Understanding the role of awareness and trust in consumer purchase decisions for healthy food and products

[Display omitted] •By examining consumer habits in acquiring healthy food, valuable insights can be gained to guide businesses, policymakers, and marketers in promoting healthy food consumption.•By addressing consumer trust concerns and taking steps to build credibility, it is possible to overcome doubts and increase consumers’ willingness to trust and purchase healthy products.•The reasonable price increases the demand for purchasing healthy products.•Awareness empowers consumers to make informed choices about the food they consume and the products they buy.•By being aware of the impact of their dietary choices on their health and well-being, consumers are more likely to opt for healthier food options. The production of healthy food is determined by consumer demand, so it’s important to understand the patterns of consumer behavior when purchasing these items. This study evaluated the purchase behavior of consumers toward healthy food that lives in Mashhad-Iran. The sample size was 359 households, and the information on the sample was collected from an online questionnaire in August 2022. The results of the generalized ordered logit model showed that the increase in age, household income, healthy product awareness level, having a special diet, attention to the food freshness, the level of advertising and nutritional knowledge increased people’s desire to buy healthy food. Increasing household size led to a decrease in desire for people. It was also found that trust in the health of these foods had a positive effect on the tendency to purchase healthy food. Following the study, recommendations made to accelerate the demand for healthy food, which include using reliable food labels, increasing advertising, supporting healthy food producers, and increasing the stores of healthy products.