The Influence of Greenwashing on Consumer Behavior

This thesis addresses the issue of greenwashing in the food industry and examines how consumers perceive and interpret environmental claims on food packaging. The aim was to explore how millennials, as a key consumer group, perceive the ecological aspects of food products and how they respond to environmental communication by producers, particularly in the context of greenwashing. The theoretical part of the thesis focuses on the concept of sustainability, environmental communication, and the definition of greenwashing within marketing practice. The research is based on qualitative data collected through individual interviews. The findings show that despite a growing interest in sustainability, consumers have a limited ability to recognize manipulative environmental messages and are often influenced by the visual and linguistic strategies used in marketing.