Meat Consumption Patterns and Intentions for Change Among Finnish Consumers

During the past few decades, meat has increasingly become a subject of controversies relating to health and safety, environment, and animal welfare. Even though these changes in perceptions of meat are not yet visible in aggregate consumption figures, they can be observed in individual consumption patterns and as intentions to change the consumption. In this study, we examine changes in meat consumption among the Finnish consumers taking into account both stated changes in the past and intended changes in the future. Based on these changes, we identify consumer segments and investigate in which ways these segments differ from each other socio-demographically and with respect to current meat consumption and the stated reasons for the change. The latent class analysis based on representative Internet survey data revealed nine consumer clusters that formed three cluster blocks. The results showed that a large number of people, over 40%, had stabile consumption patterns. A cluster block of 14% of consumers had already shifted their consumer patterns to contain more vegetables and less meat. One third of the consumers were identified to be in the middle of the change with a general tendency to decrease the use of meat and increase the use of vegetables. Although, environmental effects of meat and animal welfare issues were important reasons for change in some clusters, healthiness was the most salient stated reason for change in consumption habits.