However, we highlight possible negative long-term effects of this dietary choice. During the COVID-19 pandemic, free-from foods can represent for the people a way to restore control over their lifestyle, which was denied during the emergency. Free-from consumers are more anxious, depressed, have higher risk of contagion, and are younger than the non-consumers. Most of the population (44.1%) feels very at risk of contagion from COVID-19 and suffers from anxiety (52.8%) and depression (55.0%). Of the sample, 18.2% frequently purchased gluten-free food products and 22.5% purchased lactose-free foods. Psychometric scales and ad hoc items were used to measure people’s levels of anxiety, depression, fear for contagion and consumption orientation towards “free-from” foods. We conducted a web-based survey between – on a representative sample of 963 Italians. Our study is aimed at understanding if free-from food consumption orientations can be associated with negative psychological distress.
Among the research that explored people’s dietary inclinations during the current pandemic, no previous studies have explored psychological factors associated with the “free-from” dietary pattern. Finally, this study argues that there are too few studies that investigates the emotional, identity and social aspects underlying these food choices, suggesting the development of future research that investigate the implicit consumer subjective levers to decipher lactose-free milk consumptions.ĭuring the last year, feelings of anxiety and depression were registered among the Italian population and affected food consumption. On the contrary, situational and socio-cultural factors are the least studied. In particular, the intrinsic aspects linked to the product and the socio-demographic characteristics of the consumer are the most explored. This narrative mini-review shows that there are six categories of factors that affect the consumption of lactose-free milk.
For these reasons we conducted a narrative mini review to summarize the factors contributing to the consumption of lactose-free milk as an alternative to cow's milk, exploring intrinsic and extrinsic product characteristics, biological and physiological, as well as psychological, situational and socio-cultural factors. Consequently, understanding this new dietary trend considering its main determinants it is necessary to generate educational and intervention campaigns useful to guide people toward healthier and more adequate eating styles. However, many researchers reported that the consumption of lactose-free milk may put the consumers' health at risk especially when the subjects are not intolerant. Although many studies claim that this dietary trend is mainly determined by the number of lactose intolerant people that is growing, others state that most of them self-report an intolerance that has not been diagnosed by medical tests. The consumption of lactose-free products and in particular lactose-free milk is increasing worldwide. The results provide a general overview of consumers, however, further studies on other demographic groups are needed. Body mass index was not found to be an effective factor determining purchase intention. The factors affecting purchase of lactose-free products were education, employment status, history of having a food intolerance test and animal welfare perception together with higher scores from the gastrointestinal symptom rating scale, and attitude scale for healthy nutrition (P < 0.05).
Not causing gas/bloating (32.5%) and being healthier (28.3%) were shown to be the most significant motivational factors in purchasing lactose-free foods (P < 0.05). The majority (86.6%) of the participants reported that they had heard of the concept of lactose-free foods before, but more than half (67.0%) did not report buying them because of their higher costs compared to regular products and lack of sufficient information. Attitudes towards animal welfare, healthy nutrition and gastrointestinal symptoms were also evaluated. Study data were collected from 1882 individuals with the help of a questionnaire form. This research was conducted to evaluate the knowledge and purchasing behaviour of consumers regarding lactose-free foods.
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