Abstract
Eco-labels designed to help educate consumers of more environmentally friendly food choices are essential for a sustainable agriculture. The application of the QR code provided an opportunity to properly scrutinize the viability of mixed-scanning by presenting conventional information on a spatial platform to optimize decision-making as it related to pro-environmental behavior. Surveying 122 college students’ preferences for 9 food products, it was theorized that QR coded products (Group A) would increase the number of positive purchase decisions compared to the products without the codes (Group B). The study revealed that the use of the QR code did not significantly increase the number of “will purchase” responses; however, a qualitative analysis revealed the most common descriptor for Group A products was “expensive”, while Group B was “Ingredients”. This is also reflected in the responses for the “most important info” question when Group A was compared to Group B. Udi’s, Rudi’s, Texas Best and Florida Fresh all had significant increases in “ingredients” responses while “price” saw a decrease. It was also discovered that “environmental awareness” did not have a significant impact on purchase responses for either group. Udi’s had the highest occurrence of positive responses for “important information, “knowledgeable” and “would purchase” questions, and was also the first of 9 products (in series) evaluated. The survey contained 69 questions. This raises questions about time investment. Future research would include measuring the time investment during information gathering process and comparisons between price and ingredients to help broaden the discussion of how these attributes factor into the decision-making process.
