Organic foods consumption: determinants and motivation as regards sustainability, nutritional impact, economic, environmental and toxicological – BioNutriNet

It is widely recognised that, at present, dietary patterns and lifestyles in most industrialized countries are not optimal for sustaining health. Another key challenge for public health is the sustainability of the food systems, including energy, land and water use, ecosystem preservation and biodiversity as well as climate change. Some alternative production systems are now recognised, especially for their reduced environmental impact. In this context, organic food production has markedly increased during the last decade: up to 3-20% (mean 5.1%) of agricultural land in the European Union and around 0.6 % in the USA. This is largely driven by consumer attitudes and growing demand for those specific foodstuffs. There was a yearly increase in production above 10% reaching a worldwide production of 700 million T food/y in 2012and a market share of about 60 billion US $/y. In 2010, the countries with the largest markets were the United States, Germany and France.
Little information is available on large populations regarding the determinants, motivations, socio-demographic profiles, actual food/nutrient intakes and biological and toxicological status of different kind of organic food consumers (occasional, regular and heavy consumers) and differences with consumers of conventional foods.
We plan to conduct a project which will provide a comprehensive description of subjects according to their level of organic food consumption. This proposal is based on the NutriNet-Santé study, a large-scale web-based observational epidemiologic study launched in may 2009, with self-reported and biological data collected at the individual level.
This project and the achievement of its objectives will rely on a multidisciplinary partnership involving epidemiologists, nutritionists, biologists, economists, specialists in environmental impact evaluation and analytical chemists.
The first objective is to quantitatively assess food consumption by source, i.e. organic or conventional. The part of organic food in the whole diet will be estimated at the individual level.
A comprehensive description of nutrient intakes, food consumption, dietary patterns and adherence to nutritional guidelines according to the level of organic food consumption will be provided. Sociodemographic, psychological and economic profiles (for evaluation of the cost of the diet) of organic food consumers will be investigated as well as motives as regards sustainable diet purchases.
The second objective is to estimate the production-related environmental impact of organic and conventional food consumption and to describe the level of organic food consumption through different indicators. A compilation of the current knowledge with respect to contaminants in organic and conventional food will allow quantifying contaminant intake according to organic food consumption.
A third objective will be to select 2 distinct sub-groups according to their level of organic food consumption to investigate nutritional (vitamin and minerals) and toxicological status (pesticide residues) as well as urinary metabolomic profiles based on biological data collected in a subsample of the Nutrinet-Santé Study. The sub-group selection will account for matching covariates, in particular quality of the diet.
This project will produce valuable information as regards differential phenotypes according to organic food consumption and will advance knowledge in the context of organic food promotion.