Consumer Valuation of Health Attributes in Food

Abstract

We estimate a model that allows consumers' food demand to depend on both the health effects and the consumption experience generated by the consumption of nutrients contained in food. We use home scan data of food purchases from approximately 2,500 Danish consumers enriched with nutrient content information. More-educated consumers have healthier diets than those with less education, and we find that this is explained by differences in how these groups value the consumption experience associated with nutrients, not by differences in their health valuation of nutrients.

Keywords

• food consumption
• hedonic model
• taste