Vol. 3 No. 1 (2014)
Full Research Articles

Consumer willingness to pay for food safety: the case of mycotoxins in milk

Paolo Sckokai
Dipartimento di Economia Agro-alimentare, Università Cattolica Via Emilia Parmense, 84 29122, Piacenza
Mario Veneziani
Dipartimento di Economia Sezione di Economia Agro-alimentare, Università degli Studi di Parma Via Kennedy, 6 43100 Parma
Daniele Moro
Dipartimento di Economia Agro-alimentare, Università Cattolica Via Emilia Parmense, 84 29122, Piacenza
Elena Castellari
Dipartimento di Economia Agro-alimentare, Università Cattolica Via Emilia Parmense, 84 29122, Piacenza

Published 2014-03-15

Keywords

  • food safety; Mycotoxins; willingness to pay; choice experiments

How to Cite

Sckokai, P., Veneziani, M., Moro, D., & Castellari, E. (2014). Consumer willingness to pay for food safety: the case of mycotoxins in milk. Bio-Based and Applied Economics, 3(1), 63–81. https://doi.org/10.13128/BAE-12827

Abstract

Mycotoxins contamination in food is a serious source of health risks. This paper evaluates the Italian consumers’ perception of the mycotoxins’ risk through their willingness to pay (WTP) for a hypothetical bottle of milk obtained by cows fed with, inter alia, maize certified for the “good practices” (GPs) that reduce this risk. Therefore, a web-based stated choice experiment (SCE) has been carried out involving a representative sample of 973 Italian consumers and the WTP has been measured using the panel data version of a Random Parameters Logit (RPL) model. Results show that Italian consumers are willing to pay a 29% average price premium for “reduced-mycotoxins” milk. This premium increases for consumers between 44 and 54 years of age, who are students, have completed tertiary education, are economically well-off and shop fairly infrequently.

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