Exploring trust in organic food consumption

Summary

In this paper an empirical exploration of the basis for (dis) trust in organic food is offered. A qualitative analysis with 30 organic consumers in Portugal shows the factors that contribute to building up trust in organic food. The analysis shows that trust is a multidimensional concept and that ‘system trust’ and ‘personal trust’ are only two ways of theoretically framing this concept. From the interviews it is found that the daily experiences with the physical and aesthetic aspects of food (its natural/organic con-tent) plays a significant part in consumers' trust in organic food. Thus this paper aims to bring the role of nature into the theoretical explorations of the concept of trust through the experiential character of everyday consumption practices.