What Influences Tastes? An Analysis of the Determinants of Consumers’ Demand for Tastes in Food

This article explores the factors affecting demand for tastes in food. Following Silberberg (1985) we divide demand for food into demand for nutrition and demand for tastes. We first compute the minimum cost required to fulfil the Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) of households and attribute the difference of minimum cost from actual expenditures as the expenditure for tastes. Since prices are essential in deriving the minimum cost and data do not allow for the derivation of prices for food consumed away-from-home (FAFH), we also present a way to account for the FAFH expenditure. Data from the 1998/99 Greek Household Expenditure Survey are used. Results indicate a number of socioeconomic factors such as income, household size, urbanization, age and gender of the households’ head as important factors explaining demand for tastes.