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Research on food tourism has a significant impact on destination attractiveness. However, components interfacing food experiences and memory are under-researched topics in food tourism literature. Therefore, this study aims to present a framework based on the components of rememberable food experiences while travelling through the lens of the diffusion of sensory stimulation.

This study adopted a qualitative application of “Memory-Work”, a social constructionist archetype suggested for food tourism-related research. A survey was conducted, and the respondents were asked an open-ended question.

The analysis found the components instigating these food experiences: Peculiar food and drink experience, setting/geographical location, companions and social interactions, celebrating occasions and touristic components (e.g. serendipitous travel experience and food nostalgic memory). Predominantly, rememberable food tourism experiences are more explicit than memorable tourism experiences.

The components mentioned in this framework illustrate that various food-related experiences should be involved in destination marketing. Service providers could use these components to create unique destination stories.

This study is the first to present a newly developed framework for food tourism service providers that incorporates sensory impressions with food memories to explore the connection between food memories associated with a destination.

The purpose of this paper is to explore remembered positive eating and food experiences, aiming to gain an understanding of the nature of these past experiences.

Positive food‐related experiences were gathered through focus group interviews. These experiences were inductively categorised into recurring themes and dimensions within the themes.

An analysis of the qualitative data led to the recognition of several themes involving eating that were related to childhood memories, eating related to tourist experiences, as well as memories of commensal eating and homemade food. The experiences were drawn together into dimensions to provide deeper comprehension of the observed themes. As a result, the study suggests that remembered eating and food experiences are characterised by the self, place, food, context and time.

The study provides knowledge on what constitutes memorable positive and pleasurable food‐related experiences, which the consumer may even want to relive. Hence, the study helps managers understand the significance of providing food‐related experiences that become memorable.

The context was not predetermined to a particular eating setting, which resulted in a multidimensional framework of remembered experiences with several implications. The approach provided new insights into understanding the effects of positive and pleasurable food‐related experiences.

Cognitive decline and dementia are major causes of disability. Research has suggested a relationship between dietary intake and memory problems in individuals. This study aims to examine the dietary histories of participants with newly diagnosed memory problems.

A total of 285 subjects (129 cases and 156 controls) were included in this retrospective case−control study. This paper used a food frequency questionnaire to determine the intake of dietary food groups in the previous year and a general questionnaire to assess food habits. The strength of the association between dietary history and memory problems was assessed using logistic regression and Pearson’s tests.

In this study, 73% of participants had a lower middle income and consumed less than the recommended number of meats, fruits and vegetables (1.2, 1.8 and 0.99 units/day, respectively). Participants with memory problems were more likely to take supplements than those without (P = 0.01). There was no significant difference in energy intake between the case and control groups (1634 Kcal vs 1656 Kcal). The results of the logistic regression showed that consuming any of the food groups in the previous nine months was not associated with memory problems. However, the Pearson test showed that an increase in the consumption of high-quality protein and vegetables had a slightly nonsignificant relationship with a decrease in the severity of memory disorder.

It is safe to suggest consuming adequate amounts of high-quality protein and affordable protein from sources such as dairy products, meats and vegetables. Research is insufficient to recommend the use of dietary supplements as a means of preventing memory disorders.

Food waste, a global conundrum with adverse socioeconomic and environmental implications, occurs when more money is spent on food during occasions akin to Ramadan. This study examines the moderating role of antecedents (festive experience, nostalgic food memory, perceived scarcity, and religiosity) to understand the impacts of excessive food buying on Ramadan food waste.

A cross-sectional survey was performed with a self-administered questionnaire using Google Forms to gather data on social media. Notably, 349 valid responses were analysed via Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4 for model development and hypothesis testing.

Festive experience, nostalgic memory, and perceived food scarcity could explain excessive buying behaviour. In this vein, excessive food buying contributed to Ramadan food waste. Meanwhile, religiosity was found to moderate excessive food-buying behaviour.

The empirical findings offered useful insights for practitioners and policymakers to implement optimal marketing strategies and interventions that improve responsible consumption and minimise food waste.

This study provided a sound understanding of consumer buying behaviour during Ramadan regarding food waste and overconsumption. The current work delineated the role of descriptive, injunctive norms and cognitive dissonance in shaping buying behaviour during Ramadan.

Due to the growing trend of consuming healthy food, which reproduces the ideal of the food the authors tried in their childhood, an increasing number of researchers have brought together the values of tradition, nostalgia and food. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between food and nostalgia in order to find out in which way they affect each other.

In order to explore the perspectives of traditional food in re-collecting and re-experiencing positive past experiences, both qualitative and quantitative techniques were used in two stages. First, focus group interviews were conducted with ten restaurant chefs in three different regions of Croatia. Then, a survey was carried out with 362 Croatian consumers.

Focus group results show that although traditional food creates new opportunities for differentiation, finding the right ingredients and time for cooking traditional food is still a problem. There is a low interest in traditional food in restaurants, as domestic patrons mostly worry about the high prices, while foreign ones do not know anything about such foods due to the inadequate promotion of Croatian gastronomic offer. Survey results indicate that consumers are familiar with traditional Croatian food, eat it regularly at home and consider it as food with high-quality aspects that reminds them of their childhood and positive past experiences.

The results presented in this paper give some directions for subjects involved in the manufacturing industry, tourism, the restaurant industry, etc. to devise ways of reminding their customers of childhood memories, family ties, etc.

A relatively small number of food-centred studies are directly concerned with nostalgia. Many more studies investigate food in social changes, related to ethnic elements, etc. Considering an extensive literature review, and the analysis of data in the qualitative and quantitative study, this paper addresses two multidimensional and complex concepts which are powerful predictors of customer satisfaction.

This study aims to test a new model by examining the influence of memorable local food consumption experiences (MLFCEs) on international diners’ affective states, well-being and attitudinal loyalty. Local food tasting destination, local food neophobia and previous local food tasting experience are used as moderating variables.

A quantitative data collection method was used to source data from 900 US tourists to European countries (excluding the UK) and Asian countries. The data were quantitatively analyzed to examine the multidimensionality of tourists’ MLFCEs as well as their influence on outcome variables.

The findings indicate that MLFCEs significantly explain diners’ attitude toward local food, subjective well-being, intention to recommend and attitudinal loyalty. Also, three variables partially moderate the associations between the proposed constructs.

Theoretically, the study enhances our understanding of the dimensional nature of tourists’ MLFCEs and how they inform the affective and behavioral states of tourists. Practically, it provides insights for local food businesses and destination marketing organizations concerning the composition of tourists’ MLFCEs and promotion of a tourism destination.

This study has quantitatively unraveled the dimensionality of tourists’ MLFCEs. It also developed an integrated model to test the predictive effect of MLFCEs on outcome variables and has provided a deeper understanding of the relationships, thereby enriching the literature and aiding the development of relevant theories.

This study aims to explore non-Muslim tourists’ general halal food preferences, motivations for tasting halal food during their recent trips, positive and negative emotions and memorable dimensions associated with their recent halal food experiences after returning from holiday.

Data were collected using the authors’ personal networks and Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) using a questionnaire. An email containing a link to the questionnaire was sent to the authors’ personal networks and posted on MTurk in January 2021.

Of the 311 non-Muslim respondents, more than half considered themselves as food neophiliacs and considered halal food experiences as imperative whilst travelling. However, tasting halal food was not a major travel motivation. Novelty and taste were the two main motivations for tasting halal food whilst at a tourism destination. Emotions elicited by halal food experiences focussed on “joy” and “love”. The proposed conceptual framework for memorable halal food experiences comprises several dimensions: taste, spending time with family and friends, novelty, quality and safety, hospitality, ambience (setting/servicescape) and experiencing others’ culture through food.

This is one of the first studies to explore non-Muslim tourists’ motives, emotions and memorable dimensions of halal food experiences.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the awareness towards ethnic foods made with traditional spices among US and Thai consumers.

Data on the awareness and use of ethnic cuisines and spices were collected from 100 consumers in a Midwestern university town in the USA and 100 consumers in Bangkok, Thailand. Consumers were also asked to identify ethnic spice blends by tasting spice blends in rice and they ranked the perceived health benefits of 15 ethnic cuisines.

The results showed that more Thai consumers (94 percent) shop at ethnic grocery stores than US consumers (55 percent). Also, Thai consumers are more likely to consume ethnic foods from nearby countries, but US consumers have tried a greater variety of ethnic foods. Neither group generally was able to identify a cuisine based only on the spice flavors, although Thai consumers were slightly better at doing so. Asian cuisines were perceived to have the greatest health benefits to both American and Thai consumers.

The consumption of ethnic foods is on the rise around the world as consumers seek new food experiences and diversity in their diets. Manufacturers are using these traditional spices to convey an “ethnic” and “healthy” profile to their foods.

This study aims to examine the underlying antecedents of memorable halal food experiences by considering how specific internal factors of non-Muslim tourists – novelty seeking, authenticity and sensory appeal – combine with external factors in a restaurant setting – togetherness, experience co-creation and substantive staging of the servicescape – to effect memorable halal food experiences. The study also examined the relationship between memorable halal food experiences and place attachment.

During the first week of August 2021, an online survey was used for data collection and shared on Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk) as well as sent to non-Muslim people known to the authors to have had halal food experiences in a tourism setting. A total of 293 valid responses were obtained.

The results revealed that novelty seeking, authenticity, experience co-creation, substantive staging of the servicescape, togetherness and sensory appeal influence memorable halal food experiences. Furthermore, these experiences positively impact place attachment.

This is one of the first studies to explore non-Muslim tourists’ memorable halal food experiences.

The extant literature documents the significance of nostalgia-evoking stimuli in promoting consumer behavior. Despite the prevalent use of nostalgia-evoking stimuli in restaurant service, research on nostalgia-evoking restaurants is significantly lacking. As a result, little is known about customers’ cognitive responses toward nostalgia-themed restaurant stimuli and their influences on customer loyalty behavior. Thus, grounded in an extended stimulus-organism-response model, this study aims to examine the role of nostalgia-evoking restaurant stimuli in explaining an integrated model focusing on nostalgia, in relation to local food consumption value, familiarity with nostalgia-triggering restaurants and loyalty and continued patronage.

The authors collected data from 544 Taiwanese customers at nostalgia-themed restaurants. Using PROCESS (Model 6), the direct and indirect effect of nostalgia-evoking restaurant stimuli on loyalty and continued patronage were examined.

The confirmatory factor analysis results showed that five domains of restaurant attributes (i.e., service staff, exterior and interior design, furniture and tableware, local food and atmosphere) are nostalgia-evoking stimuli. The authors also found that these nostalgia-evoking stimuli significantly affected customer loyalty indirectly, through customers’ consumption value and familiarity.

The results of this study help identify the importance of nostalgia-generating cues in nostalgia-themed restaurants and their roles in postpurchase behaviors. The outcomes contribute to an improved understanding of how to exploit nostalgic sentiments in nurturing diners’ consumption value, maintaining customer loyalty and generating greater profits.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the few studies examining restaurant attributes evoking nostalgia and explaining the mechanism by which nostalgia-evoking stimuli affect consumer behavior.