Purpose

The aim of this study is to analyze the drivers of health consciousness related to millennials’ organic food consumption and the impact of health consciousness on millennials’ willingness to pay premium through a cross-cultural study.

Design/methodology/approach

A comparative analysis was conducted in two countries (Brazil vs Spain). Based on the stimuli-organism-response framework, the authors present a conceptual model to investigate the relationship between cognitive and affective stimuli (i.e. natural content, value for money, sensorial appeal, price fairness, trend, emotional appeal and food safety concern) and customers’ health consciousness with the mediating effect of food safety concern and their impact on the customers’ response (i.e. willingness to pay premium). A survey and a structural equation approach are applied.

Findings

The results show that cognitive and affective stimuli and food safety concern improve millennials’ health consciousness and, consequently, their willingness to pay a premium price for organic food. The results present a high validity correlation of constructs with significant differences between the two countries.

Originality/value

The originality of this study lies in the comparison of drivers of health consciousness and their impact on organic food consumption among millennials from two countries (developed vs developing). This work contributes to the study of organic food consumption with an analysis of the impact of seven drivers on health consciousness and its relationship with willingness to pay premium in a cross-comparison of Brazilian and Spanish millennials.