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This study aims to increase knowledge of the ability of nutrition labels to guide consumer choices in real-life environments.

Food consumption and plate waste data were collected from two self-service restaurants (SSR) with different customer groups over six observation days: three control and three intervention (with nutrition labelling) periods. Study Group 1 consisted of vocational school students, mostly late adolescents (N = 1,710), and Group 2 consisted of spa hotel customers, mostly elderly (N = 1,807). In the experimental restaurants, the same food was served to the buffets during the control and intervention periods.

The nutrition label in the lunch buffet guides customers to eat fewer main foods and salads and to select healthier choices. Increased consumption of taste enhancers (salt and ketchup) was observed in the study restaurants after nutritional labelling. Nutrition labelling was associated with a reduction in plate waste among the elderly, whereas the opposite was observed among adolescents.

The results provide public policymakers and marketers with a better understanding of the effects of nutrition labelling on consumer behaviour. Future studies should further evaluate the effects of nutrition labelling on the overall quality of customer diets and the complex environmental, social, and psychological factors affecting food choices and plate waste accumulation in various study groups.

The COVID-19 pandemic, starting in early 2020, has significantly compromised global commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals, notably affecting areas like food security (SDG 2) and the economy (SDG 8). Informal economy platform employees have been among the most impacted. In India alone, 7.7 million workers in the informal economy have suffered, with nearly 90% of unskilled and semi-skilled workers experiencing income loss. The widespread income loss among a significant portion of the workforce has led to disruptions in demand and supply mechanisms, thereby worsening food insecurity. This study investigates the determinants of the food consumption score (FCS) to serve as an indicator of food security within informal-economy households. A longitudinal survey of 2,830 unskilled and semi-skilled employees, including drivers, domestic workers, delivery personnel, beauticians, street vendors, small business owners, and self-employed individuals, was conducted. The findings show a significant shift towards borderline household FCS during the pandemic, with a sharp decline in daily consumption of dairy products and non-vegetarian items, indicating reduced protein intake. Consuming two or fewer meals per day increases the likelihood of poor FCS, highlighting the need for systematic interventions to ensure three regular meals per day. Moreover, insufficient government support for adequate food intake in informal economy households calls for redesigned assistance programs. Policymakers should prioritize practical solutions, such as community-based food distribution centers and mobile food vans, to ensure the delivery of nutritious food to vulnerable populations in Bangalore.

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.

In light of the inequality in access to farming land and the high prevalence of child malnutrition in Sudan, there is a lack of empirical research on the relationship between land ownership and child nutritional status. This study aims to examine the influence of agricultural landholding on the nutritional status of children under the age of five in rural Sudan.

The study utilizes data from Sudan’s 2014 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), covering a sample of 10,753 rural children. The empirical analysis uses the two-stage least squares (2SLS) approach, adopting various estimation methods and model specifications for robustness check and comparison.

The results demonstrate that agricultural land has a positive and significant effect on reducing child malnutrition, signifying that children from families with agricultural land are less susceptible to malnutrition in Sudan. When examining the male and female sub-samples separately, the findings indicate a positive influence of land ownership on child malnutrition in the female sub-sample, while no significant impact is observed in the male sub-sample. This indicates a gender disparity in the effects of land ownership on child nutrition, with girls benefiting more from access to agricultural land compared to boys.

The study has several significant contributions. First, this is the sole study that examines the impact of agricultural land ownership on child malnutrition in Sudan. Second, considering the gender variations in nutritional status, investigating the influence of land ownership on child nutrition across genders addresses a significant gap in the current literature. Finally, the findings resulting from this study can contribute to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030, precisely focusing on SDG2 Goal 2: Zero hunger and SDG 10: Goal 10: Reduced inequalities.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how and through which social-cognitive constructs, emotions influence healthy food shopping behaviors. Direct effects of those constructs, as well as indirect effects of consumer emotions are considered.

An altered version of the Social Cognitive Theory, including intention, socio-structural factors, outcome expectancies and self-efficacy with the addition of consumer emotions was analyzed using structural equation modeling. Data of 1,181 volunteers were collected in Germany in 2021 through an online survey.

Intention was the most important positive predictor of food choice, while socio-structural factors had the biggest impact on intentions. Those were mostly influenced by self-efficacy, which was strongly predicted by consumer emotions. Outcome expectancies did not influence the current model in any way. Consumer emotions did not directly influence intention, nor actual choice, however showed to be influencing those variables through indirect effects.

Marketers could benefit from these results by incorporating the current findings into existing marketing strategies through targeting a combination of social cognitive constructs, as well as consumer emotions to facilitate healthier food shopping behavior.

Affect has received increasing attention in regards to its impact on healthy eating behaviors in recent years. Less attention has been paid to the mechanisms through which emotions influence healthy nutrition behavior, specifically how consumer emotions influence healthy food shopping behavior.

This study aims to assess the household food insecurity in Malaysia during the initial phase of the movement control order (MCO) to provide insights into the prevalence and predictors of food insecurity in this context.

The research used an online cross-sectional survey between March 28 and April 28, 2020. The study collected data from the Radimer/Cornell Hunger Scale and a food insecurity instrument. Analytical tools included chi-square and logistic regression models.

Of the 411 participating households, 54.3% were food-secure, while 45.7% experienced varying food insecurity. Among these, 29.9% reported mild hunger-associated food insecurity, 8.5% experienced individual food insecurity and 7.3% reported child hunger. The study identified predictors for food insecurity, including household income, as those with total income of < RM 2,300 had 13 times greater odds (odds ratio [OR] 13.8; confidence interval [CI] 5.9–32.1; p < 0.001) than those with income of RM 5,600, marital status as divorced (OR 4.4; 95% CI 1.0–19.9; p-value = 0.05) or married (OR 1.04; 95% CI 0.52–2.1) compared to those who are single. Self-employed respondents had three times greater odds of living in a household experiencing food insecurity (OR 3.58; 95% CI 1.6–7.7; p-value = 0.001) than those in the private sector (OR 1.48; 95% CI 0.85–2.61) or experiencing job loss (OR 1.39; 95% CI 0.62–3.1) compared with those who reported being in full-time government employment.

This study acknowledged limitations, such as not considering various dimensions of food insecurity, such as coping strategies, nutritional support, diet quality and well-being, due to the complexity of the issue.

The study underscores the importance of targeted support for vulnerable groups and fostering collaborative efforts to address household food insecurity during crises like the MCOs.

The research offers insights into how to address household food insecurity and its impact on society.

It identifies predictors, quantifies increased odds and emphasizes the necessity of targeted policies and collaborative approaches for fostering resilient recovery and promoting well-being in vulnerable populations.

This paper aims to examine the association between the dietary inflammatory index, the consumption of Enteral Nutrition Supplemented with probiotics with certain serum inflammation markers and gastrointestinal complications among individuals diagnosed with COVID-19.

This cross-sectional investigation involved 100 COVID-19 patients who were admitted to intensive care units in hospitals. These patients were administered two different types of Enteral Nutrition, so the dietary inflammatory index (DII), gastrointestinal complications and some serum inflammation markers have been compared between two groups.

The mean DII scores in all patients were significantly pro-inflammatory (probiotic formula 2.81 ± 0.01 vs usual formula group 2.93 ± 0.14 p = 0.19). The probiotic formula consumption had an inverse association with High-sensitivity C-reactive Protein concentration (coef = −3.19, 95% CI −1.25, −5.14 p = 0.001) and lead to a reduction of 2.14 mm/h in the serum level of Erythrocyte sedimentation rate compared to normal formula. The incidence of diarrhea, abdominal pain and vomiting in probiotic formula patients was respectively 94%, 14% and 86% less than in usual formula patients (p = 0.05).

In this cross-sectional study for the first time, the authors found that probiotic formula consumption was inversely associated with serum inflammation markers and gastrointestinal complications incidence. The high DII leads to more gastrointestinal complications incidence and inflammation markers. More studies are needed to prove this relationship.

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.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant mortality and morbidity worldwide. However, the role of dietary patterns as a potential risk factor for COVID-19 has not been well established, especially in studies with large samples. Therefore, this study aims to identify and evaluate the association between major dietary patterns and COVID-19 among adults from Iran.

In this cross-sectional study, the authors included 9,189 participants aged 20–70 who participated in the Yazd Health Study (YaHS) and Taghzieh Mardom-e-Yazd study (TAMIZ). They used factor analysis to extract dietary patterns based on a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Then, they assessed the relationship between these dietary patterns and the odds of COVID-19.

This study identified two major dietary patterns: “high protein and high fiber” and “transitional”. Participants in the highest tertile of the “high protein and high fiber” dietary pattern, which included vegetables, fruits, dairy and various kinds of meats such as red meat, fish and poultry, had a lower odds of COVID-19 compared with those in the lowest tertile. However, the “transitional” dietary pattern did not affect the risk of COVID-19.

In conclusion, a “high protein, high fiber” diet may lower the odds of COVID-19. This study suggests that dietary patterns may influence the severity and spread of future similar pandemics.

Research indicated that dietary antioxidants could improve immune system performance. This study aims to investigate the association of COVID-19 symptoms, total antioxidant capacity and serum inflammatory markers, with dietary antioxidants intake among angina patients.

A food frequency questionnaire was used in a cross-sectional study among 135 angina patients with COVID-19, to assess dietary antioxidants consumption. Serum levels of tumor necrosis factor, interleukin 1ß, malondialdehyde, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and total antioxidant capacity were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay methods.

Among study angina patients, 76.67% followed unhealthy food patterns and 23.33% followed anti-inflammatory dietary patterns before hospitalization. The angina patients with anti-inflammatory food pattern had less fever (p = 0.021), cough (p = 0.018), dyspnea (p = 0.024), diarrhea (p = 0.014) and pneumonia severity index (p = 0.014) compared to patients with unhealthy food pattern. The serum levels of tumor necrosis factor, interleukin 1ß, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and malondialdehyde, had a significantly negative association with dietary antioxidants intake (p < 0.05).

There are significant association between antioxidant intake with serum inflammation markers in COVID-19 patients. There is a need for more clinical trial studies for approval of these results.