144698 20240906111328.0 doi 10.1016/j.foodqual.2024.105292 sideral 139569 ART-2025-139569 eng Estévez-Moreno, Laura X. Universidad de Zaragoza (orcid)0000-0002-4647-9315 Do Mexican consumers really care about hen welfare? Understanding their attitudes, constraints and willingness to pay for cage-free eggs 2025 Mexico has the highest per capita egg consumption in the world and ranks fifth in international egg production. Currently, there is a lack of data on consumer attitudes towards the welfare of laying hens (WLH) and their willingness-to-pay-a-price-premium (WTPPP) for cage-free eggs. To address this gap, a survey was conducted among 1040 Mexican egg consumers in different shopping venues. The average level of concern about hen welfare was 8.6/10, with higher levels of concern among female respondents and those aged 50 and over. Consumers agreed on the impact of welfare conditions on egg quality and the need for hens to be able to express natural behaviors. However, they lacked sufficient information about existing regulations and how hens are reared. At least 54% of consumers were willing to pay a price premium for cage-free eggs and could be further categorized into three groups based on the percentage of price premium they were willing to pay. Gender and age were significant factors differentiating consumer attitudes towards hen welfare at the socio-demographic level. However, these attitudes did not determine WTPPP for cage-free eggs. In contrast, education level played a crucial role in determining WTPPP, but not attitudes towards WLH. Our results indicate that paying premiums for cage-free eggs is insufficient to drive the industry’s conversion to cage-free housing systems for egg production. Rather, a strategy should be implemented to provide consumers with reliable information about alternative production systems to cages and their positive and negative impacts on WLH. Access copy available to the general public Unrestricted info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess by-nc-nd http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Villarroel, Morris Miranda-de la Lama, Genaro C. Universidad de Zaragoza (orcid)0000-0002-6848-1010 5011 235 Universidad de Zaragoza Dpto. CC.Agrar.y Medio Natural Área Econom.Sociol.Polit.Agra. 2008 700 Universidad de Zaragoza Dpto. Produc.Animal Cienc.Ali. Área Producción Animal 122 (2025), 105292 [11 pp.] Food qual. prefer. Food Quality and Preference 0950-3293 1247559 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/144698/files/texto_completo.pdf Versión publicada 2652742 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/144698/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon icon Versión publicada oai:zaguan.unizar.es:144698 articulos driver 2024-09-06-10:24:18 ARTICLE