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In response to increasing public health concerns about processed meat consumption, many innovations in meat technology focus on health-oriented product reformulations. Processed meat is not a homogeneous food category. The purpose of this paper is to explore consumer perception of the “healthier” reformulation of different processed meat products using two approaches: salt and fat reduction; and enrichment with healthy ingredients.

Seven focus group interviews were carried out with 40 Irish regular meat consumers (30 female, ten male) who were solely or jointly responsible for food shopping. Two rounds of card sorting procedures were employed to reveal perceptions on reformulation of 20 different processed meat products. Thematic analysis was used for analysing transcripts.

Health and flavour concerns and product popularity were the main factors influencing participants’ perceptions. Some participants were unsure or had misconceptions about the healthiness of certain meat products. Participants suggested reducing salt and fat content in processed meat products they perceived as the least healthy ones (theme 1) and improving the healthiness of products which were favoured by children (theme 2) and those meat products which people consumed regularly as a source of protein (theme 3). Participants were not in favour of any reformulation of speciality-type products (theme 4).

Consumer insights identified in this study can inform future approaches to making processed meats healthier.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumer attitudes towards and interest in enriching processed meat with healthy ingredients (“functional processed meat”).

Seven focus groups across age and gender were conducted. Discussions were analysed using an inductive thematic approach.

Strategies that participants felt as important for improving the healthiness of processed meat mainly included the use of better quality meat and less salt, fat, preservatives and other additives. “Functional processed meat” was a new concept for participants. Four themes were constructed to reflect participants’ attitudes towards functional processed meat: opposing views on processed meat as a carrier of healthy ingredients; belief in the health benefits of functional processed meat; perceived value of functional processed meat for different consumer groups; and trust and perceived risk surrounding the functional food concept. A large proportion of the participants were unconvinced about the concept of functional processed meat; however many of the participants expressed an openness to purchase this food product if taste and price remained uncompromised.

The sample size of the current study is small. Complementary quantitative research with a more representative sample should be implemented. Adopting a quantitative approach, the findings from this study should be explored further to investigate their application in a representative sample of the population.

This study represents a first exploratory investigation of consumer views on functional processed meat. It can inform further consumer and market research in relation to the development of “healthier” processed meat.

With increasing emphasis on public engagement and scientific communication and dissemination, scientists are increasingly required to redefine their academic identity. Theoretical frameworks of academic identity and social media functionality were used to explore food researchers' attitudes towards social media.

An online study was carried out with 80 scientists working in publicly funded food research.

Commitment to scientific rigour, disseminating science to society, and being part of an academic community were important facets of academic identity and shaped participants' perceptions of social media functions. Functions offered by social media were most favourably viewed by the food research community for academic peer engagement and academic community building.

Cultural and organisational changes are needed to mobilise food researchers to view public engagement as an important facet of academic identity.

The current study adds to the theoretical literature on academic identity and social media functionality by providing empirical evidence outlining how scientists working in publicly funded food research feel about engaging with social media within their professional role.

This study aims to explore the dissemination and evolutionary path of online public opinion from a crisis management perspective. By clarifying the influencing factors and dynamic mechanisms of online public opinion dissemination, this study provides insights into attenuating the negative impact of online public opinion and creating a favorable ecological space for online public opinion.

This research employs bibliometric analysis and CiteSpace software to analyze 302 Chinese articles published from 2006 to 2023 in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database and 276 English articles published from 1994 to 2023 in the Web of Science core set database. Through literature keyword clustering, co-citation analysis and burst terms analysis, this paper summarizes the core scientific research institutions, scholars, hot topics and evolutionary paths of online public opinion crisis management research from both Chinese and international academic communities.

The results show that the study of online public opinion crisis management in China and internationally is centered on the life cycle theory, which integrates knowledge from information, computer and system sciences. Although there are differences in political interaction and stage evolution, the overall evolutionary path is similar, and it develops dynamically in the “benign conflict” between the expansion of the research perspective and the gradual refinement of research granularity.

This study summarizes the research results of online public opinion crisis management from China and the international academic community and identifies current research hotspots and theoretical evolution paths. Future research can focus on deepening the basic theories of public opinion crisis management under the influence of frontier technologies, exploring the subjectivity and emotionality of web users using fine algorithms and promoting the international development of network public opinion crisis management theory through transnational comparison and international cooperation.