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Foodborne disease remains a significant public health threat and cause for concern. Despite numerous studies indicating that the domestic kitchen is a high-risk area for foodborne illness, consumers believe it is low-risk. The type of food being prepared in the kitchen has drastically changed, with an increased use of convenience products, perceived low-risk products. Little is known about consumers' behaviours with convenience meals. Therefore, it is essential to understand actual and perceived food safety behaviours in their use.

A mixed-methods approach using in-home observations and semi-structured interviews was undertaken with participants from the UK and the Republic of Ireland (N = 50). Observational data was summarized using descriptive statistics and an inductive thematic analysis was conducted to interpret the qualitative data.

In this study general food safety behaviours, such as handwashing, use-by date checking, as well as identifying obvious safety hazard were suboptimal. However, participants' convenience meal safety behaviours were as optimal as possible with the provided instructions. The qualitative data supported the participants' struggle with the provided on-packet instructions. They also displayed participants' uncertain perceptions around different products, for example if oven-products could be reheated multiple times, and varying levels of concern around meat and dairy products. Consumers urged for more detailed and clearer instructions with these products. Recommendations for producers are provided to enhance consumer experience with the use of the products as well as contributing towards ensuring consumer safety.

Mixed-methods approach investigating consumers' real and perceived food safety behaviours.

Generation Z will be the leading consumer group in the future. Using convenience stores, the study provides an in-depth analysis on Gen Z’s current experience and future expectations from retail stores. The study further highlights the differences between Gen Z’s perception of convenience stores across three different regions – the USA, South Korea and Japan.

This study conducted a series of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 36 Gen Z participants from the USA (12), South Korea (11) and Japan (13). All interviews were first coded based on a preselected list of themes and were further coded with new themes that emerged from exploratory coding.

Each regional cohort varied in terms of how they experienced and what they expected from convenience stores. US participants showed negative or utilitarian attitudes toward convenience stores, whereas South Korean participants had a positive, personal attachment to them. In comparison, Japanese participants had a relatively neutral attitude. However, all three groups showed a common preference for smart technology and health concerns surrounding convenience store foods.

Convenience store chains should consider the cultural nuances when designing future services. The chains should further strive to remove the health concerns about the foods provided at the stores and design smart technologies that enhance user experience.

The present study broadens the knowledge in this budding consumer segment where current research is limited. It further sheds light on the variance among Gen Zers across different cultural contexts.

This study evaluates the impact of online menus and perceived convenience of online food ordering on consumer purchase intention and shows how a desire for food creates a relationship between an online menu and a customer's purchase intention. Suggestions for management are proposed to design an effective menu to improve business performance in the competitive market in Vietnam.

The paper follows a quantitative method. Quantitative research aims to analyze and critically evaluate the research question(s) to discover new factors.

Findings indicate a positive relationship between menu visual appeal (MV), menu informativeness (MI), desire for food (DF), the perceived convenience (PC) of ordering food online and intention to purchase (PI). The attractiveness of images and information is a significant factor affecting diners’ desire to eat, while the demand for food and the convenience of ordering food online are also factors affecting purchase intention.

The study confirms the importance of online menus to purchase intention. Economically, when supply and demand are reasonable, the market is stable and technology develops. In terms of social, hygiene, attractiveness and price factors, it is helpful to have an overview. Research is the premise for further studies with factors from menu to customer trust.

The study provides a solid foundation for further studies on restaurant menu elements as well as a new perspective on how restaurants improve their dishes.

This study explores consumers' perceptions of purchasing fast food items through online platforms. The central idea of this research is to practically assess the various elements impacting the consumers’ perceptions of online purchasing of fast food items and find out the factors with high importance and performance value.

A quantitative research approach was used to collect data from 402 participants in the form of a pen-and-paper-based method using a 5-point Likert scale. The collected data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) and importance-performance analysis. Theory of planned behavior and technology acceptance model form the basis for this research.

The findings indicate that constructs such as convenience, perceived quality and perceived healthiness positively influence consumers' perceptions of online purchasing of fast food items. On the other hand, competitive prices, discounts and promotions (CPDP) and online shopping experience have no significant impact on perceived value for money.

A constraint of this study is that it was done in a particular geographical location, which restricts the generalizations of the findings. The study only examined consumers' perceptions of online fast food purchasing, and future research could explore consumers' actual behaviors toward personalized fast food recommendations by online sellers.

The research supports and extends the existing literature by comprehensively understanding consumers' perceptions of purchasing fast food online. These findings can help online fast food sellers improve their services and develop targeted marketing strategies.

This exploratory study aims to integrate both quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the influence of contemporary university dining attributes and practices on student patronage.

First, a review of the extant literature on-campus dining in universities was conducted. Second, innovative practices of on-campus dining facilities of a large public university were identified. Finally, student perceptions of those practices were examined using a mixed method approach.

The review of literature uncovered 49 articles across 35 years on key topics such as food waste, healthy eating, and service evaluation. From site tours and interviews with related personnel, 40 innovative on-campus dining practices were identified.

Importance ratings revealed cleanliness of the environment, fresh fruit and vegetables, and digitally enabled ordering, as the top three highest rated practices. Factor analysis unveiled six factors that students find important: food diversity, good standards, innovativeness, quick options, menu variety, and fish and seafood. The thematic analysis further revealed four overarching themes (convenience, familiarity, food offerings, and value) and 13 subthemes which complemented the quantitative results.

In addition to shedding post-pandemic light on students’ dining needs, it highlights the paucity of theory used to support extant studies and suggests a novel theoretical underpinning.

This study aims to investigate the food choice motivations of rural households using a cross-sectional dataset of 510 households from northwest Vietnam interviewed in 2016.

A modified Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) is used to assess factors related to food choice and explore relationships between food choice factors, diet quality and various sociodemographic characteristics.

Results show four distinct food choice factors: “Natural and healthy,” “Familiarity,” “Balanced diet” and “Convenience.” Two distinct consumer clusters are identified: “Health-conscious” households and “Pragmatic” households. “Health-conscious” households rank “Balanced diet” and “Natural and healthy” highly, while “Pragmatic” households prioritize “Convenience” and “Familiarity.” “Health-conscious” households have significantly more diverse diets, are wealthier and have a greater geographic concentration in the high vegetable density per capita-high elevation areas (36%). Their main food preparers are more educated and about 13% have Kinh ethnicity.

Further research is warranted to explore the temporal dimension of parental food choice motivations given the changing agrifood system in Vietnam.

This study is one of the few studies that assess the food choice motivations among ethnic minority groups in a rural setting.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the different generations of consumers behave in the field of healthy and quality food consumption, considering their perceptions about healthy attributes and healthy eating style, what are the main trusted sources influencing consumption or the attention towards healthy and quality food, how do they behave towards healthy and quality foods and which benefits and barriers affect their consumption.

Data for this study were obtained from a questionnaire survey carried out over a six-month period in 2021. The questionnaire was administered online. The sampling procedure was based on a convenient non-random sampling method applied to the Italian population aged between 18 and 75 years old. The data collection process resulted in 1,646 completed questionnaires.

The results show that, in line with the theory of generational cohorts, each generation has its own specificities regarding food behaviour. The study reveals a highly sensitive approach towards healthy and quality food consumption from both Z-ers and the Baby Boomers, whilst X-ers are quite aligned with the other generations. Millennials show specific, sometimes contradictory, attitudes and habits.

The present results offer new insights into the analysis of healthy and quality food consumption, highlighting significant differences amongst generations, which can inspire public and private intervention aimed at encouraging the overall attention and consumption of healthy and quality food with related implications in terms of society's well-being and longevity improvements.

The authors developed and validated a questionnaire called “The Jordanian Food Purchasing Habits Survey” (JFPHS). The purpose of this questionnaire was to explore Jordanians’ food purchasing habits and the factors which may affect these habits among a convenient sample of people. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no such questionnaires have been developed to measure these factors for the Jordanian population. This paper aims to describe the reasoning behind and the process of developing the (JFPHS).

The JFPHS investigated meal preparation and grocery shopping behaviors, nutrition label use and factors affecting purchasing of 13 (n = 13) food groups. A two-step process, a pilot test and validity study, were used to validate the questionnaire. Internal consistency (split-half reliability) tests were run on the factors in each individual food group producing Spearman–Brown correlation coefficients.

A convenient sample of 483 individuals (118 males, 365 females) participated in the study. Spearman–Brown correlation coefficients were < 0.7 for bread and between 0.7–0.8 and 0.8–0.9 for other food groups. The ingredients list grid and the expiry date grid had Spearman–Brown coefficient values > 0.9.

This questionnaire is a valid tool to assess food purchasing behavior. Results from our questionnaire, when published, may be used to monitor trends in food consumption.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no such questionnaires been developed to measure these factors for the Jordanian population.

Operational risks can cause considerable, atypical disturbances and impact food supply chain (SC) resilience. Indicatively, the COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions in the UK food services as nationwide stockouts led to unprecedented discrepancies between retail and home-delivery supply capacity and demand. To this effect, this study aims to examine the emergence of digital platforms as an innovative instrument for food SC resilience in severe market disruptions.

An interpretive multiple case-study approach was used to unravel how different generations of e-commerce food service providers, i.e. established and emergent, responded to the need for more resilient operations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

SC disruption management for high-impact low-frequency events requires analysing four research elements: platformisation, structural variety, process flexibility and system resource efficiency. Established e-commerce food operators use partner onboarding and local waste valorisation to enhance resilience. Instead, emergent e-commerce food providers leverage localised rapid upscaling and product personalisation.

Digital food platforms offer a highly customisable, multisided digital marketplace wherein platform members may aggregate product offerings and customers, thus sharing value throughout the network. Platform-induced disintermediation allows bidirectional flows of data and information among SC partners, ensuring compliance and safety in the food retail sector.

The study contributes to the SC configuration and resilience literature by investigating the interrelationship among platformisation, structural variety, process flexibility and system resource efficiency for safe and resilient food provision within exogenously disrupted environments.

Indigenous knowledge is an essential element for unveiling the evolutionary journey of socio-culture phenomena. One of the key challenges in foresight exercises is to incorporate social-culture issues such as culture, lifestyle and behavior (referred as indigenous knowledge) into the study. However, the statistical trends of those factors tend to be either not available or limited unlike the population or economic related factors. The purpose of this study is to present the use of valuable data from indigenous knowledge to enhance the foresight exercise through the better understanding of social dynamics and changes.

The fragmented form of indigenous knowledge is analyzed and converted into a structured data format and then interpreted to unveil the evolutionary journey of socio-cultural phenomena. This study applies a scenario development method to visualize the results of foresight by comparing before and after the integration of indigenous knowledge. Finally, an assessment was conducted to reflect the value enhancement resulting from the integration of indigenous knowledge into the foresight process.

With the proposed approach, the foresight study on the future development of Thai food was demonstrated. The findings of this study show that the use of indigenous knowledge on eating behavior, cooking style and food flavor helps improve the alternative scenarios for the future development of Thai foods.

Indigenous knowledge can be applied to develop plausible scenarios and future images in foresight exercises. However, by nature, indigenous knowledge is not well-structured and, therefore, needs to be analyzed and turned into structured data so that it can be interpreted before integrating into the foresight process.

This study is one of few studies addressing the opportunities for integrating indigenous knowledge into foresight process. Indigenous knowledge can unveil the evolution of socio-cultural changes to improve the results of foresight study, especially the cases where statistical data and trends may not be sufficient to foresee future development.