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This study aims to identify comfort food (CF) consumption and its associated factors during the pandemic period. The study also involves an online survey conducted five months after the quarantine started in Brazil.

Data on lifestyle, eating habits and anthropometric data were collected before and during the pandemic, and the differences in these habits were analyzed. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were performed to identify predictors of CF consumption by gender.

A total of 1,363 individuals were included in the sample, with a median age of 31 years old, of whom 80.3% were women. Since individuals were free to respond about the food consumed without predetermined categories, it was possible to carry out a faithful assessment of the occurrence of this behavior. At the same time, allowing the subjectivity and symbolism inherent to the concept of CF to be embraced. CF consumption was present for 54%, with “sweets” being the most mentioned group by both genders. The factors associated with CF consumption in women during the pandemic were increased snacking, increased bread, candies and alcoholic beverage intake, increased time spent at work, worsened sleep quality, reduced meals, perceived stress (PS), emotional eating (EE), age and increased frequency of meat intake. In men, the predictors for CF consumption were remote full-time work/study, PS, EE and early waking time. For both genders, CF consumption during the pandemic period was associated with PS and EE.

This study provides an important overview of the possible contributions of the pandemic on behaviors and food choices related to the consumption of CF in Brazilians. This information is valuable to support further studies to investigate and treat the impacts of the pandemic on lifestyle, eating habits and behavior, mental health and other factors in the postpandemic period.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) play a pivotal role in fostering economic development by cultivating skilled workforce and generating knowledge and innovation. However, HEIs may pose a potential risk to sustainable economic development due to the generation of food waste inside their campus canteens. Therefore, this study aims to examine the influence of attitude, subjective norm (SN), perceived behavior control (PBC), religiosity and pro-social behavior among State Islamic Religious College (SIRC) students on their intention to avoid food waste behavior. This study also focused on the mediating role of the three original theory of planned behavior (TPB) variables and pro-social behavior in the relationship between religiosity and the intention to reduce food waste.

Questionnaires were used to collect data from 443 students at SIRC. The collected data were processed and analyzed using structural equation modelling to test direct, indirect and mediating effects.

The empirical results indicated that the eagerness of students at SIRC to reduce their behavior of leaving food behind can be driven by their negative attitudes or views toward food waste, the practice of religious teachings in their lives, the belief that they can avoid food waste and their concern for the environment. The empirical results reveal that even though religiosity influences SN, it is unable to strengthen the relationship between religiosity and the desire to be anti-food waste.

In addition to contributing to the food waste literature in the context of eating behavior, the results of this study have theoretical and practical implications.

To assess SIRC students’ behavioral intentions to avoid food waste behavior, this study used a contemporary setting to measure attitude, SN, PBC, religiosity and pro-social behavior, so strengthening the TPB’s empirical underpinning.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the lockdown and the increased spread of food delivery applications (FD Apps) during COVID-19 pandemic have augmented the consumption of fast foods.

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 673 adults from different regions of Saudi Arabia using an online questionnaire.

Data showed that 61% (N = 410) of participants used FD Apps during the pandemic. Among those users, 54.9% (225) were females and 70.5% were in the 18–44 years old group. Most FD Apps’ users were university graduates (74.4%). The increased use of FD Apps during the pandemic significantly affected the eating behavior and the nutritional pattern. It has further significantly augmented the consumption of fast foods (p-value < 0.05).

This study reports on the use of FD Apps during COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia and its impact on consumer eating pattern. This study shows the need for prudent use of these applications to limit ordering fast foods and consider healthier choices. It further calls for education programs, awareness campaigns, legislative measures and formal policies to rationalize the use of such applications for better nutrition, health and well-being.

This study aims to examine Victorian primary school parents’ perspectives about a potential school-provided lunch program (LP).

An online cross-sectional survey was conducted in Victoria, Australia, in 2022 to explore parents’ perceptions regarding the lunch menu, funding source, amount willing to pay, frequency of meals and special dietary needs of a school-provided LP.

Over half of parents (57% out of 359) said they would allow their child to participate in a school LP, 34% were unsure and only 9% said they would not. The opportunity for hot cooked lunches at school and the perceived convenience for parents were the top two reasons for favouring such a program. Fifty-eight percent were in favour of hybrid-type funding from both the government and parents. The most preferred amount to pay per meal was AUD5-6 (43%), followed by AUD3-4 (25%). Parents expected meals to be healthy and made from whole food and cater to the special dietary and cultural needs of their children. They also expected enough time to be allocated so children could eat and enjoy the meals.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore Victorian parents’ perceptions regarding the above aspects of a school-provided LP. The findings suggest that parents are receptive to a school-provided LP; they, however, did have several expectations regarding the menu and time for eating. These findings provide important directions for designing future school-provided LPs at primary schools in Australia.

The study seeks to conduct an empirical investigation on the impact of entrepreneurship education (EE) through its components, i.e. entrepreneurial knowledge (EK) and business planning (BP) on entrepreneurial intentions (EI) in India.

An electronic questionnaire was used to collect data from 340 engineering students and partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the collected data.

The findings revealed that EK and BP have no direct impact on EI, however, they have an indirect influence through attitude towards entrepreneurship (ATE) and perceived behavioral control (PBC), whereas subjective norms (SN) have no mediation impact on the relationships.

This research has been conducted on students of engineering background only, future studies can be carried out by incorporating more attitudinal and environmental determinants with larger data sizes from diverse educational streams.

This study is of immense significance to policymakers and educational establishments in designing the purposefully designed EE courses that can drive the entrepreneurial intentionality of students.

The study adds to the paucity of research on the systematic elaboration of EE construct underlining the specific impact of EK and BP as EE dimensions on students' EI. To the best of authors' awareness, this kind of investigation has not been conducted in indian higher educational institution (HEI) context.

It is globally recognized that food waste has significant economic, social and environmental impacts. This study endeavors to identify the individuals' underlying factors that affect food waste behavior in a social context in Egypt.

Due to the scarcity of research illustrating food waste in a social context, a qualitative research paradigm is employed. In-depth semi-structured interviews are conducted with 18 Egyptian households to report their experiences, thoughts and feelings while eating in a social context.

Based on thematic analysis using grounded theory procedures, eight main elements affecting creation and reduction of food waste in social contexts are identified. Additionally, the authors investigate the role of emotions in social dining contexts. A key finding is that food waste in social events is inevitable and is the acceptable norm in the Egyptian culture. Thus, the first step to reduce food waste is paying more attention to change culture. Persuading people with the negative consequences of food waste issue on behalf of their cultural values will be more challenging and may require more innovative approaches.

Although food waste issue is one of the contemporary issues in the world, very little is known about how social food consumption leads to food waste behavior. This study employs social influence theory and the collectivistic culture orientation to investigate the unanswered question of why food gets wasted in social meal context.

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.

This paper proposed an adaptation of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) model to study the factors influencing organic food purchase behavior in an emerging market. This research introduced household norms as an important factor that reflected the influence of household activities and family pressure on individuals to perform organic food purchase behaviors. The role of trust in organic food as a direct and a moderating factor was examined in the proposed framework as well.

The study proposed a model with 10 hypotheses from the literature review. The hypotheses were tested using data collected from 407 organic food customers in Hanoi, Vietnam. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was used for analysis.

The results indicated that household norms played an important role influencing purchase intention and behavior. This research also showed that trust in organic food directly affected purchase intention and played a moderating role on the attitude towards organic food and purchase intention relationship. However, trust in organic food did not show moderating effects on other relationships in the model.

More context-specific reasons may be incorporated into the research model to better explain consumer purchase behaviors.

The role of household norms and its impact under TPB has not been investigated for organic food purchase behaviors, particularly in emerging markets.

Comfort foods consumption and linkages to stress coping strategies have received little attention in the business research on food products and services. This paper aims to explore comfort foods consumption among older Americans and how stress-coping strategies are related to their consumption frequency and variety of comfort foods.

Older Americans aged 50–99 years (N = 1,428) in the Health and Retirement Study were surveyed on their frequency and variety of comfort foods consumption and their consumption coping strategies. Data were analyzed and regression models were estimated.

Demographically, baby boomer, male, and non-Hispanic whites reported higher frequency and variety of comfort foods consumption. Comfort foods consumption in frequency and variety was significantly higher (lower) when “eat more” (“use alcohol”) was the endorsed coping strategy.

Research findings furthered research on the consumption of comfort foods among older American adults and added new insights into their coping behavior, both of which may help businesses be more targeted in serving comfort foods to the mature market and the public sector to tailor their services to older adults.

As technology increasingly integrates into the restaurant industry, avatar servers present a promising avenue for promoting healthier dining habits. Grounded in the halo effect theory and social comparison theory, this study aims to delve into the influence of avatars' appearance, humor and persuasion on healthier choices and customer satisfaction.

This paper comprises three experimental studies. Study 1 manipulates avatar appearance (supermodel-looking vs normal-looking) to examine its effects on perceived attractiveness, warmth and relatability. These factors influence customer satisfaction and healthy food choices through the psychological mechanisms of social comparison and aspirational appeal. Studies 2 and 3 further refine this theoretical model by assessing the interplay of appearance with humor (presence vs absence) and persuasion (health-oriented vs beauty-oriented), respectively.

Results suggest that avatars resembling supermodels evoke stronger aspirational appeal and positive social comparison due to their attractiveness, thus bolstering healthier choices and customer satisfaction. Moreover, humor moderates the relationship between appearance and attractiveness, while persuasion moderates the effects of appearance on social comparison and aspirational appeal.

This research bridges the halo effect theory and social comparison theory, offering insights enriching the academic discourse on technology’s role in hospitality.

The findings provide actionable insights for managers, tech developers and health advocates.

Despite its significance, avatar design research in the hospitality sector has been overlooked. This study addresses this gap, offering a guideline for crafting attractive and persuasive avatars.