Exploring gender differences in the Italian traditional pizza consumption

The studies on gender differences in food consumption have experienced a deep and remarkable development from several perspectives. Many studies have been addressed to highlight whether differences exist among males and females in purchasing behaviors or consumption for specific food products but no study on pizza consumption segmented by gender has been carried out. This study evaluates gender differences in the consumption of traditional Italian pizza. For this purpose, a quantitative study was conducted on a representative sample of Sicilian pizza consumers. Our findings showed that there exist any gender differences in pizza consumption that appear to be strongly related to preferences for sensory attributes such as “smell”, “appearance”, “crunchiness” as well for “price”. Our findings show that gender differences can significantly influence the buying process of this traditional Italian food, and they have important implications for the food industry since gender differences should be taken into account in new formulation and characterization of pizza.