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The purpose of this paper is to explore the food choice motives of consumers in Kuala Lumpur and the relative importance of these factors; to investigate the differences in food choice motives between the Malay, Chinese and Indian ethnicities and to examine variations in the food selection motives of foodies and non-foodies of the overall sample.

An online questionnaire was employed using a snowballing sampling method with 239 respondents. Food choice motives were measured using Steptoe et al.'s (1995) Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) while a new exploratory measure for foodies was developed to examine respondents’ attitudes, interest and opinions (AIO).

The top three factors of food choice motives were Price, Convenience and Sensory appeal. Ethnicities did not differ in their food choice motives except for Familiarity between Malays and Chinese. Foodies and non-foodies displayed significant differences in their food choice motives, specifically in regards to Balanced diet, Mood and Sensory appeal.

This study is limited to only Malay, Chinese and Indian ethnicities in Kuala Lumpur. Future studies should explore motives of other minority ethnic groups and examine differences between age, gender and income groups.

Suppliers and marketers of the food industry should consider the important aspects of food choice motives to improve the marketing strategies of their products. Products should be reasonably priced, offer convenience and appealing.

This paper develops a new exploratory measure to capture the AIO of foodies based on Johnston and Baumann (2010) and Cairns et al. (2010).

This study investigates factors motivating upcycled food choices and assesses the association between these factors and hesitancy towards upcycled food consumption in a Swedish population.

An online food choice questionnaire was used. Participants (n = 682) were categorised into Inclined and Hesitant groups based on their intention to consume upcycled foods. The factors motivating upcycled food choices were identified using explanatory factor analyses. Independent t-tests assessed the differences in the mean importance score of factors between the two groups. The association between upcycled food choice factors and hesitancy towards consumption was evaluated by logistic regressions (adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics).

The most important upcycled food choice factor in both groups was ethical concerns, followed by natural content, sensory appeal, price, healthiness, familiarity and impression. The Inclined group’s mean importance score for ethical concern was higher than the Hesitant group (p_value<0.001) and, except for natural content, the mean importance scores for the other factors were higher in the Hesitant group compared to the Inclined group (p_value<0.05). Participants who perceived ethical concern as an important factor had lower odds of hesitancy (Odds ratio = 0.39; 95%CI:0.26,0.59; p_value<0.001), and those who considered sensory appeal an important factor had higher odds of hesitancy (Odds ratio = 2.42; 95%CI:1.62,3.63; p_value<0.001) towards upcycled food consumption compared to participants who did not consider these as important factors.

This is the first study investigating health and non-health-related upcycled food choice motives using a food choice questionnaire. Identifying these motives helps food developers and researchers determine factors influencing upcycled food consumption.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors underlying Lebanese consumers’ food motivations and segment them based on those motivations.

The data in the study were collected from the main shopping districts of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, through a structured questionnaire. Respondents were intercepted by employing simple random sampling. Out of 700 people approached, 411 surveys were collected, giving a response rate of 58.7 per cent. After gathering the food choice motives under main groups by employing exploratory factor analysis, the study used two step cluster analysis.

The food choice motives were grouped under eight dimensions: ecological, sensory, convenience and availability, health, weight, mood, price and religion motives. Based on the food choice motives, the study identified four dissimilar clusters, namely, careless, conscious, hedonic and health and weight conscious. The study clearly indicated that there are significant differences among clusters in terms of the food choice motives, attitudes towards healthy eating, exercising, food quality and natural organic food and socio demographic characteristics.

There are numerous studies on food choice motives in the literature investigating certain countries. This study is the first study investigating the subject in one of the Middle Eastern countries, Lebanon.

In addition to having an understanding of consumers' food choice motives which influence their attitudes toward GM foods in Taiwan, the aim of this study is to ascertain whether gender differences play a role in consumers' food choice motives and their attitudes toward GM foods.

A total of 12 distinct food choice motives, adapted from the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) is posted on a questionnaire collection web site to collect research data. A total of 522 useful responses were elicited as the data input for analysis.

The results indicate that mood, sensory appeal, price, and familiarity were found to have positive impacts on consumers' attitudes toward GM foods but natural content is observed to have a negative impact on consumers' attitudes toward GM foods. Moreover, female consumers have a more negative attitude toward GM foods than male consumers when they consider whether GM foods are healthy or not.

The marketers of this GM foods sector in Taiwan should emphasize the price advantage and the appealing sensory aspects of GM foods. By doing so, consumers could familiarize themselves with such foods being promoted. However, how to prevent them from treating GM foods as unnatural and unhealthy is an important task for GM foods marketers.

This is the first study to investigate the gender gap in food choice motives as a determinant of consumers' attitudes toward GM foods in Taiwan. Based on the empirical findings, some suggestions are provided here to benefit the marketers of this GM foods sector in Taiwan.

This study was conducted to explore the underlying reasons of food choice and the association with risk perception in an urban community. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Using a cross‐sectional design, adults between 20 and 60 years old, selected by convenience sampling from three different races; Malay, Chinese and Indian, in Sungai Petani, Kedah were surveyed. A self‐administered food choice questionnaire was used and data collected were analysed using SPSS Statistic 17.0.

Religion, risk perception and sensory appeal were the most prominent factors affecting food choice of respondents. Age showed significant correlation with mood and sensory appeal. Monthly income was significantly correlated with convenience, weight control and familiarity. Risk perception was found to be correlated with all motives except familiarity and religion.

A larger sample with approximately equal number of respondents from the various races would provide a more substantial overview of the trend of food choice in a multicultural population.

This study provides an insight on factors determining the food‐buying power of the community which may directly impact the commercial success of food products including modifying provisions and actions of the food industry.

This research investigated the set priorities of an urban community in deciding the type of food for consumption which may be influenced by multicultural interactions and reported risks.

The adverse effects on environmental sustainability, human health and animal welfare are often cited as the main reasons for reducing animal-based meat production and consumption. This study explored the food choice motives that determine consumer attitude toward plant-based meat (PBM) as a sustainable meat alternative. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) was applied to further determine whether an individual’s attitude toward PBM, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control influence their willingness to try novel meat substitutes (i.e. PBM). Finally, the moderating effect of meat attachment was also considered.

Online self-reported questionnaires were administered in Taiwan, and 294 valid questionnaires were collected. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and moderated regression were employed for analysis.

The results clarified the food choice motives that influenced consumer attitude toward PBM and revealed that attitude and subjective norms pertaining to trying PBM explained up to 35.03% of the variance in consumer willingness to try PBM. Notably, consumer meat attachment moderated the positive relationship between consumer attitude toward PBM and willingness to try PBM such that it became negative.

On the basis of the empirical findings regarding the food choice motives that influence consumer attitude and willingness to try PBM, this study provided practical implications for marketers seeking to increase consumer willingness to try PBM.

The main theoretical contribution of this research is that food choice motives should be considered in a TPB model to explain consumer willingness to try PBM. The moderating effect of consumer meat attachment should also be considered.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the applicability of the original 36-item Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) model developed by Steptoe et al. (1995) in Hungary.

The national representative questionnaire involved 1,050 individuals in Hungary in 2015. Several multivariable statistical techniques were applied for the analysis of the data: confirmatory factor analysis, principal component analysis, and cluster and Log-linear analysis.

The results indicate that the original nine-factor model is only partially applicable to Hungary. This study successfully managed to distinguish the following factors: health and natural content, mood, preparation convenience, price and purchase convenience, sensory appeal, familiarity, and ethical concern. The FCQ scales proved to be suitable for the description of clusters based on specific food choices and demographic characteristics. By using the factors, the following five clusters were identified: modern food enthusiast, tradition-oriented, optimizer, easy-choice and un-concerned, all of which could be addressed by public health policy with individually tailored messages.

The Hungarian testing process of the FCQ model contributes to an examination of its usability and provides the possibility of fitting the model to different cultures.

Food is an important element of a holiday. An in depth understanding of factors that influence tourists’ perception of food is central in increased tourist satisfaction and repurchase intentions. However, tourists may differ in innovativeness and thus in their willingness to buy unfamiliar food and food souvenirs. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the special context in which tourists choose food during holidays and the associated food-cultural distance involved in this context.

This study was based on data collected by using a questionnaire completed by 277 tourists on board a small Norwegian cruise ship sailing along the coast of Norway. The main focus in the questionnaire was on factors that influence tourists when considering buying food in general and food souvenirs in particular.

The main finding was that food souvenirs should be adapted to the needs of tourists with high and low innovativeness to fulfil the needs of the whole target tourist population. Even though highly innovative tourists were more willing to buy food souvenirs that are characteristic of the country visited, tourists with low innovativeness may have been more comfortable with the purchase of food that is less innovative, within a different food-culture. The main factors influencing tourists in choosing and buying food and food souvenirs on holiday are quality, taste, local origin and the perceived authenticity of the food.

This paper provides data that reveal similarities and most interestingly differences in food choice behaviour of consumers in the context of being tourists. It describes the relationship of choice with innovativeness, which may vary while being at home vs being a tourist and exposed to a distant food culture. It brings together perspectives on local food, authenticity, familiarity, innovativeness, budget management/price and their interaction during a real life situation that is rarely studied in the consumer research literature. This study adds a refreshing sample to the existing literature about food choice; tourists.

This study to investigate several issues related to food choice and consumption patterns in different countries, including health-related factors; economic and availability aspects; emotional determinants; social, cultural and religious influences; marketing and advertising campaigns; and finally environmental concerns.

The present study was based on a questionnaire that was exclusively prepared for the project, and which was applied to collect data in different countries, in particular Croatia, Egypt, Italy, Greece and Portugal, which are typically associated with the Mediterranean diet (MD).

The results obtained allowed, in general, to conclude that in all five countries the motivations related to health as well as environment and politics were the more relevant to determine people’s eating habits (scores varying from 0.3 to 0.7). Women were more influenced by eating motivations than men, and people with moderate exercise were more susceptible to health and environmental motivations and less to emotional, social or marketing motivations (p < 0.001 in all cases). It was also observed that people who adopted a special diet were more prone to eating motivations and that the emotional motivations were more pronounced in people with eating disorders (p < 0.001). Finally, people without chronic diseases or allergies were even more influenced by health motivations than those who actually suffered from these health problems (p < 0.001 in both cases).

This work is important because of the multinational coverage, thus allowing to evaluate the most relevant factors that influenced the food choices of the populations around the Mediterranean Sea, sharing the common link to the MD. The study allowed concluding that, in general, the food choices were primarily determined by health factors and also by concerns related to the environment and sustainability as well as by political influences.

During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, some changes in dietary intake were observed. However, the determinants of food choice and adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD) in this period were not studied so far for Iranian adults. This study aimed to assess the food choice determinants changes and Adherence to the MD of Iranian adults.

This study was a cross-sectional study that was conducted from April 2019 to May 2020, based on the snowball sampling, and a total number of 2,540 adults from all the regions of Iran participated. The Food Choice Questionnaire was used to analyze food choice determinants, and the validated ten-item MD adherence screener was used to assess the adherence to the MD.

Before the COVID-19 quarantine, sensory appeal and price were the most important factors in Iranian food choice (with the highest scores), but during the COVID-19 pandemic the important food choice determinants were health and weight control. Consumption of vegetables (71.85% vs 40.07%), fruits (60.70% vs 38.74%), legumes (24.72% vs 12.38%) and nuts (14.33%) increased significantly after the outbreak of quarantine.