness to Pay for Functional
Foods: The Case of a New Aloe Vera Based Product
Castellari Elena 1 , Ricci Elena Claire 2 , Stranieri Stefanella 3, *, Marette Stéphan 4 ,
Sarnataro Martina 1 and Soregaroli Claudio 1
1 Department of Agri-Food Economics, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Via Emilia Parmense,
84, 29122 Piacenza, Italy; [email protected] (C.E.); [email protected] (S.M.);
[email protected] (S.C.)
2 Department of Business Administration, Università degli Studi di Verona, Via Cantarane 24, 37129 Verona,
Italy; [email protected]
3 Department of Environmental Science and Policy, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 2,
20133 Milano, Italy
4 UMR Économie Publique, INRA, Université Paris-Saclay, F-78850 Grignon, France;
[email protected]
* Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +39-0250316460




Received: 29 September 2019; Accepted: 11 November 2019; Published: 15 November 2019


Abstract: There is an increasing interest in healthy and sustainable product characteristics. Consumers
determine their dietary intake and frame production systems with their choices. However, little is
known about the relationships between health and environmental information in influencing
these choices, especially when considering functional foods. This study assessed the influence of
health-related and environmental-friendliness-related product information on the willingness to pay
(WTP) for functional foods. To this end, a WTP elicitation experiment was set up using a jam-like fruit
compote enriched with Aloe vera gel. Participants were provided with different messages related to
the health and environmental benefits of Aloe vera products, and were also asked to taste the product.
Results indicated that providing new information significantly increased the WTP for the enriched
compote. This increase was significant for both health and environmentally based benefits, with the
health message leading to a higher WTP. Combining health and environmental messages produced
an additive effect on WTP which was independent of the sequential order in which the two messages
were given. Results contrasted the view that health messages are the main drivers of WTP, and open
a broader range of communication in terms of marketing strategies and sustainable policy objectives.

Keywords: food choices; functional food; health information; environmental information; choice
experiment; sustainability

1. Introduction
Consumers are increasingly interested in healthy and sustainable product characteristics when
buying food [1]. Most consumers have concerns about environmental issues and look for sustainable
products with environmentally friendly characteristics which can also positively affect their health [2,3].
In recent decades, the prevalence of food with nutritionally enriched characteristics and functional
ingredients aimed at improving human wellbeing has increased considerably [4]. Functional food
captures this trend of food demand by offering products that impact positively on human health.
The market for functional food is steadily increasing, even if making an estimate of the market
dimension for these products is complicated, mainly because of the lack of a common, internationally

Nutrients 2019, 11, 2781; doi:10.3390/nu11112781 www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients

Nutrients 2019, 11, 2781 2 of 16

recognized definition of such products [5]. In Europe, functional food is defined as “natural or processed
foods that contain known or unknown biologically active compounds which, in defined, effective
non-toxic amounts, provide a clinically proven and documented health benefit for the prevention,
management, or treatment of chronic disease” [6]. Diplock et al. [7] considered a broader definition
by considering products to be functional when it has been satisfactorily proven that they positively
affect human health and wellbeing beyond nutritional effects. Moreover, Poulsen [8] introduced an
even broader definition, identifying four characteristics that could cause a product to be considered
functional: (i) the enrichment of food with a substance which is already part of the product; (ii) the
substitution of a nutrient with another one; (iii) the adding of a new substance in the product; or (iv)
the elimination of a component of the product.
Plant food supplements like aloe-based food products can be considered products with functional
characteristics according to the above definitions. Plant food supplements are foodstuffs with a high
concentration of botanical preparations that have nutritional or physiological effects, alone or in
combination with vitamins, minerals, and other substances which are not plant-based.
Literature to date has explored the market response of functional food mainly by investigating
the factors influencing consumer acceptance of such products [9–11]. This includes socioeconomic
characteristics such as gender [12–14], age [15,16], knowledge [17–19], and lifestyles [5], as well as
cognitive and attitudinal drivers [5,17,20–24] including cultural factors [25], and the role of beliefs [26].
In addition, some quality product characteristics, such as price, convenience, and taste [27] have been
found to influence consumer acceptance for functional foods.
A relevant body of literature has also explored the effect of labeled health information on consumer
preferences and willingness to use novel foods with functional characteristics. Most of the empirical
results have highlighted a positive influence of health claims on the evaluation and choice of functional
foods [28,29]. Other studies have concentrated their attention on the information most able to enhance
consumer response to health claims for functional foods, highlighting how physiology-related health
benefits [30], or health benefits more generally [24,31], are positively impacting motivation to purchase
or are evaluated better than nutrition claims or disease-risk claims [17]. At the same time, the negative
trade-off between healthy characteristics and taste seems to reduce the acceptance of functional foods
over time [27].
To the best of our knowledge, there is currently a gap in the evaluation of other types of information,
apart from health-based, on consumer intention to use functional foods. For example, the effect of
information about the environmentally sustainable attributes of such products has received only
limited attention, even if consumers have been shown to have interest in such characteristics in
food products [32–34]. Moreover, there is also little evidence on the possible synergic or additive
effects of using different types of information on the willingness to pay for products with functional
characteristics. Only a recent study conducted by Goetzke et al. [35] has studied the effect of healthy
consumer lifestyle on the consumption of organic and functional food. More generally, it appears
that the impact of environmental information on food consumption has been much less researched
compared to health-related information and the combination of these two types of information has
garnered very little attention [36].
Study on the effects of health-related and environmental sustainability information is particularly
important as it contributes to the knowledge that could favor a transition toward healthier diets and
sustainable food systems [37]. This is a widely recognized goal among scientists, institutions, and the
public. Information influences consumer demand, and this demand decides the healthiness of diets and
frames production systems [38,39]. There is a growing understanding of the interrelationships between
diet, health, and the environment [40]. Actions in this direction are already visible. For example,
as highlighted by Hoek et al. [41], although dietary guidelines worldwide are mostly focused on
health, some governmental bodies are starting to introduce indications from both environmental and
nutritional science to frame new guidelines.
Nutrients 2019, 11, 2781 3 of 16

On the basis of the above research gaps, the aims of the present paper were: (i) to assess the
influence of health-related and environmental friendliness product information on the willingness
to pay for functional foods; (ii) to empirically estimate the presence of possible synergic or additive
effects of health and environmental-friendliness-related information on the overall evaluation of
functional foods.
In our empirical analysis we referred to a unique, jam-like, aloe-based fruit compote that
has not been commercialized. The health characteristics of this product relate to the absence of
added sugar and to a high concentration of Aloe vera. The gel has a wide array of pharmacological
attributes including: anti-viral, anti-bacterial, laxative, protection against radiation, anti-oxidant,
anti-inflammation, anticancer, anti-diabetic, anti-allergenic, and immuno-stimulation activities. As far
as the food industry is concerned, the potential use of Aloe vera gel has mainly focused on the
development of functional foods due to its beneficial properties in treating constipation, coughs, diabetes,
headaches, arthritis and immune system deficiencies, and digestive effects [42]. The environmentally
friendly properties of such products relate to the sustainable cultivation practices of Aloe vera, as the
plant can grow in arid and marginal areas without the need for chemicals and with a very limited
water consumption.
The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 describes the experimental design and the data
analysis procedure, Section 3 presents the results, and Section 4 discusses the results in the context of
the available literature, and highlights suggestions for future research and study limitations.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Sample and Products

The experiment was conducted across several sessions in June–July 2017 in Italy. We interviewed
115 respondents in groups of about 15 each, but given the incomplete replies of three participants,
the analysis was carried out on a sample of 112. Participants were all aware of the experiment and
agreed to be included in the study before participating. Data were treated anonymously and used for
research purposes only, with no way of connecting responses to specific individuals.
The experiment focused on two products: (1) a 250 g jar of fruit compote made with Aloe vera gel
(40%), Sultanina grape (30%), plums (27.5%), and orange peel (2.5%); (2) a 250 g jar of fruit compote
with the same composition as the previous one, but with the Aloe vera gel replaced with pectin. Pectin
was used as it conferred a similar texture to the final product and minimally altered the taste of the
product with respect to the other ingredients.
The aloe-based fruit compote was developed by university students taking part in the Ecothrophelia
project as an innovative and eco-friendly product called “AloeSpoon”, completely new and original in
its category, as at the time the experiment took place, no jam or jam-like products with at least 40% Aloe
vera gel concentration were available on the market. AloeSpoon is a jam-like fruit compote product
that could possibly be assigned to the functional food category thanks to the health benefits conferred
by the presence of aloe. The product, as law requires (art. 2, para. 4, Legislative Decree 20 February
2004, no. 50), belongs to the category of “fruit compote” because of its fruit content, which is equal to
or higher than 65%. More information about AloeSpoon is provided in Appendices A and B.
For the purpose of the experiment, what was relevant was the ability to control ceteris paribus for
the presence of Aloe vera gel. Both products were made in the university laboratory of the Department
for Sustainable Food Process of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy, and were provided to
the authors for this experiment. The two fruit compotes were presented using the same type of glass jar,
no brand was indicated, and they were visually indistinguishable from each other. Therefore, the only
differences perceived by the participants were in the information provided in the experimental design
and in the product tasting.
Nutrients 2019, 11, 2781 4 of 16

2.2. Research Aims and Experimental Design

This study evaluated the willingness to pay (WTP) for attributes provided by a new (aloe-based)
product, AloeSpoon, and the relevance of the information provided. More precisely, the aim of this
study was to measure consumers’ WTP for the health and environmental attributes provided by the
fruit compote, and to evaluate whether the WTP changed when consumers were informed of the
health benefits and of the environmentally friendly characteristics of the product. Moreover, since the
product had not been commercialized at the time of the experiment, consumers were not familiar with
its taste. This allowed assessment of the possible effect of the Aloe vera gel in changing the WTP as a
result of product tasting. As explained in Figure 1, product tasting was randomly assigned to two
groups (G3 and G4) with different information schemes. The tasting took place at the beginning of the
experiment, during the first elicitation round (where no information was provided).
Nutrients 2019, 11, x FOR PEER REVIEW 5 of 17

Figure 1. Timeline of the experiment.

The hypotheses we aimed to test

health and environmental were as were
messages follows:
written after studying articles from the nutrition,
agronomic, and environmental fields. The messages were relatively short, because previous works
Hypothesis 1. Consumers
have underlined assign
the benefit of aproviding
higher value to the product
a concise enriched
message when with Aloe vera,complex
conveying i.e., they show a higher
information
WTP for such a product compared to its fruit-only
[45]. The messages provided were the following: counterpart;

Hypothesis 2. Providing
(a) Health-related additional
message aboutproduct information
the benefits of Aloeonvera
the health-related
consumption properties of Aloe vera and/or on
the environmental impacts of its production affects the WTP;
“Aloe gel has been used for centuries for its healing and therapeutic properties. Frequent use of aloe-
Hypothesis A health
based foods3.brings messagetodirected
benefits health.at highlighting
The gel hastheanti-viral,
private benefits for consumers
anti-bacterial, is more effective
anti-oxidant, anti-
than one about environmental
inflammatory, anti-diabetic,sustainability,
anti-allergic, which is associated
immune- with public
stimulatory, and benefits,
wetting i.e.,
andthe health message
wound healing
induces a greater
properties, increase
and burn in WTP;
action. It is also used to support the health of the digestive tract. The use of aloe
gel in the food industry is mainly focused on the development of functional foods. Thanks to its
Hypothesis 4. The twoittypes
beneficial properties, of information
is mainly used ininteract and impact
the treatment the size of theircough,
of constipation, effects; diabetes, migraine,
arthritis, and immune system deficiency. Aloe-based products are suitable for consumers of all ages
and offer a diverse range of health-related properties”.

(b) Environmental message about the environmentally friendly characteristics of Aloe vera

“Aloe vera is an evergreen, xerophytic, greasy plant that has a tissue in the leaves allowing it to store
Nutrients 2019, 11, 2781 5 of 16

Hypothesis 5. The ordering of the information provided, i.e., whether the health-related or the environmental
message is provided first, impacts the evaluation of the product (manifested by different WTP values).

To this aim, the questionnaire consisted of different rounds of WTP elicitations using a multiple
price list (MPL) approach. The MPL approach relies on eliciting WTP asking to the participants their
willingness to buy a specific product in an array of ordered prices ranging from a maximum to a
minimum. For each price the subject is asked to indicate his willingness to buy indicating “yes”, “no”
or “maybe”. The WTP results on the value where the subject switch from “yes” to “no” or “maybe”.
In case the subject answer to any price of the array either always “yes” or always “no” or “maybe”,
the WTP corresponds either to the maximum or to the minimum of the listed prices. For a further
explanation of the MPL and its applications please refer to Andersen et al. [43].
The study was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. At the
beginning of the experiment, initial explanations were read, and participants decided whether they
wanted to provide their consent and thus agree to take part in the study. They were informed that all
of their replies were anonymous, since they were identified only by a number. Participants were asked
to indicate choices as if they were in a supermarket. It was clarified that there were no “good” or “bad”
replies, so they were strongly suggested to freely indicate choices reflecting their preferences.
The framing of the experiment in its timeline is illustrated in Figure 1. Following
Castellari et al. [44], after providing instructions for the experiment, the first section of WTP elicitation
was carried out without any message related to the health or environmental benefits of Aloe vera. For this
first round, instructions about the experiment were given, with only a few indications describing each
product which were basically focused on the composition of the fruit compote.
The health and environmental messages were written after studying articles from the nutrition,
agronomic, and environmental fields. The messages were relatively short, because previous works
have underlined the benefit of providing a concise message when conveying complex information [45].
The messages provided were the following:
(a) Health-related message about the benefits of Aloe vera consumption
“Aloe gel has been used for centuries for its healing and therapeutic properties. Frequent use
of aloe-based foods brings benefits to health. The gel has anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-oxidant,
anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-allergic, immune- stimulatory, and wetting and wound healing
properties, and burn action. It is also used to support the health of the digestive tract. The use of
aloe gel in the food industry is mainly focused on the development of functional foods. Thanks to
its beneficial properties, it is mainly used in the treatment of constipation, cough, diabetes, migraine,
arthritis, and immune system deficiency. Aloe-based products are suitable for consumers of all ages
and offer a diverse range of health-related properties”.
(b) Environmental message about the environmentally friendly characteristics of Aloe vera
“Aloe vera is an evergreen, xerophytic, greasy plant that has a tissue in the leaves allowing it to
store a high water content and to survive in dry regions with reduced rainfall. Thus, it grows and can
be cultivated even in arid and/or marginal areas without the need for chemicals, and hence with a
highly sustainable agricultural process. It follows, therefore, that the cultivation of aloe has no negative
effects on the environment”.
The layout of these messages was precisely controlled by equally varying their order across
four different groups of participants (Group1 (G1), Group 2 (G2), Group 3 (G3), and Group 4 (G4).
Two groups started with the health-related message preceding the environmental message (G1 and
G3), and two other groups started with the environmental message followed by the health-related
message (G2 and G4). Furthermore, two of these groups tasted the products during the first round
(G3 and G4). Participants were randomly assigned to one of the four groups (G1, G2, G3, G4). (For a
clearer picture of the survey structure, refer to Table A2 in Appendix A).
Nutrients 2019, 11, 2781 6 of 16

At the end of the third round, participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire aimed at identifying
the consumer in terms of sociodemographic characteristics. They were asked to answer general
questions concerning their age, gender, job type, family composition, monthly income, purchasing
habits, and their previous knowledge about Aloe vera and Aloe-vera-based products.

2.3. Elicitation Mechanism

A multiple price list (payment card) was used to elicit WTP for each product. At the beginning of
each round, participants were asked to indicate whether they would be willing to buy the product
displayed for prices varying from €2.00 to €18.00 per unit. Research for reference prices was mostly
carried out online, since aloe-based products are not usually sold in hypermarkets or large retail chain
shops. Price research was also carried out in specialty stores and pharmacies. The multiple price list
was characterized by increments of 50 cents between successive prices. For each price, participants
were asked to select either “yes”, “no”, or “maybe” regarding their purchase willingness. For each
product and each round of choice R, with R = {1 . . . 3}, the WTP was determined by taking the highest
price linked to a “yes” choice (with the next highest price on the paper sheet implying a reply “no” or
“maybe”). If a participant replied only “no” or “maybe” to each line, the selected WTP was taken as
equal to €2.00. If a participant only replied “yes” to each line, the selected WTP was taken as equal to
€18.00.
The multiple price list method is a direct survey category which allows consumers to be provided
with a product’s description as well as information about its use and benefits. The use of this
experimental method has several advantages: First, participants are able to focus on the product
attributes rather than just on price. Second, they perceive their role less heavily, since they have some
information to rely on. Moreover, participants can better judge the product’s price based on the data
provided. Finally, it is relatively easy for subjects to see that truthful revelation is in their best interests:
If the subject believes that their responses have no effect on which row is chosen, then the task collapses
to a binary choice in which the subject gets what they want if they answer truthfully [46].
Furthermore, the MPL has several attractive characteristics as an elicitation procedure since it is
relatively easy to explain to subjects and to implement.
However, some possible disadvantages can be associated with the use of MPL. Firstly, MPL only
elicits WTP valuations at intervals instead of “point” estimates [43]. In this experiment, we adopted a
€0.5 interval in order to provide an adequate degree of precision for the WTP elicitation.
Secondly, subjects can switch back and forth from row to row, implying potentially inconsistent
valuations [43]. This problem was not consistent with the way the consumers were surveyed in this
study. Indeed, papers containing different kinds of information were given to consumers separately,
in sequential steps.
Lastly, MPL could be susceptible to framing effects, as subjects are drawn to the middle of
the ordered table irrespectively of their true values [43]. This can be controlled by changing the
price list boundaries; however, we did not do this in the current study [43]. Further analyses by
Anderson et al. [46] indicate that multiple price lists perform relatively well, obtaining precise product
valuations that are also robust to framing effects.

2.4. Sample Description

The final sample analyzed in the experiment was made up of 112 respondents (Table 1). Women
represented 60% of the sample, while 40% were men. Of the respondents, 22% of respondents were
younger than 30 years of age, 30% were between 30 and 40 years of age, and 47% of the respondents
were older than 40 years. A total 36% of the sample had an education up to high school, 32% had
obtained a bachelor’s-level degree, and 46% had reached a higher level of education.
Nutrients 2019, 11, 2781 7 of 16

Table 1. Sample description.

Variable Name Variable Definition Frequency Percentage

male 1 = if respondent = male; 0 = otherwise 45 40%
67 60%
younger 1 = if repondent age < 30 years old; 0 = otherwise 25 22%
1 = if respondent was between 30–40 years old;
adult 34 30%
0 = otherwise
1 = if respondent was more than 40 years old;
older 53 47%
0 = otherwise
1 = if the respondent’s maximum level of education
middle school 3 3%
was middle school; 0 = otherwise
1 = if the respondent’s maximum level of education
diploma 26 23%
was high school; 0 = otherwise
1 = if the respondent’s maximum level of education
bachelor 32 29%
was a bachelor’s degree; 0 = otherwise
1 = if respondent had a university degree higher than
university 51 46%
bachelor; 0 = otherwise
1 = if household monthly income was less than
l_income 31 28%
€2000, 0 = otherwise
1 = if household monthly income was between
m_income 65 58%
€2000–5000; 0 = otherwise
1 = if household monthly income was more than
h_income 16 14%
€5000, 0 = otherwise
1 = if size of family was up to three members;
member 69 62%
0 = otherwise
43 38%
unemployed 1 = if respondent was unemployed; 0 = otherwise 15 5%
321 95%
knowledge 1 = if respondent knew about Aloe vera; 0 = otherwise 246 73%
90 27%

These distributions indicate that globally, the sample might have slightly favored consumer
segments more interested in the nutritional and environmental aspects of food (for example, for gender
and education levels). However, having included such variables in the analyses controlled for possible
effects related to sample representitaveness.

2.5. Data Analysis

Data analysis included three steps. A first, exploratory step in which descriptive statistics were
analyzed was done to provide an initial indication of how consumer preferences changed in the
different treatments and rounds.
We then adopted inferential tools to investigate the role of information provision and other
variables on consumer willingness to pay. More specifically, we used two random effects Tobit
regression models to evaluate whether there was an increased willingness to pay for the compote
enriched with Aloe vera and whether, and to what extent, this willingness to pay was affected by
information provision regarding the health benefits of Aloe vera, information provision about the low
environmental impacts of Aloe vera, or individual socio-demographic characteristics. The choice of
the Tobit model was related to the fact that our data was left-censored at €2 and right-censored at
€18 because of the experimental design. The random effect was associated to individuals and it was
Nutrients 2019, 11, 2781 8 of 16

introduced to model possible positive dependencies among answers by the same individuals induced
by individual specific preferences toward fruit compotes. The dataset indeed included six answers by
each individual, given that answers were pooled for the elicitation round (Round 1 to 3). In detail,
we estimated the model as follows:

WTP*Ri = β0 + β1 XR + β2 Xi + νi + Ri

WTPRi = WTP*Ri if 2 < WTP*Ri < 18 (1)

WTPRi = 2 if WTP*Ri ≤ 2

WTPRi = 18 if WTP*Ri ≥ 18

where β0 is the intercept, β1 is a vector of a parameter associated with the experimental design variables
(related to the presence of Aloe vera, the information provided, and tasting of the product), XR is the
vector of dummy variables coding the experimental design, β2 is a vector of a parameter associated
with individual characteristics (age, gender, education, income, and occupation), Xi is the vector of
regressors associated with the individual sociodemographic characteristics, νi is the individual specific
random effect, and Ri is the error term.
More specifically, the two estimated models differed in how we modeled the experimental design.
In the first model, XR was a vector of dummy variables indicating the presence of Aloe vera (aloe),
the provision of a health-related message for the fruit-only/conventional compote (h_conv) or for the
Aloe vera compote (h_aloe), and the provision of an environmental-friendliness-related message for the
fruit-only/conventional compote (en_conv) or for the Aloe vera compote (en_aloe). For all of the above
dummies, 1 indicated the presence of Aloe vera or of the information provision. The same was true
for the variable tasting (in both models) which was meant to control for the difference in taste of the
two compotes.
Model 2 deepened the investigation into the impact of information provision and, in particular,
possible saturation and/or order effects in relation to the health and environmental aspects. In this
case, XR was a vector of two variables: treatment and tasting. Tasting (taste variable) was codified as a
dummy variable that was assigned a value of 1 when respondents tasted the compote (in groups G3
and G4), and 0 otherwise (in groups G1 and G2). The “treatment” was codified through five dummy
variables describing the six treatments: (i) when the WTP was elicited for the fruit-only compote,
(ii) for the Aloe vera fruit compote with no additional information (Round 1), (iii) for the Aloe vera fruit
compote with only the health-related information (Round 2 for G1 and G3), (iv) for the Aloe vera fruit
compote with only the environment-related information (Round 2 for G2 and G4), (v) for the Aloe
vera fruit compote with the health-related information plus the environmental information—in this
order (Round 3 for G1 and G3), and (vi) for the Aloe vera fruit compote having received both types of
information, but in the opposite order (Round 3 for G2 and G4). This new set of variables allowed us
to evaluate ceteris paribus the willingness to pay across the different treatments. As before, we coded 1
when the condition was verified and 0 when it was not.
Finally, we used the delta method to verify via hypothesis tests whether the coefficients that
emerged and their differences were statistically different from one other. All analyses were performed
using Stata 15.

3. Results
Data were first analyzed via descriptive statistics. In particular, we have reported mean, standard
deviation, and extreme values for the elicited willingness to pay for the two types of compote in the
different experimental conditions (Table 2). What emerged is that the WTP for the aloe compote was
always greater that for the conventional fruit-only compote. Moreover, the WTP for the enriched
compote increased as more information on the positive properties of Aloe vera was given, i.e., from Round
1 to Round 2, and from Round 2 to Round 3 in all cases. However, there seemed to be a greater
Nutrients 2019, 11, 2781 9 of 16

increase in average WTP when the information regarded health, at least when the first information
was provided.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics of elicited willingness to pay for the two compotes in the different
experimental conditions.

Variable Experimental Condition Round Obs Mean Std. Dev. Min Max
WTP_conv No information 1 112 6.0 1.3 2 9
WTP_aloe No information 1 112 8.1 1.8 4 13
WTP_conv Health information 2 60 6.2 1.3 3.5 9
WTP_conv Environmental information 2 52 5.9 1.1 3 8
WTP_aloe Health information 2 60 9.9 2.1 6 15.5
WTP_aloe Environmental information 2 52 9.2 1.9 6 15
WTP_conv Environmental + health information 3 52 6.0 1.3 3 8.5
WTP_conv Health + environmental information 3 60 6.2 1.4 3.5 9.5
WTP_aloe Environmental + health information 3 52 10.1 2.2 6 15.5
WTP_aloe Health + environmental information 3 60 11.0 2.2 7 15.5
Notes: In this table we report the descriptive statistics of the willingness to pay (WTP) elicited for the two compotes
(conventional fruit-only compote and aloe-enriched compote) in the different treatment conditions. The treatments
differed in information provision. The information the subjects were given is reported in the second column.
WTPs are measured in euros for a 250 g jar.

To further investigate the impacts of information and other variables on the willingness to pay for
the fruit compotes, we applied a set of regression models. Table 3 reports the results of the first model,
while Table 4 presents the results of the second model.

Table 3. Tobit model with random effect for the WTP for the fruit compote (Model 1).

WTP Coef. Std. Err. p-Value

aloe 1.82 *** 0.37 0.000
h_aloe 1.94 *** 0.29 0.000
en_aloe 1.80 *** 0.41 0.000
h_conv −0.22 0.29 0.422
en_conv −0.18 0.41 0.666
taste −0.27 0.32 0.402
younger −0.81 ** 0.33 0.013
older −0.06 0.29 0.835
male −0.63 *** 0.18 0.001
l_income −0.10 0.23 0.639
h_income 1.00 *** 0.18 0.000
diploma −0.04 0.32 0.894
bachelor 0.19 0.35 0.582
university 0.32 0.37 0.379
unemployed −0.69 ** 0.30 0.024
knowledge 0.57 0.35 0.108
_cons 6.37 0.42 0.000
Obs. 672
Prob > chi2 0.000
LR test of sigma_u = 0 0.000
Significance levels: *** p ≤ 0.01; ** 0.01 < p ≤ 0.05. Notes: Reference categories: age between 30 and 40; income level
between €2000–5000; lowest education level (middle school). This table reports the estimated coefficients, standard
errors, and related p-values associated with all the independent variables included in Model 1. The model applied
was a random effect Tobit model censored between €2 and €18 investigating the willingness to pay (WTP) for the
fruit compote depending on its attributes (e.g., with/without Aloe vera; with/without the health and/or environmental
information).
Nutrients 2019, 11, 2781 10 of 16

Table 4. Tobit model with random effect for the WTP for the fruit compote (Model 2).

WTP Coef. Std. Err. p-Value

Treatment
aloe_no info 1.78 *** 0.36 0.000
aloe_health info 3.40 *** 0.37 0.000
aloe_env info 2.87 *** 0.37 0.000
aloe_health+env 4.47 *** 0.37 0.000
aloe_env+health 4.54 *** 0.37 0.000
taste −0.25 0.31 0.427
Control variables
younger 0.03 0.23 0.876
older 0.06 0.19 0.761
male −0.15 0.14 0.288
l_income −0.05 0.18 0.775
h_income 0.08 0.15 0.576
diploma −0.05 0.25 0.852
bachelor −0.14 0.27 0.592
university 0.06 0.28 0.816
unemployed −0.05 0.23 0.826
knowledge 0.60 * 0.35 0.084
_cons 6.10 0.31 0.000
Obs. 672
Prob > chi2 0.000
LR test of sigma_u = 0 0.000
Significance levels: *** p ≤ 0.01; * 0.05 < p < 0.1. Notes: This table reports the estimated coefficients, standard errors,
and related p-values associated with all the independent variables included in Model 2. The model applied was a
random effect Tobit model censored between €2 and €18 investigating the willingness to pay (WTP) for the fruit
compote compared to the Aloe-vera-enriched one in the different treatment conditions.

What emerged from the results of Model 1m reported in Table 3, was that the presence of aloe
induced a higher willingness to pay for the fruit compote (confirming H.1). Moreover, providing
information on the health benefits of Aloe vera did not significantly affect the willingness to pay
of the conventional fruit compote, but it did significantly increase the willingness to pay for the
Aloe-vera-enriched compote. Similarly, the provision of the environmental message also did not impact
the valuation for the conventional compote, but it increased that for the enriched one (confirming H.2).
Tasting the compote with Aloe vera did not seem to have a significant effect. Among the individual
characteristics, younger respondents seem to value the product less than older ones. Table 3 also
indicates that the predicted value of willingness to pay for male respondents was lower compared
to that of women. Similar results were found for unemployed consumers. Respondents with higher
levels of income were found to have a higher estimated WTP.
The results reported in Table 4 confirmed the strong role of the presence of Aloe vera and information
provision on the willingness to pay. Indeed, compared to the conventional fruit-only compote, adding
Aloe vera significantly increased the WTP (confirming H.1). Providing one set of information on either
the health benefits or the low environmental impact also significantly increased the WTP for the
Aloe-vera-enriched compote (confirming H.2). The health message showed a higher coefficient and a
greater increase compared to the no information treatment (Table 4). The difference was confirmed
statistically by the hypothesis test reported in Table 5 (confirming H.3).
Nutrients 2019, 11, 2781 11 of 16

Table 5. Hypothesis testing on the statistical difference among Model 2 regression coefficients β.

Test Coef. Std. Err. p-Value

βAloe_Health Info - βAloe_No Info (Test H.2) 1.63 *** 0.12 0.000
βAloe_env info - βAloe_no info (test H.2) 1.10 *** 0.13 0.000
(βAloe_health info - βAloe_no info) - (βAloe_env info -
0.53 *** 0.16 0.001
βAloe_no info) (test H.3)
(βAloe_env + health - βAloe_env info) - (βAloe_health +
0.50 *** 0.18 0.006
env - βAloe_health info)
(βAloe_env info - βAloe_no info) - (βAloe_health + env -
−0.06 0.17 0.701
βAloe_health info) (test H.4)
(βAloe_health info - βAloe_no info) - (βAloe_env +
−0.04 0.17 0.804
health - βAloe_env info) (test H.4)
(βAloe_health + env - βAloe_env + health) (test H.5) 0.03 0.15 0.859
Significance levels: *** p ≤ 0.01. Notes: Tests were performed using the delta method on the regression coefficients β
derived from Model 2. The model is reported in Equation (1) (Section 2.5), while the estimated regression coefficients
are shown in Table 4.

Moving to Round 3 of the experiment, i.e., when an additional informational message was
provided, we found that, again, both types of additional information increased the WTP for the
Aloe-vera-enriched compote (Table 4). Again, the increase was higher when the message regarded the
health benefits compared to the low environmental message (confirming H.3).
Moreover, when we tested the differences between the two health-information-related increases
in WTP, we found that they were not significantly different from each other (Table 5). A similar result
was found for the environmental messages. Thus, there seemed not to be a diminishing return for
the additional information provided nor an amplification of the informational effect; instead, the two
effects seem to be additive (confuting H.4).
Furthermore, the final WTP was the same whether the health information was given before or
after the environmental information. Indeed, the two coefficients associated with “full” information
provision (associated with the variables “aloe_health + env” and “aloe_env + health” in Table 4) were
not statistically different from each other (as emerging from Table 5). Thus, the order in which the
information was provided did not seem to influence the consumer evaluation of the product elicited as
the willingness to pay for it (confuting H.5).
Furthermore, the results reported in Table 4 also indicated that previous knowledge about Aloe vera
may have had a positive significant effect on the willingness to pay for the Aloe-vera-enriched compote.
Table 5 reports the results of the seven hypothesis tests that used the delta method to test whether
the regression coefficients β (or some combinations of these) emerging from Model 2 (Table 4) were
statistically different from each other.

4. Discussion
The presented results lead to several interpretations and implications for practice. First of all,
without considering the effect of information, adding a food ingredient such as Aloe vera increased
the WTP for the fruit compote. This result suggests that the new ingredient changed the reference
price thinking of the potential consumer [47]. The absolute value of the price change, which was
about €2, also suggested that the product had the potential to move away from the fruit compote
category to a “functional” food category. Therefore, it seems that the attribute Aloe vera was already
perceived as a quality-enhancing attribute, independently of the level of knowledge of the product
itself. This introduces a first implication for management: It appears that enhancing an existing product
with the Aloe vera ingredient might result in a concrete repositioning of the product within its category
or even move the product to a different category.
Although Aloe vera was perceived to be a quality attribute, the results suggest that there was
no full awareness and understanding of its properties. Providing new information significantly
increased the WTP for the enriched compote. This increase was significant for both health and
Nutrients 2019, 11, 2781 12 of 16

environmental-friendliness-based benefits, with the health message leading to a higher WTP as

compared to the environmental one. These results confirmed findings highlighting the higher impact
of healthiness attributes on motives or WTP of functional food choice [5,24,27] and, more generally,
of food categories [48,49]. Low price, taste, and health food attributes are usually seen as better driving
food choices compared to environmental ones, because they rely on egoistic motives rather than
altruistic ones [40,50,51]. Similarly, in the organic food category, a large body of literature shows that
motives for the purchase of organic products are linked mainly to taste and health attributes, and less
to environmental aspects [50,52,53]. The importance of egoistic vs. altruistic factors also depends on
consumer segments, with the more “conscious” cluster giving additional weight to environmental
dimensions [38].
Literature assessing the combined effect of health and environmental messages is scarce.
Hoek et al. [36] used a hypothetical choice experiment to investigate the effect of prices and
health/environmental logos and information at the point of purchase. Their results emphasized
that the effect was very dependent on the consumer segment and on the similarity between standard
and alternative products. However, when products were similar, results showed that the combination
of health and the environment had a larger effect than when considered independently. The remaining
literature has focused more on the potential synergies between healthiness and sustainability attributes,
where environmental friendliness attributes could be health-driven and vice versa [40]. For example,
Verain et al. [38] highlighted how the perception of healthiness could be increased by a sustainability
attribute. They explained it by referring to the so-called halo effect, which is a positive effect on a quality
aspect originating from a positive perception of an unrelated attribute of the same product [54–56].
In terms of implications for practice and sustainability-enhancing policies, synergies generally lead
to the suggestion of preferring egoistic attributes, such as health, to leverage sustainability [38].
Hoek at al. [41] suggested what they called a stealth intervention, where the communication focus
remains on health as the main benefit and driver of behavioral change, and environmental friendliness
is a side effect.
The presented results are in line with those of Hoek et al. [36]. They showed that a combined
effect of health and environmental messages had a larger effect than messages given in insolation.
Moreover, findings highlighted how health and environmental messages add up. Both effects were
large in magnitude even if, as stated before, the health message had a larger impact. However, the final
WTP was independent of the sequential order in which the two messages were given. It could be that
both concepts supported each other in a symmetrical way, or that no synergy effect occurred at all.
In any case, this result contrasted with the view that health messages should be the main drivers and
opened a broader range of communications in terms of marketing strategies and policy objectives.
In fact, both concepts could be leveraged and lead to the same outcome, at least in terms of WTP.
This result suggests that further investigation is needed on this aspect of functional foods in order to
understand the reasons behind this observation and its external validity.
Finally, it has to be noted that tasting was never significant in the presented results. This suggested
that the tangible attributes of the augmented product did not significantly affect WTP decisions. The two
proposed products were considered very similar, which gave a substantial advantage in identifying the
effect of the information component. Controlling for taste was also important as sensorial factors appear
to discriminate consumers more than preferences toward health and environment. Consumers need to
make a trade-off between decisive factors such as taste and additional attributes such as health [27] or
environment [40]. If taste has a neutral effect, it implies that consumers perceive the two products
as homogeneous, making it is easier to create a switch from the standard product to the augmented
one. Therefore, for a product like the one tested, actions in terms of product pricing could favor a
replacement of the standard products with healthier and more environmentally friendly alternatives.
Of course, this should consider the cost of the food ingredients, but from a policy perspective this is in
line with the results of Hoek et al. [36] showing that a price subsidy for healthy and sustainable food
products is effective in shifting consumer choices when products are perceived to be similar.
Nutrients 2019, 11, 2781 13 of 16

The presented research also carried some limitations and areas in need of further investigation.
First of all, there is a difference between stated WTP and actual behavior. Participants reported their
answers in a11,controlled
Nutrients 2019, x FOR PEERenvironment,
REVIEW which might be substantially different from the contextual 13 of 17
situation during a purchase. Information might not be read or noticed in the same way. For this reason,
natural
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category. the externalthevalidity of this typeand
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to the combination of eyes of consumers
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and Aloe vera results should
attribute. not
Again,
be generalized to the category. Moreover, the environmental and health-related
external validity could be gained from extending the analysis to other products in the functionalinformation was very
specific
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from vera attribute.
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and policy that could allowas, theasdefinition
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policy communications as, as suggested by Verain et al. [38], health and environmental concepts do
Author Contributions: Conceptualization, Elena Castellari, Elena Claire Ricci, Stefanella Stranieri, Stephan
not always go hand in hand across consumer segments.
Marette and Claudio Soregaroli; Data curation, Martina Sarnataro; Formal analysis, Elena Castellari and Elena
Claire Ricci; Investigation, Claudio Soregaroli; Methodology, Elena Castellari, Stephan Marette and Claudio
Author Contributions: Conceptualization, C.E., R.E.C., S.S., M.S. and S.C.; Data curation, S.M.; Formal analysis,
Soregaroli;
C.E. Supervision,
and R.E.C.; Claudio
Investigation, S.C.; Soregaroli;
Methodology,Writing—original draft,
C.E., M.S. and S.C.; Elena Castellari,
Supervision, Elena Claire Ricci,
S.C.; Writing—original draft,
Stefanella
C.E., Stranieri
R.E.C., S.S. andand Claudio
S.C.; Soregaroli;&Writing—review
Writing—review editing, S.S. & editing, Stefanella Stranieri.
Funding: This research received no external funding.

Acknowledgments: Authors
Acknowledgments: AuthorsthankthankLuigi
Dr. Lucini and theand
Luigi Lucini Department for Sustainable
the Department Food Process
for Sustainable Foodof Process
Università
of
Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy, for providing the fruit compotes used in this study and the information concerning,
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy, for providing the fruit compotes used in this study and the
product composition, nutritional contents, and production process.
information concerning, product composition, nutritional contents, and production process.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Appendix A. Additional Information on the Experimental Settings
Appendix A – Additional Information on the Experimental Settings

Figure
Figure A1. Fruit Compote
S1. Fruit Compote Visual
VisualAppearance.
Appearance.Note:Note:(1)(1)visual appearance
visual diddid
appearance notnot
change between
change the
between
fruit compotes (Aloe vera gel vs. pectin); (2) no specific labels were used and the jars were the same
the fruit compotes (Aloe vera gel vs. pectin); (2) no specific labels were used and the jars were the for
the two products.
same for the two products.
Table A1. Average nutritional contents of the fruit compotes used in the experiments.
Table S1. Average nutritional contents of the fruit compotes used in the experiments.
Average Nutritional Values Per 100 g (% RI) Per serving (20 g), (% RI)
Average Nutritional Values Per 100 g (% RI) Per serving (20 g), (% RI)
Calories 795 kJ/190 kcal kcal
795 kJ/190 (9.5%) 159159
kJ/38 kcalkcal
kJ/38 (1.9%)
Calories
Total fat 0.83 g (1%) 0.16 g (<1%)
(9.5%) (1.9%)
Saturated fat 0 g (0%) 0 g (0%)
Total fat 0.83 g (1%) 0.16 g (<1%)
Total carbohydrate 39.7 g (15%) 7.94 g (3%)
Saturated
Sugars fat 36.970 gg (0%)
(41%) 0 gg(0%)
7.4 (8%)
Total carbohydrate
Dietary fibre 39.74gg(15%) 7.940.8
g (3%)
g
Sugars
Protein 36.97
3.87 gg(8%)(41%) 7.4 gg(8%)
0.77 (1%)
Dietary
Sodiumfibre 1.01 mg4 (<1%)
g 0.202 0.8
mgg(<1%)
Protein 3.87 g (8%) 0.77 g (1%)
Source: elaborations of the nutritional lab of Department for Sustainable Food Process, Università Cattolica del
Sodium
Sacro Cuore, Italy. Note: 1.01 mgduring
(1) this information was available (<1%)the experiment but
0.202notmg (<1%) to participants
provided
unless
Source:explicitly requested;
elaborations (2) ifnutritional
of the asked, to better
labcontrol for the effect
of Department of Sustainable
for information, the nutritional
Food Process,contents of the
Università
two fruit compotes were generically stated to be “similar”; (3) only a few participants asked this information and
Cattolica
only at the del
end Sacro Cuore, Italy. Note: (1) this information was available during the experiment but
of the experiment.
not provided to participants unless explicitly requested; (2) if asked, to better control for the effect of
information, the nutritional contents of the two fruit compotes were generically stated to be “similar”;
(3) only a few participants asked this information and only at the end of the experiment.

Table S2. Experimental Conditions.

Treatment Name
G1 G2 G3 G4
Nutrients 2019, 11, 2781 14 of 16

Table A2. Experimental Conditions.

Treatment Name
G1 G2 G3 G4
Round 1 No info No info No info No info
Information provided Round 2 Health Environment Health Environment
Round 3 Environment Health Environment Health
Taste No No Yes Yes
Participants (n) 30 30 30 22

Appendix B. Fruit Compote Composition and Production

AloeSpoon is made of Aloe vera gel (40%), Sultanina grape (30%), plums (27.5%), and orange peel
(2.5%). The product only contains the sugars that are naturally present in the fruits used in the production
process. Aloe gel contains between 97.5% and 98.5% water, followed by beta-polysaccharides; therefore,
the caloric value of Aloe vera gel is very low and the consumption of one serving (about 200 mL) of
gel contributes less than 5 kcal. The biggest intake of simple sugars is provided by Sultanina grape:
it is a dehydrated food, so it has a low water content and is a real nutritional and caloric concentrate,
in particular because of its high fructose content. Finally, the presence of orange peels allowed several
goals to be achieved including a better taste, given that Aloe vera tastes naturally bitter.
The production process includes fruit mixing and concentration under heating until the desired
level of Brix, measured by refractometer, is reached. Aloe barbadensis Mill. gel is then added. The final
compote is dosed in the jar, pasteurized, and cooled to ensure the creation of vacuum. The product can
be stocked at room temperature.

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