The Impact of Environmental Concerns, Health Concerns and Knowledge of Organic Food on Intention to Buy Organic Food

Purpose: Prominence on organic foods is growing day by day as the awareness for health and environment is snowballing. Organic foods are more common in western countries but it is still in nascent stage in India. This paper attempts to find significant relationship of the predictors (knowledge about organic food, health concern and environmental concerns) on intentions to buy organic food. Structured questionnaire was administered to get responses using mall intercept survey method. A total of 204 responses came. Out of three independent variables under study namely knowledge, health concerns and environmental concerns, only two were found to affect the intention. The value of regression coefficients for environmental concern was lowest (b = 0.075, p>0.05) which means it is not having an impact on intentions directly. Health concern was found to have highest impact on intention b= .614, p<.05). The study is confined to Pondicherry area only but provides important information about intentions towards organic food. The study would be helpful for mall owners, Retail outlets, super markets and restaurants in identifying the significant predictors of intention to buy organic food of consumers. This paper revisits the applicability of predictors of intention to buy organic food in the proposed model in Indian context.