Cooking readiness in stressful times: Navigating food choices for a healthier future.

Food choice is a complex function of preferences and combines a myriad of food-related factors, such as biological, economic, physical, social, and psychological determinants. People's food choices directly affect their health and can have both positive and negative outcomes. For instance, the pandemic may have presented an opportunity to cook more at home, eventually resulting in dietary benefits, health improvements, and reduced stress.

Beyond sugar: Exploring the influence of health and naturalness framing on attitudes towards products with sweet proteins in Europe.

Amidst rising obesity rates in the EU and the significant public health impact of excessive sugar consumption, the debate on reducing sugar through reformulation with sweet proteins derived from precision fermentation gains prominence, presenting a viable alternative to traditional sugars and conventional sweeteners. We conducted two studies to investigate the effects of health (emphasizing sugar reduction) versus naturalness (highlighting sweet proteins as alternatives to artificial sweeteners) message framing on the acceptance of products reformulated with sweet proteins. Study 1 (N = 296, Denmark) evaluated the impact of health and naturalness message framing on attitudes towards such reformulations.

Consumers' Preferences towards Bread Characteristics Based on Food-Related Lifestyles: Insights from Slovenia.

Consumers' recognition and understanding of food characteristics can have an important role when making purchase decisions. The current study analysed consumer preferences for bread, an important food in the diets of Central European countries. The study included a conjoint experiment on a representative sample of 547 adult consumers in Slovenia.

Food-related consumer behaviours in times of crisis: Changes in the wake of the Ukraine war, rising prices and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the COVID-19 pandemic subsided, the war in Ukraine led to further disruptions in consumers' daily behaviours, with rising prices for food and energy. We conducted a survey study on self-reported changes in food-related consumer behaviour in ten European countries and compared the results to a similar study conducted two years ago. A latent class cluster analysis distinguished five clusters and showed that different types of consumers can be distinguished based on how they react to the crisis as regards their eating habits.

Supporting consumers' informed food choices: Sources, channels, and use of information.

Information about food is available from several sources using a variety of communication channels. Following an overview of the different types on food information, the most important source/channel combinations are discussed. The key steps in processing the information toward making a food choice are discussed: consumer's exposure to such information, the attention the consumer pays to it, the understanding and/or liking of the information, as well as the importance of motivation, knowledge, and trust.

Measurement invariance of the comprehensive feeding practices questionnaire in dual-earner parents with adolescent children in Chile.

The Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire (CFPQ) has been evaluated in international studies, but the evaluation of its psychometric properties in Spanish, and in particular for parents of adolescents is still limited, and the invariance of measurement according to gender has not been evaluated. Therefore, the objectives of this study were: (1) To adapt the five-factor model of the CFPQ instrument to Spanish; (2) To examine the psychometric properties of this adaptation; and (3) To evaluate the measurement invariance of the model to verify the equivalence of measurement of the perceptions of food parenting practices between mothers and fathers belonging to nuclear, dual-earner families with adolescent children. Participants were 946 mothers and fathers from Southern Chile.

Contributions of Work-to-Family Enrichment to Parental Food Monitoring and Satisfaction with Food-Related Life during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Dual-Earner Parents and Their Adolescent Children.

Evidence shows that numerous family-related variables influence parents’ use of different food parenting practices (FPP), but less is known about the influence of parents’ work-related variables on their use of FPP, and their own and their children’s outcomes in the food domain. To fill this gap, the present study explored intra-individual and inter-individual effects between work-to-family enrichment (WtoFE), parents’ monitoring practices, the adolescent’s perception of their parents’ monitoring practices, and the three family members’ satisfaction with food-related life (SWFoL), in different-sex dual-earner parents with adolescent children. The mediating role of monitoring between WtoFE and SWFoL was also tested.

A taste of things to come: Effect of temporal order of information and product experience on evaluation of healthy and sustainable plant-based products.

Current patterns of meat consumption are considered unsustainable. Plant-based products are presented as a solution. However, while some plant-based products thrive, others do not make the cut due to the information "framing" effect issues related to the way information is presented to the consumers.

Parents' Modeling During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Influences on Family Members' Diet Quality and Satisfaction With-Food-Related Life in Dual-Earner Parents With Adolescent Children.

Reciprocal family influences in the food domain have been little explored, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. To fill in this gap, this study explored actor and partner effects between parents' food modeling and parents' and their adolescent children's diet quality and satisfaction with food-related life (SWFoL); and the mediating role of diet quality between modeling and SWFoL. This study used a cross-sectional design.

Relationships between diet quality, food satisfaction and life satisfaction in mother-adolescent dyads.

This study examined the relationships between diet quality, satisfaction with food-related life and life satisfaction in mother-adolescent dyads. The sample consisted of 470 mother-adolescent dyads in Temuco, Chile. Mothers and adolescents responded to the Adapted Healthy Eating Index, Satisfaction with Life Scale, and the Satisfaction with Food-related Life scale.

No lockdown in the kitchen: How the COVID-19 pandemic has affected food-related behaviours.

The COVID-19 pandemic and especially the lockdowns coming with it have been a disruptive event also for food consumption. In order to study the impact of the pandemic on eating habits, self-reported changes in food-related behaviours were investigated in ten European countries by means of an online survey. A latent class cluster analysis distinguished five clusters and showed that different types of consumers can be distinguished based on how they react to the pandemic as regards their eating habits.

Impact of consumer global-local identity on attitude towards and intention to buy local foods.

The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) has profoundly affected the food systems, leading to consumer concerns about the lack of reliability and safety of global foods and a growing trend towards consuming local foods. Consumers have formed multicultural identities, such as global identity and local identity, under the influences of global and local consumer culture. This study develops a conceptual model to examine the impact of consumer global-local identity, locavorism, and consumer xenocentrism on consumer attitudes towards and intentions to buy local foods during Covid-19 crisis.

"Corona Cooking": The interrelation between emotional response to the first lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic and cooking attitudes and behaviour in Denmark.

For this study, the authors measured attitudes toward shopping for food and cooking, before and during the first lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, among a sample of 526 Danish consumers, using an online survey. To analyse changes due to the lockdown, they applied a latent class Markov model, which revealed four states: middle of the road, love cooking (and like shopping), like shopping and cooking, and do not like shopping or cooking. In estimating transition probabilities, the findings reveal that most respondents remained in the same state before and during the lockdown, but those that changed were more likely to exhibit relatively higher liking of shopping and cooking.

Consumer Perception of Food Quality and Safety in Western Balkan Countries: Evidence from Albania and Kosovo.

Domestic food markets are of significant importance to Kosovar and Albanian companies because access to export markets is under-developed, partly as a result of the gaps in food safety and quality standards. Kosovar and Albanian consumers' use of food safety attributes and their evaluation of the quality of domestic food versus imported food are the research objectives of this study. The paper is based on a structured consumer survey of 300 Kosovars and 349 Albanians analyzing their perceptions of issues related to food safety and quality, measured through two respective batteries of items using a 5-point Likert scale.

Assessing the Role of Food Related Lifestyle in Predicting Intention towards Edible Insects.

Although recent literature has shown that switching to an insect-based diet could provide several relevant advantages-from a nutritional, environmental, economic and ecological point of view-the potential growth of insects as everyday food is still unclear. Despite a growing literature on consumer acceptance and product preference for insect-based food, a segmentation of this future and possible market has never been proposed. Therefore, in the present paper, a market segmentation based on the Food Related Lifestyle Scale (FRLS), was performed in order to predict consumers' willingness to eat (WTE) edible insects.

Satisfaction with food-related life and life satisfaction: a triadic analysis in dual-earner families.

This study explored the spillover and crossover associations between satisfaction with food-related life and life satisfaction in mothers, fathers and adolescent children in dual-earned families. This is a cross-sectional design study with mothers, fathers and children surveyed in Temuco, Chile. The participants were 303 dual-earner parents and their adolescent children (mean age 13.

Determinants of intention to reduce salt intake and willingness to purchase salt-reduced food products: Evidence from a web survey.

To study consumers' intention to reduce their dietary salt intake and willingness to purchase salt-reduced food products, as well as the determinants of these, this research relies on data collected through a web survey of 1030 participants in Denmark. The majority of respondents (66.8%) express no intentions to change their dietary salt intake, but 12.

Perceived Correspondence of Health Effects as a New Determinant Influencing Purchase Intention for Functional Food.

This study has revealed the role of a new factor, perceived correspondence of health effects, in consumer acceptance of functional foods. Using a web survey of 1016 people, we hypothesized and verified the following: when an ingredient does not occur naturally in the carrier but the consumer assigns the same health effect to it as to the carrier, the product's acceptance will be more positive than it would be if an identical health effect was not associated with the carrier and the functional ingredient. Factors influencing consumer acceptance were examined via binary logistic regression models.

Setting Policy Priorities for Front-of-Pack Health Claims and Symbols in the European Union: Expert Consensus Built by Using a Delphi Method.

Despite the fact that front-of-pack nutrition labels such as health claims and symbols have received growing attention in consumer behavior research, comprehensive conclusions could not yet be drawn to develop concrete policy actions, owing to the complexity of the subject and a constantly changing market environment. In this study, evidence-based policy recommendations and communication guidelines have been derived from the findings of the EU FP7 project CLYMBOL ("Role of health-related CLaims and sYMBOLs in consumer behavior", Grant Agreement 311963), and have been evaluated and prioritized by European stakeholders using a three-round Delphi method. A moderate level of consensus was achieved and results suggest that policy priority should focus on ways to improve consumer motivation and interest in healthy eating.

International segmentation in the food domain: Issues and approaches.

International segmentation is defined as the identification of groups of consumers with similar needs and wants in the food domain across cultural units. Four criteria for such segmentations are discussed (theoretical support for the segmentation base, cross-cultural relevance of the segmentation base, cross-cultural validity of the measurement instrument, validation by measures of responses to marketing parameters). Three dominant approaches are identified in the literature: segmentation by importance of product benefits, by means-end chains, and by food-related lifestyles.

Animal Welfare and Mountain Products from Traditional Dairy Farms: How Do Consumers Perceive Complexity?

This qualitative study aims to investigate consumers' perceptions toward dairy cow welfare in traditional mountain farms. While consumers' understanding of conventional dairy production and animal welfare has already been investigated, how consumers perceive animal welfare in traditional mountain dairy farming remains still unexplored. Focus group interviews were conducted with consumers having different degrees of geographical proximity to mountains and with an explicit interest in local dairy products.

Weight Fluctuation and Diet Concern Negatively Affect Food-Related Life Satisfaction in Chilean Male and Female Adolescents.

Problematic eating behaviors and obesity are frequent problems encountered during adolescence that may potentially result in psychological, social and physical consequences that may interfere with adolescent development and well-being. The present study evaluates the relationship between satisfaction with food-related life and satisfaction with family life, and their relationship with life satisfaction in male and female adolescents. We explored the relationships between both subscales of the Revised Restraint Scale (RRS), Diet Concern (DC) and Weight Fluctuation (WF) and adolescent life satisfaction as well as satisfaction with food-related life and family life.

A latent class analysis of family eating habits in families with adolescents.

The objectives of the present study were to identify adolescent classes based on perceptions of their family's eating habits and to determine whether these classes differ in terms of family meal frequency and source, parents and adolescent diet quality, nutritional status, satisfaction with life, family life and food-related life. Questionnaires were administered to a sample of 300 two-parent families with one child between 10 and 17 years in Chile. Questionnaires included the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), the Satisfaction with Food-related Life scale (SWFoL), the Satisfaction with Family Life scale (SWFaL) and the Adapted Healthy Eating Index (AHEI).

Maternal Food-Related Practices, Quality of Diet, and Well-Being: Profiles of Chilean Mother-Adolescent Dyads.

Objective: To identify mother-adolescent dyad profiles according to food-related parenting practices and to determine differences in diet quality, family meal frequency, life satisfaction, and sociodemographic characteristics.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Mothers and children were surveyed in their homes or at schools in Temuco, Chile.

Foods with increased protein content: A qualitative study on European consumer preferences and perceptions.

Foods with increased protein content have rapidly become one of the fastest-growing product categories targeting image- and health-focused consumers. However, it is not clear whether consumers really understand the difference between 'inherently rich in protein' and 'artificially increased protein'. This study used a qualitative focus group approach to investigate the consumer preferences and perceptions of foods with increased protein content among mixed-age and older population in four European countries.