In support of framing Food Identity towards pro-environmental food choices through empirical evidence

The relation between food and identity has not been investigated extensively in environmental research so far. People value food products not only for the material and concrete benefits, but also for what they symbolize to themselves and to the other members of the community. The aim of this study is to detect the predictable significance of eating behavior with identity and to observe how the production process of traditional food can restrict consumer choices towards a more sustainable process. The whole objective is to achieve a deep knowledge regarding the impact of strong food identity on food choices and on the spreading of novel foods for sustainable food consumption among adults. In this research some of the major values describing food choices have been selected to test the relation with identity to investigate the consequences on sustainable attitudes through the analysis of 396 questionnaires in Italy. From this study, a great symbolic value for food emerges. It seems closely linked to traditions and history and also a certain consumers’ reluctance to changing products when food production traditions can be undermined by sustainable practices. Changing strong tradition in food consumption requires the diffusion of a new awareness about quality dimensions such as generating new automatisms in food choices. Results from this manuscript could be of interest for policy-makers strategies to support initiatives which drive people to be conscious of the environmental effects of daily life and to nudge lifestyles towards a required track through socially conventional approaches.