Taiwan survey linked perceived greenwashing with lower trust in a fictional food brand

A fictional oat-drink scenario

A study published in Foods on 17 August 2026 examined responses to a fictional oat-drink brand called Green Origin. Participants read a simulated advertisement claiming pollution-free production and packaging biodegradable in natural environments. The scenario also disclosed that biodegradation required ideal conditions in specialised laboratories.

Researchers recruited Taiwanese adults with independent food-purchasing ability through convenience sampling on social media. The online survey ran from 17 March to 7 April 2026 and retained 445 valid responses from 464 submissions. Respondents rated 29 statements across eight constructs on a seven-point agreement scale.

Perceived greenwashing and trust

In the structural equation model, stronger greenwashing perception was associated with lower brand trust, with a standardised path coefficient of −0.808 and p < 0.001. The trust questions concerned the fictional brand’s environmental commitment, performance and claims.

The questionnaire also measured self-reported responses such as avoiding the company’s products and saying they would feel guilty if they bought them. The authors state that the cross-sectional path relationships should be interpreted as structural associations and predictive tendencies rather than strict causal inferences.

The authors identify limits and further work

The sample was highly educated: 81.6% held a university degree or higher. The authors note that convenience recruitment may limit generalisation and that a newly introduced fictional brand reduces purchasing realism. They also identify a possible gap between hypothetical online intentions and behaviour in physical shops.

They propose more diverse sampling and studies involving familiar real-world brands, as well as experimental designs or longitudinal data on actual food purchases. The paper reports no external funding, and the authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Source and licence

Source: Huiyang Zhou, Yun-Chi Tsai, Yong-Yun Cheng and Han-Shen Chen. Green Food or Greenwashing Trap? The Impact of Greenwashing Perception on Brand Trust and Consumer Food Choices. Foods (2026), 15, 2877. DOI: 10.3390/foods15162877. © 2026 by the authors. CC BY 4.0. FoodRadar prepared and edited this summary.