Factors affecting consumer’s healthy-package food consumption intention

Eager of convenience is the natural phenomena of all mankind. Similar pattern has been observed in food related decisions. Owing to the rising trend of individuals towards the consumption of packaged food the transition of disease pattern from acute to chronic has also been noticed. Psychologically, individuals’ intention is the foundation of their actual behavior. Individuals’ intention and actual behavior are correlated with each other, therefore, it is expected that positive strong intention direct towards actual purchase of any object. Furthermore, the research on consumers’ intention towards packaged food in developing and under developing countries are still far behind to figure out the solution on this issue. Therefore, this study has targeted Pakistani consumers to examine their intention towards healthy packaged food consumption. The objective of the study was accomplished with traffic lights symbols, health claims, user friendly food label, subjective norm, self-efficacy, attitude towards food label, five personality traits and intention to consume healthy packaged food. Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior was used as the underpinning theory. For data collection self-administered questionnaire was employed to target MBA students of fourteen universities. The sample size was 537 and technique was systematic random sampling. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the complete model. The traffic lights symbol was having ineffective for Pakistani consumers whereas health claims and user friendly food label indirectly influenced consumers’ intention with the mediation of attitude. In addition to, subjective norm and self-efficacy were having positive significant effect on intention to consume healthy packaged food. Moreover, conscientiousness and agreeableness were supported for moderation effect. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed. Finally, this research provides suggestions for future research.