Attitudes of selected Polish consumer groups towards pork and welfare labels

This study aimed to examine the preferences of Polish consumers when buying pork products and to observe whether there are differences between groups of consumers (farmers, animal sciences/veterinary scientists, animal science/veterinary students, or regular consumers). For this purpose, an electronic survey was sent to collect responses from the 6th of August till the 1st of September 2023. In total, 140 responses were obtained. Our survey was designed to capture a sufficient number of respondents among animal/veterinary scientists/students and pig farmers; thus, those three groups account for 42% of all respondents. Females declared paying attention to the welfare label more often than men (Chi2=16.9, p-value=0.010). People with the most frequent contact with pigs also eat pork most often (Chi2=44.1, p-value=0.010). Scientists, students, and farmers all chose “yes” to a question on the importance of welfare (Chi2=18, p-value=0.035). Our study has, however, a few limitations, which are the online distribution of the survey and the focus on collecting enough questionnaires from specific professional groups.