Assessing the Knowledge and Purchasing Behavior of Consumers towards Olive Oil in Lebanon

The olive oil in Lebanon play an essential role in the development of rural communities, providing a source of revenue and employment for most Lebanese population. Due to its high sensory quality and health benefits, olive oil is considered the most widely consumed oil in the Mediterranean area. Considering the factors that affect individual's knowledge of olive oil and consumer purchasing behavior can be difficult due to the diverse culture in Lebanon. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the level of knowledge and the impact of sociological-demographic factors on the knowledge and consumer purchasing behavior towards olive oil among the general population in Lebanon.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in Lebanon between January and March 2021 in which 604 responses have been collected. The questionnaire made up of four dimensions: socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge, sources and usage of olive oil; and consumer preference part. IBM SPSS V22 was applied to analyze the data for descriptive statistics and chi-square test for independence. p-value of less than 0.05 was employed as the level of significance

The findings revealed that the majority of the participants had only one or two uses of olive oil in their daily life and had minimal knowledge towards it. The association between the knowledge of participants about nutritional properties of olive oil among different sociological-demographic factors as governorate, gender, age and marital status was statistically significant (p<0.05). Participants with poor knowledge about olive oil were highest in Beirut (37.0%) compared to Akkar-North (3.1%). Furthermore, the consumers preferred southern, dark, and strong tasting olive oil in terms of region, color, and flavor with a statistically significant association (p<0.05).

Our findings highlighted the need to improve consumer awareness of the olive oil's benefits, which will influence their purchasing decisions.