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The purpose of this case study is to explore and study the determinants (demographics and psychographics) impacting consumers food choice towards fast food in India.

Food choice variables have been explored using literature reviews and exploratory survey of young consumers in the age group of 20‐40. Data obtained from the reliable sources (e.g. the World Health Organisation, Euromonitor International and Datamonitor International) have been used to study the implications of consumer food choice and growing trend towards organic food.

Based on literature reviews and exploratory surveys, the key determinants impacting consumers food choice are passion for eating out, socialize, ambience and taste for school and college goers and convenience for dual‐income families in urban India. Findings indicate that fast food companies can no longer rely on convenience as USP in India, unless the implications of same on consumers health is given equal importance in the years to come.

Data obtained from the convenience sample and literature reviews have been generalized for inferring consumption patterns of Indian consumers (population).

This case study focuses on growing trends towards organic food and green consumerism in view of rising global obesity with fast food consumption in Western countries and significantly very less in India despite obesity being an epidemic in India.

This paper focuses on determining a food choice model in wake of changing food and eating habits in India, using literature reviews, exploratory surveys and reliable data sources.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of nutritional warning (NW) labels on the behavior of consumers of processed foods, considering demographic and psychological factors associated with the theory of planned behavior (TPB).

The study had a descriptive and cross-sectional design. A survey was applied to 200 household food decision makers from central Chile. This questionnaire was developed based on the planned behavior theory that evaluates the psychological constructs of human behavior: Attitude (ATT), Subjective Norms (SN), Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC) and Purchase Intention (PI) toward processed foods with NW. Sociodemographic variables were also included. The data were analyzed by using a multinomial logit (MNL) model, where three types of categories are established depending on the choice made by the consumer. Thus, the dependent variable responds to the effect of the following probabilities: Eliminate from Consumption, Do Not Eliminate from Consumption and Do Not Know whether or not to eliminate from consumption when selecting a food processed with NW.

The results show that the implementation of NW has significant effects on the choice of processed foods purchases made by Chilean consumers. Consumers with negative ATT and PBC in the presence of NW on processed foods eliminated this type of food from their consumption. On the other hand, those who did not eliminate processed foods with NW from their consumption made that choice because they had a positive PBC. In addition, consumers who were unsure about eliminating or consuming processed foods with NW also had a positive PBC. In addition, SN and sociodemographic variables did not affect consumer choice.

The results of this study are crucial in informing public policy strategies seeking to alert consumers about the content of processed foods, thus raising awareness for decision making in order to reduce noncommunicable diseases associated with poor eating habits.

The study provides evidence on the effect of NWs for processed foods on consumer decisions based on the TPB.

Numeracy skills hinder a consumer’s ability to meet nutrition and calorie consumption guidelines. This study extends the literature on nutritional labelling by investigating how a calorie counter, which displays the total amount of calories consumers add to a shopping basket, aids them in making food choices. This study aims to ascertain whether the calorie counter affects food choices and also how individual and situational factors moderate this effect.

To test the developed hypotheses, the authors designed an online shopping experiment and administered it to a national panel of British consumers. This included a sub-sample from the general population who did not report any food-related health conditions (n = 480) and a separate sub-sample from the same population who had reported a food-related health condition or lived with someone who had one (n = 250).

The results of this study show that the calorie counter leads to a large and statistically significant reduction in calories purchased when compared to the no nutritional information condition and a small (but statistically insignificant) reduction in the number of calories chosen by consumers when compared to the nutritional information only condition. The main effect is moderated by individual factors such as whether or not the person has a health condition and shopping situations which involve time pressure.

Although the main effect of the calorie counter was not statistically significant when compared to the nutrition information only condition, the effect was in the correct direction and was statistically significant for consumers who had a food-related health condition. The conceptualisation and findings of this study are not only largely consistent with Moorman’s (1990) nutrition information utilisation process but also suggest that situational factors should be considered when understanding nutrition information processing.

The findings from this study provide the first evidence to suggest that aggregating calorie information through a calorie counter can be a useful way to overcome consumer numeracy biases, particularly for those with existing health conditions and who are most motivated to use nutritional information. Based on the descriptive statistics, the main effect was comparable to the UK’s sugar tax in its impact and the authors estimate this would lead to a reduction in calories consumed of about 5,000 per year, even for consumers who did not report a health condition. Further testing is required with different formats, but these results are encouraging and are worthy of further research.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate how consumers react to aggregated nutritional information for a basket of products, mimicking a real shopping situation. Such information has the potential to become more relevant and useful to consumers in the context of their overall diets. As technology advances rapidly, there is a need to explore alternative ways of presenting nutritional information, so it connects more easily with consumers. These results point very much to a more targeted and personally relevant approach to information provision, in contrast to existing mass communications approaches.

This research investigates the effect of imposing a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) on the likelihood of purchasing SSBs. We design and test an experimental framework that examines this and the effects of providing an explanation about the presence of an SSB tax and information about the negative health effects of consuming SSBs. Consistent with Elbel, Taksler, Mijanovich, Abrams, and Dixon (2013) and Taylor, Kaplan, Villas-Boas, and Jung (2019), we find that imposing a tax, in addition to increasing the conspicuousness of the tax by explaining the presence of a tax (and in some cases, the negative health effects) reduces the likelihood of purchasing an SSB anywhere from 8.39% to 18.15%. We contribute to the public health and tax policy literature by testing consumer choice in a controlled experimental setting and considering the effect of individual differences on the choice to purchase SSBs. Imposing a tax on SSBs may be an effective tool for decreasing SSB consumption that is made more effective when the tax is conspicuous.

The article aims to address two questions: “What are the important extrinsic variables in consumer food studies?” and “Which are focused on the most?”

An extensive search of previous literature was conducted to find data on papers related to extrinsic variables in food studies. Both an electronics search through computerized library databases (Web of Science, Food Science and Technology Abstract), and reference lists from relevant research papers were used.

The article finds that acceptance and intention to purchase measures regarding foods are associated with consumption and purchase process and are used as an indirect way of obtaining data to understand consumer behavior. Although the importance of intrinsic variables such as color, aroma, flavor and texture in food acceptance and choice are very well recognized, several studies have shown that other variables also play an important role in food acceptance, preference, choice and intention to purchase. This article presents the more studied extrinsic variables using the conjoint analysis and repertory grid methods.

This article shows data only on repertory grid and conjoint analysis. There are other methodologies such as focus group, laddering interviews and questionnaires that can be used to investigate the role of extrinsic variables on consumer attitude.

Context variables are the most studied extrinsic variables. Production method, nutritional information, protected denomination of origin/certification and origin are some of these variables and are directly linked with consumer concerns about the product. The authors believe that the change in consumer behavior globally drives the search for motives that better explain choices.

This research paper aims to understand which factors influence the purchase of private label food products, by measuring the importance of 14 variables for purchasing frequency.

Data were collected through questionnaires to a sample of consumers. They have been analysed according to the extra tree classifier methodology, which allows providing a more reliable classification – compared to previous studies – of factors affecting consumers' choices of private label products.

Results show that consumers' choices related to private label food products are influenced by groups of heterogeneous variables related to their perception on products, satisfaction of post-consumption, store's role and trust built over time by retailers.

Data have been collected through an online survey, which could generate the bias of self-selection; the sampling method is non-probabilistic.

The study provides useful indications on the role of private labels in retailer management policies and on marketing competences and skills that are necessary for managing retailers' assortments.

The existing literature lacks clarity on the factors that influence the frequency of purchasing private label food products. By considering a higher number of variables than previous studies, it has been possible to classify and measure the importance of each variable included in the analysis framework adopted, also in case of correlation between variables.

This study aims to reveal the presence of products with negatively correlated nutrients in the marketplace and their implications for consumer choices. It also investigates the role of an overall simplified nutrition scoring system (SNSS) – health star rating (HSR), in improving the healthiness of consumer choices.

Three (lab, online and eye-tracking) experiments investigate the effects of negatively correlated nutrients and the mitigating role of an overall SNSS for consumers’ food choices. A final panel-data study analyzes the changes in actual food purchases after the introduction of HSRs (an SNSS) in Australia.

Experimental results show that consumers use a decision strategy based on a dominant nutrient to choose food products, which creates health halos and leads to less healthy choices when products have negatively correlated nutrients. The presence of an overall SNSS leads to more accurate healthiness perception and healthier choices. Panel data analysis shows that the healthiness of consumer food purchases increased after the introduction of HSRs.

The study investigated the effect of an overall SNSS on specific categories, but not on the overall shopping basket.

For policymakers, this paper shows that overall SNSS helps consumers choose healthier options. Food manufacturers and retailers could be motivated to formulate healthier products when consumers choose healthier options.

This is the first study to document the presence of products with negatively correlated nutrients and their implications for consumer choices. It highlights the unique role of an overall SNSS, in helping consumers identify healthier options when products have negatively correlated nutrients.

This is an exploratory study on consumer information and behaviour towards green, health, local, social and environmental credentials on labels. It focusses on many dimensions of sustainability in the food products that affect consumer choices with a dual purpose: to identify and define “sustainable consumption” behaviour in broad sense and to investigate empirically the factors affecting the real consumption behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on consumers’ understanding, motivation and use of sustainable labelling in order to understand the role sustainability information plays in the food products market.

Two focus groups in order to investigate consumer motivation and behaviour in-depth and to prepare the questionnaire. Identification of the outcomes that could summarize sustainable consumption combining: purchase of local products, consume only seasonal fruit, prefer products with recyclable packaging, attention to the fat content in foods, give importance to traceability and purchase products only in the place of origin. Identification of the “at risk” virtuous consumer, using a binary logistic regression approach, taking into account demographic characteristics, the food and nutrition value system, experience, knowledge, institutional factors and marketing.

Results from the focus groups are mainly in line with the empirical analysis, highlighting the key role of education in influencing consumer attitude and behaviour. Consumers give little attention to information provided on the label for sustainable food consumption and environmental protection and have little knowledge of environmental problems. The virtuous consumer appears to give importance to a better food nutrition value system, to pay more attention to ingredients and instructions on the label, to be more attentive to environmental and sustainable attributes, to be concerned about product quality and to be slightly influenced by brands and special offers.

The findings from the empirical analysis confirm the results from focus groups even if it was not possible from the empirical analysis to investigate in-depth the marketing aspects concerning the food choice. This limit probably comes from the low number of observations. Further research will focus on these marketing aspects.

Products with sustainable attributes can become a strategic variable and allow companies to gain a competitive advantage, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises. This may encourage the development of new marketing channels based on the direct relationship between producer and the new consumer demand, increasingly sensitive to the food security issues.

There is a potential interest and sensitiveness to having sustainable behaviour in a broad sense, but there is a lack of knowledge about how to behave to be sustainable. In the absence of binding rules, it is necessary that government promote information and campaigns to generate greater awareness on sustainability, aiming at increasing knowledge to drive the consumer’s choices. This may lead to virtuous results in terms of reducing social costs related to an unhealthy diet, food waste and unsustainable consumption.

The results show that despite the appearance of attention to the environment and to healthy food which is associated with this emerging critical consumer in the literature, there remains the problem of the consumer giving little attention to information provided on the label for sustainable food consumption and environmental protection. This is the problem of “rules of thumb” in purchasing decisions that prevail in the following situations: when consumers have an overload of information that exceeds their processing limits; when they tend to base their decision making on heuristics, focussing their choices on brands as a proxy for high-quality, product-related characteristics.

Given food industry manufacturers and retailers' growing economic interest in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), this research aims to contribute to the understanding of consumer food decisions in this specific geographical area. Thus, the intention is to analyze whether there are significant differences in the appreciation of food values according to certain key demographics of consumers (related to the individual and the context) in one of the largest SSA economies: Nigeria.

The review of the relevant literature enabled us to propose a series of hypotheses regarding potential significant differences in the appreciation of a series of food values (in particular, price, safety, environmental impact, nutrition and weight and measures) according to variables related to the individual and the economic and social context. In order to test the hypotheses, a structured questionnaire was personally administered to 500 Lagos residents between June and July 2020. The questionnaire contained, as well as diverse questions related to the appreciation of food values selected for this study, a group of questions about the consumers' sociodemographic characteristics – at both the individual and context level. The database was analyzed using descriptive statistics and Kruskal–Wallis tests.

The results show that nutrition and weight and measurement values are the most and least appreciated food values, respectively. However, these values differ across segments determined by the chosen sociodemographic variables.

The results of this study are preliminary and not a complete representation of the Lagos State population, and, consequently, of the Nigerian population. Additional studies in the same and other countries in SSA are needed to confirm the authors’ findings. The results, however, provide an insight into what the most likely outcomes are. A field survey was used as respondents tend not to answer online surveys spontaneously.

Food manufacturers and retailers should encourage consumer-operator feedback mechanisms to improve product characteristics and development. The variations found across each segment can be capitalized upon for advertising and branding food products.

Having selected a country in SSA for the study is an important contribution, given that few studies have focused on this geographical area.