Is It Really Organic?: The Organic Claim and Trust Among Middle-Class Urban Organic Food Consumers of the Delhi National Capital Region

The contemporary food system with its productivist paradigm often compromises quality for quantity. Consequently, consumer doubt and scepticism in the food system have raised the perception of risk associated with food consumption. In the face of growing concerns, food categories making quality claims, such as organic food, have emerged. In value-based food chains, like the organic food system, trust in the credence claim of the ‘quality’ product can be critical in affecting consumption. This paper explores how trust is navigated in the organic credence claim from the perspective of middle-class urban residents of the major urban centres of the Delhi National Capital Region (Delhi NCR), comprising the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT of Delhi) and major urban areas of the Central National Capital Region (CNCR). Since the turn of the millennium, a niche market for organic food products has emerged within major urban cosmopolitan centres of India such as the aforementioned region. With the introduction of organic food regulations in 2017, the domestic organic food sector has been brought under the purview of an organic standards-backed certification system to regulate the sector. Oriented towards domestic consumers, the organic logo was meant to generate consumer awareness, identification and trust in the organic claim. Against the backdrop of this recent development, the paper analyses how trust in organic food is navigated by middle-class urban consumers of the Global South and if and how it affects their decision-making process regarding purchasing practices within value-based short food supply chains. Consumer trust in organic food is explored by engaging with respondents' trust in organic farmers, retail intermediaries and organic certification. Drawing on the concepts of interpersonal and institutional trust, the paper presents an argument for the co-existence of both in the context of the organic food economy.