TESTING FOR A CHANGE IN CONSUMER TASTES FOR FRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES: A STRUCTURAL LATENT VARIABLE APPROACH

This study uses a structural latent variable approach to examine whether the increased supply of health information has been successful in improving consumer tastes and preferences towards fruits and vegetables and if it has been successful in doing so, how this change in tastes is affecting the consumption of various produce commodities. The results show that consumers are responding to health messages by increasing consumption of some of the produce commodities but not all of them.