“Investigating the antecedents and barriers of purchase intention of sustainable food products: Expanding BRT for sustainability”

This study aims to investigate Haryana consumers’ intention to purchase sustainable food by incorporating behavioral reasoning theory (BRT) to examine the relative impact of “Reason for” and “Reason against” adoption on their purchasing attitudes and intentions. In this study, an online survey with a modified questionnaire was used to collect data from 393 Haryana respondents using convenience sampling, and SPSS and SmartPLS-SEM were utilized for data analysis. The finding revealed that consumers’ attitude toward sustainable food were found to be significantly positively influenced by environmental and health consciousness. Additionally, high costs act as a major barrier to sustainable food purchases, while time constraints do not significantly influence attitudes or purchase intentions. The study also showed that the intention to purchase sustainable food and environmental and health consciousness are mediated by consumer attitudes. Therefore, the study offers helpful implications for stakeholders and policymakers interested in promoting sustainable food products.