Analisi delle preferenze per le diverse categorie di pomodoro trasformato nel food service

Tomato is one of the most important crops of Italian agri-food sector and it is one of the main ingredient in the national culinary tradition. Fresh tomatoes can be processed by Food Industry into different categories (peeled tomatoes, tomato puree, chopped pulp, concentrate), which differ mainly for the production method used and the main features of finished product. The proportion of food expenditures going to the Food-away-from-home (FAFH) market is increasing globally. Food industry is then looking with higher interest for new business opportunities into this market channel. There is a large literature on consumers' purchase behavior, but there are no evidences of studies on customers preferences in the Food Service market. This study analyses preferences of Food Service market customers for different types of processed tomato, according to some relevant product attributes and customer's characteristics. Data were collected through a hypothetical discrete choice experiment conducted in Italy and in some foreign markets. Results show that peeled tomatoes are the processed tomato type preferred by Food Service customers (35% of the preferences), followed by chopped pulp (25%) , tomato puree (20%) and tomato concentrate (15%). Econometric results, obtained through the estimation of a Random Parameter Logit model, indicate that customers' preferences can be influenced by credence attributes of food products. Such kind of product characteristics are frequently used by Food Industry for market differentiation and positioning strategies in the Retail market; nonetheless, evidences from this survey suggest that they may play an important role also in influencing purchase decisions in the Food Service market. The findings of this study might be interesting for further researches on this market channel, using hypothetical and non-hypothetical methods jointly to test the robustness of these preliminary results.