Should the elderly in care homes, children in nurseries and prisoners eat organically-sourced food? Should the food in canteens for civil servants be organic? Yes, says the Government to these questions, but what do the consumers say? And how conversant are Danes with the Organic Cuisine labelling system? This has been the subject of a study by scientists from Aarhus University.

The reason for the study is that the Government has the ambition that by 2020, 60 per cent of public catered meals should be organically-sourced. However, there is uncertainty about how far consumer backing of organic food in public cuisine is determined by context and locality, and whether consumers are familiar with the Organic Cuisine labels in gold, silver and bronze and what the labels mean.

- Knowledge about consumer attitudes towards conversion to organic products and consumer familiarity with, attitudes to and use of Organic Cuisine labels is central to the further development of campaigns and to the kind of information about the conversion the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration will provide, says research assistant Trine Mørk of the Department of Business Administration. She is one of the authors of a report describing the results of the study. The report is published by DCA – Danish Centre for Food and Agriculture.

Consumer attitudes towards public eco-cuisine

Today approximately half a million meals are served daily in the public sector. The ambition is that 60 per cent of these meals should be more or less organic within the next six years.

- As the Danish interest in organics and sustainability is growing, it is natural to increase the percentage of organic ingredients in public catered meals, says Trine Mørk.

And what exactly do consumers think? This was examined via a web-based questionnaire to which 1,005 people responded. The study aimed to uncover consumer attitudes towards organic foods in relation to a number of factors, including education, gender, age, income, social and personal standards, whether they come from the city or the country, and whether they were users of the relevant institutions. The study also aimed to identify consumer familiarity with the Organic Cuisine labels.

The results showed that Danes mostly have a positive attitude towards the promotion of organic foods in catering kitchens. This is especially true for women, city dwellers, young people and people with higher incomes and a higher education. The attitude of consumers towards organically-sourced food is linked to their social and personal standards.

There are also differences between regions. In the Southern Denmark Region, in year 2009 consumers bought around 4.5 per cent of their food as organic, while in Copenhagen this figure was around 15 per cent. Attitudes to the conversion to organic catering were most favourable when associated with kindergartens, nurseries and hospitals and least so with prisons.

The study also uncovered that there is a poor understanding of the Organic Cuisine labels. This may be because of their as yet limited use.

The Organic Cuisine label

The Organic Cuisine label displays the overall percentage of organically sourced food and beverages of the eating establishment, either by weight or by value. The establishment may, however, advertise that an individual dish is 100 per cent organic if all the ingredients are organic, and if the dish is not also found in non-organic form in the establishment. Source: The Organic Cuisine label.

The report " Økologi i offentlige køkkener”, DCA report no. 39, March 2014 (in Danish) was prepared at the request of the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration and is part of the agreement between Aarhus University and the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries on the supply of research-based policy support. The report can be downloaded here.

Further information: Research assistant Trine Mørk, MAPP – Centre for Research on Customer Relations in the Food Sector, Department of Business Administration, e-mail: tmork@asb.dk, tele phone: +45 8716 6039