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

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.