The survey described in this article provides a quantitative measure
of consumer intent to use organic foods. The aim of this study
was twofold. The initial goal of the study was to study (i) the intentions
of Iranian students toward the use of organic food and; (ii) to
investigate how well the HBM is able to predict willingness to use
organic foods as well as which constructs of the model are the best
predictors of the safe food choices. The choice of the HBM as a theoretical
framework was based on the key reason that organic foods
clearly belong to the two domains of food choice behavior and
health risk behavior. In this regard, Vassallo et al. (2009) indicated
that the HBM may be more applicable to the food choices in illness-
avoidance than in the health-promoting behaviors.
The study led to two major findings. First, the perceived benefits,
general health orientation, self-efficacy, and perceived barriers
are the determinants of consumer intention, when applied to using
organic foods. These variables can predict 42% variance in willingness
to use. In this respect, the perceived benefit was the greatest
predictor of the willingness to use. Second, the explained variance
of the willingness to use in the HBM was essentially due to the
behavioral evaluation variables (the perceived benefits and barriers)
together with the health motivation variable, rather than the
threat perception variables. In other words, results suggest that
the HBM framework is an effective tool for this policy question.
Our study revealed that the behavioral evaluation constructs, such
as perceived benefits and perceived barriers, were more crucial
(along with general health orientation and self-efficacy) than the
threat perception constructs, consistent with research that planning
strategies are more relevant for using organic foods than risk
perceptions. Understanding consumers’ thoughts, feelings, and
beliefs about organic foods use can assist intervention specialists
in developing and implementing the most effective programs to
promote organic foods use among Iranian consumers.