Even though the European Union has imposed a mandatory labeling system for conventional meats, there is no mandatory labelling scheme for the so called ‘minor meats’ – such as hunted wild game meat (HWGM). Thus, some European countries have implemented voluntary labelling programs certificating the origin of wild game meat. This study uses a discrete choice experiment to: (1) assess consumer preferences for processed meat products (including wild game meat bearing a HWGM label); and (2) investigate whether consumers’ attitudes towards animal welfare affects their food choice behavior for alternative meat products. Data was collected through an online survey conducted in Italy and consumer preferences for HWGM was estimated through a latent class logit model. Overall, results suggest that, even though HWGM label does not exist yet on the Italian market, it is appealing to Italian consumers and it will likely be accepted by the majority of them. However, consumers who are particularly concerned about animal welfare issues and animal rights showed the lowest level of the interest in the hunted game meat product and thus the presence of the HWGM label does not provide any benefit to them. Our findings have important implications for the development of successful marketing strategies and policy intervention in the HWGM sector at a national and European level.

中文翻译：

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消费者对野味腌肉标签的偏好：对动物福利的态度重要吗？

尽管欧盟已对常规肉类实施了强制性标签制度，但对于所谓的“次要肉类”（例如狩猎野生野味肉（HWGM））也没有强制性标签计划。因此，一些欧洲国家实施了自愿标签计划，以证明野生野味肉的来源。这项研究使用离散选择实验来：（1）评估消费者对加工肉制品（包括带有HWGM标签的野味肉）的偏好；（2）调查消费者对动物福利的态度是否会影响他们选择肉类食品的食物选择行为。数据是通过在意大利进行的在线调查收集的，消费者对HWGM的偏好是通过潜在的类别logit模型估算的。总体而言，结果表明，即使HWGM标签在意大利市场上尚不存在，它仍对意大利消费者具有吸引力，并且很可能会被大多数消费者接受。但是，特别关注动物福利问题和动物权利的消费者表现出对被捕猎的野味产品的兴趣最低，因此存在HWGM标签不会给他们带来任何好处。我们的发现对在国家和欧洲范围内在HWGM领域成功制定营销策略和政策干预措施具有重要意义。尤其关注动物福利问题和动物权利的消费者对被猎取的野味肉产品的兴趣水平最低，因此，HWGM标签的存在对他们没有任何好处。我们的发现对在国家和欧洲范围内在HWGM领域成功制定营销策略和政策干预措施具有重要意义。尤其关注动物福利问题和动物权利的消费者对被猎取的野味肉产品的兴趣水平最低，因此，HWGM标签的存在对他们没有任何好处。我们的发现对在国家和欧洲范围内在HWGM领域成功制定营销策略和政策干预措施具有重要意义。