A study on perception of urban consumers regarding organic foods in Eastern India

All over the world the food consumption pattern is changing speedily due to growing consciousness on health issues, environmental safety issuesand food safety issues and now people are showing greater concern regarding consumption of organic food. India is also experiencing a growing demand for organic foods and there is a mushrooming growth of organic food markets in India. The present study deals with assessing the perception of urban consumers regarding organic foods in Eastern India. The study was conducted in one metro city Kolkata and one non-metro Ranchi in the eastern part of India. The results concluded that majority of the respondents strongly perceived that organic foods are eco-friendly, safer, price of the organic foods are higher than that of conventional foods, there is difficulty in getting organic foods in nearby areas. There is a need to generate awareness about the advantages of organic food products among people and promote its use while at the same time there is the principal need to persuade the farmers to go for for organic farming. Most of the respondents agreed that organic foods are natural, healthy, prevents diseases and they desire to adopt it. They strongly disagreed with the factors that consuming organic food will lead to malnutrition and food deficit.