Changes in food behaviours during the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Australia.

Aim: The objective of this study was to explore changes in Australian consumer food behaviours during COVID-19 public health restrictions (lockdown), to provide insights into how this unforeseen crisis event affected dietary behaviour patterns.

Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted in September 2020 with a nationally representative sample of the Australian adult population. Participants were asked to complete questions about (1) meal planning and food purchasing and (2) barriers to cooking, before and during a national-wide COVID-19 lockdown in early 2020.

Population Subgroups at Risk of Unhealthy Changes in Food and Beverage Consumption During COVID-19 Lockdowns.

Background: Understanding health behaviour changes during the COVID-19 pandemic can assist in developing strategies to promote healthy lifestyles at such times. The aim of this exploratory study was to examine whether the frequency of consuming unhealthy foods and beverages changed during lockdown and whether certain population subgroups were more likely to make such changes.

Method: An online survey was administered to a national sample of 4022 Australian adults (51% female, mean age 48 years).

Protocol for the implementation and evaluation of a community-based behavior change intervention to reduce dietary salt intake in India.

Excess dietary salt intake is well established as a leading cause of high blood pressure and associated cardiovascular disease, yet current salt intake in India is nearly 11 g per day, more than twice World Health Organization maximum recommended intake of 5 g per day. Although dietary survey data from India indicate that the main sources of dietary salt are salt added during cooking at home, and few salt reduction efforts have focused on interventions at the household level. As a result, there is little evidence of the effectiveness of behavior change programs to reduce salt intake at the household level.

Advancing Health Research Impact through a Systemic Multi-Sectoral Approach: A Protocol for Introducing Reduced-Sodium Salts and Salty Condiments in Vietnam.

Better alignment between health research organisations with the needs (and interests) of key stakeholders in the health policy and research system is critical to improving research impact. The George Institute for Global Health's 'Healthier Societies' program focuses on harnessing the power of governments, markets, and communities to improve population level health equity outcomes and maximise research impact. This protocol outlines a systemic multi-sectoral approach to advance health research impact globally applied to a project to reduce population salt intake in Vietnam by introducing reduced-sodium salts and salty condiments.

Influencing across multiple levels: The positive effect of a school-based intervention on food waste and household behaviours.

Changing consumer food waste-related behaviours is critical to meeting global targets of halving food loss and waste. This paper presents a food waste reduction intervention trialled in five Australian schools and explores its influence on food provisioning practices, changed behaviours and food waste. Consisting of a mix of educational, skills-based, and whole-of-school-events, the intervention sought to reduce food waste by encouraging students to be more involved at home in choosing and/or preparing food to take to school.

Are there socio-demographic differences in salt behaviours and fruit and vegetable consumption in Australian adults? A nationally representative cross-sectional survey.

Background: Diets low in fruit and vegetables and high in salt are among the top dietary risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Using a nationally representative sample of Australians, this study aimed to describe self-reported intake of fruit and vegetables, and knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to salt intake, and determine if there were socio-demographic differences between population subgroups.

Methods: A 2016 cross-sectional survey of Australian adults aged 18 years and over, which comprised 160 questions, including socio-demographic and health-related questions.

The cost-effectiveness of government actions to reduce sodium intake through salt substitutes in Vietnam.

Background: Dietary sodium reduction is recommended to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease. In Vietnam food products including salt, fish sauce and bot canh contribute to ~ 70% of dietary sodium intake. Reduced sodium versions of these products can be produced by replacing some of the sodium chloride with potassium chloride.

Towards a multi-level framework of household food waste and consumer behaviour: Untangling spaghetti soup.

Changing the everyday food-related behaviours of consumers is a critical part of tackling the global food waste challenge. Comprehensive frameworks of household food waste and consumer behavior are needed to guide the development of targeted interventions and future research agendas. This study systematically reviews food waste and behaviour studies from developed nations to provide an overview of the current research field.

A comprehensive overview and qualitative analysis of government-led nutrition policies in Australian institutions.

Background: Institutions are a recommended setting for dietary interventions and nutrition policies as these provide an opportunity to improve health by creating healthy food environments. In Australia, state and territory governments encourage or mandate institutions in their jurisdiction to adopt nutrition policies. However, no work has analysed the policy design across settings and jurisdictions.

A level-of-analysis issue in resource consumption and environmental behavior research: A theoretical and empirical contradiction.

Behavioral theories have much to offer researchers and policy makers who seek sustainable resource management within households. However, much research on household resource consumption applies theories of the individual to understand the behavioral patterns of what are very often groups of people cohabiting in a particular dwelling. This misalignment of levels of analysis leads to erroneous empirical results and conclusions, and thereby less effective policy and management actions.

The Science of Salt: A global review on changes in sodium levels in foods.

This review aims to summarize and synthesize studies reporting on changes in sodium levels in packaged food products, restaurant foods, and hospital or school meals, as a result of salt reduction interventions. Studies were extracted from those published in the Science of Salt Weekly between June 2013 and February 2018. Twenty-four studies were identified: 17 assessed the changes in packaged foods, four in restaurant foods, two in hospital or school meals, and one in both packaged and restaurant foods.

Adolescents' Responses to a School-Based Prevention Program Promoting Healthy Eating at School.

Background: To improve the effectiveness of school-based programs that aim to promote adolescents' healthy food choices, it is essential to understand the views and behaviors of the target group. This study aimed to get a better understanding of adolescents' food and health perceptions and their willingness to be involved in a specific school-based prevention program, i.e.

Context and wine quality effects on consumers' mood, emotions, liking and willingness to pay for Australian Shiraz wines.

This study investigated the effect of different contexts on consumers' mood, product-evoked emotions, liking and willingness to pay for wine. Three consumer trials (n=114, 115, and 120) examined 3 different sample sets of 4 Australian commercial Shiraz wines. Each sample set was comprised of a high, medium-high, medium-low and low quality wine as designated by an expert panel.

Replacement of meat by meat substitutes. A survey on person- and product-related factors in consumer acceptance.

What does it take to increase the consumption of meat substitutes and attract new consumers? We identified main barriers and drivers by a consumer survey (n=553) in the U.K. and the Netherlands.

Food-related lifestyle and health attitudes of Dutch vegetarians, non-vegetarian consumers of meat substitutes, and meat consumers.

The aim was to investigate socio-demographic characteristics, and attitudes to food and health of vegetarians, non-vegetarian consumers of meat substitutes, and meat consumers in The Netherlands. The sample used for this study (participants > or =18 years) was taken from the Dutch National Food Consumption Survey, 1997/1998. Vegetarians (n = 63) and consumers of meat substitutes (n = 39) had similar socio-demographic profiles: higher education levels, higher social economic status, smaller households, and more urbanised residential areas, compared to meat consumers (n = 4313).