Search results

Food habits are undergoing profound changes owing to the social, economic and technological transformations. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the evolution of the food patterns of generation X in the past decade, in view of formulating a reflection on the trends of a fundamental component of society.

Applying latent class clustering to the food spending of a representative sample of Italian consumers has made it possible to identify the principal food patterns and to interpret them in light of demographic characteristics and sociocultural changes.

The results show a strengthening of dietary lifestyles displaying a high content of animal proteins, especially in consumers with low levels of education. The importance of convenience foods emerges, mainly among couples but also among families with children. The role of out of the home consumptions grows, mostly among single males. Parallel to this critical picture, the authors note the birth of a new dietary sensitivity that leads a niche of consumers to choose healthier foods. These evolutions offer new challenges and new opportunities for both public and private operators.

The study is limited to the analysis of family food spending. A challenging development of the study unfolds in closely examining the food choices of individuals, particularly for the consumption patterns at greater risk. Extending the study to other countries would permit a comparison between diet, lifestyles and food education policies on a supernational level.

The study indicates several possible strategies both for operators of the food sector to better respond to the demand, and for public institutions in view of contributing to correct current trends, reorienting food habits towards healthier patterns and, in any event, patterns compatible with the demands tied to the new lifestyles.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how healthy food options recommended by the Mediterranean diet pyramid are actually consumed and advertised.

Three types of food consumptions in Greece are compared, the diet recommended by the Mediterranean diet pyramid, the actual consumption as was presented by the Data Food NEtwortking project and the advertising expenditure spent in the food sector. Data are presented in the form of a “food advertising pyramid”, equivalent to the food choices pyramids.

Comparison of the “food advertising pyramid” with the Mediterranean food pyramid reveals that the two pyramids have a somehow reverse relationship, meaning that the recommended for frequent consumption “healthy” food categories of the Mediterranean diet pyramid (placed at the base of the pyramid such as cereals, fruits and vegetables) were the least advertised by the food industry, and the less “healthy” options (dairy and sugary products) were the most advertised. This trend was more evident in advertisements targeted to children. An exception was the high advertising of yoghurt, a probiotic product considered to be a healthy food option.

The findings of this paper could be useful to nutritionists and national health authorities who should take into consideration the impact of food advertisement upon their strategy for healthy nutrition and prevention of obesity in childhood.

The food processing industry is growing with retail and catering supply chains. With the rising complexity of food products and the need to address food customization expectations, food processing systems are progressively shifting from production line to job-shops that are characterized by high flexibility and high complexity. A food job-shop system processes multiple items (i.e. raw ingredients, toppings, dressings) according to their working cycles in a typical resource and capacity constrained environment. Given the complexity of such systems, there are divergent goals of process cost optimization and of food quality and safety preservation. These goals deserve integration at both an operational and a strategic decisional perspective. The twofold purpose of this paper is to design a simulation model for food job-shop processing and to build understanding of the extant relationships between food flows and processing equipment through a real case study from the catering industry.

The authors designed a simulation tool enabling the analysis of food job-shop processing systems. A methodology based on discrete event simulation is developed to study the dynamics and behaviour of the processing systems according to an event-driven approach. The proposed conceptual model builds upon a comprehensive set of variables and key performance indicators (KPIs) that describe and measure the dynamics of the food job-shop according to a multi-disciplinary perspective.

This simulation identifies the job-shop bottlenecks and investigates the utilization of the working centres and product queuing through the system. This approach helps to characterize how costs are allocated in a flow-driven approach and identifies the trade-off between investments in equipment and operative costs.

The primary purpose of the proposed model relies on the definition of standard resources and operating patterns that can meet the behaviour of a wide variety of food processing equipment and tasks, thereby addressing the complexity of a food job-shop. The proposed methodology enables the integration of strategic and operative decisions between several company departments. The KPIs enable identification of the benchmark system, tracking the system performance via multi-scenario what-if simulations, and suggesting improvements through short-term (e.g. tasks scheduling, dispatching rules), mid-term (e.g. recipes review), or long-term (e.g. re-layout, working centres number) levers.

The population of Japan, because of its vegetarian diet, has often been used as if it were a control group in comparisons of different diets and their effects on the prevalence of killer diseases in the western world.

The purpose of this paper is to explore associations between food-related self-control, intentions, descriptive peer norms, parents’ healthy eating guidance and adolescents’ consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) in a school lunch setting. An additional aim was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the measure used to assess food-related self-control in order to reveal potential multi-dimensionality.

A web-based survey was conducted among 694 Norwegian high school students. Multiple logistic regression was used to explore associations between the independent variables and SSB consumption. Psychometric evaluation of the self-control measure included factor analysis and internal consistency reliability.

Factor analysis resulted in two food-related self-control dimensions: resistance and avoidance. Multiple logistic regression showed that intentions was the strongest predictor of SSB consumption in the sample. Avoidance and descriptive peer norms appeared as weaker predictors.

Based on the findings, the authors suggest that future studies may consider developing guiding principles on how to create health-promoting eating intentions in adolescents, how to deal with peer norms related to foods and beverages and how to avoid tempting stimuli in the environment. Such strategies may be helpful when structural changes in the environment are not feasible in the near future.

An original aspect of the present study is that it includes a psychometric analysis of a supposedly one-dimensional self-control measure. Further, it adds to the knowledge about variables associated with adolescent SSB consumption in a school lunch context.

The purpose of this study is to explain the rapid growth of urban residents' sugar consumption in China from the perspective of habit formation.

Using the provincial panel data of Chinese urban households from 1995 to 2012, this study uses the two-step System Generalized Moment Method (GMM) to test the habit formation effect on residents' sugar expenditure in urban China. We also use system GMM and the recursive estimated method to explore the changes of the habit formation coefficients in different years.

We find a significant habit formation effect on overall residents' sugar expenditure and different types of sugary foods expenditure. The habit formation effect on total residents' sugar expenditure and different types of sugary foods is decreasing over the years. The patterns of the changes of the habit formation effect on different types of sugar foods are slightly different.

Due to data limitations, we are not able to do household-level analysis and to examine the heterogeneity of the habit formation effect.

This is the first study that examines changes in the habit formation effect on residents' sugar expenditure in urban China. Our findings provide a reasonable explanation for the rapid growth of residents' sugar consumption in urban China. The result helps to formulate targeted policies for future interventions to control the growth of sugar consumption.

This paper presents a behavioral economics model with bounded rationality to describe an individual's food consumption choices that lead to weight gain and dieting. Using a physiological relationship determining calories needed to maintain weight, we simulate the food consumption choices of a representative female over a 30-year period. Results show an individual will periodically choose to diet, but that diet will reduce weight only temporarily. Recurrence of weight gain leads to cyclical dieting, which reduces the trend rate of weight increase. Dieting frequency is shown to depend on decision period length, dieting costs, and habit persistence.

The purpose of this case study is to explore and study the determinants (demographics and psychographics) impacting consumers food choice towards fast food in India.

Food choice variables have been explored using literature reviews and exploratory survey of young consumers in the age group of 20‐40. Data obtained from the reliable sources (e.g. the World Health Organisation, Euromonitor International and Datamonitor International) have been used to study the implications of consumer food choice and growing trend towards organic food.

Based on literature reviews and exploratory surveys, the key determinants impacting consumers food choice are passion for eating out, socialize, ambience and taste for school and college goers and convenience for dual‐income families in urban India. Findings indicate that fast food companies can no longer rely on convenience as USP in India, unless the implications of same on consumers health is given equal importance in the years to come.

Data obtained from the convenience sample and literature reviews have been generalized for inferring consumption patterns of Indian consumers (population).

This case study focuses on growing trends towards organic food and green consumerism in view of rising global obesity with fast food consumption in Western countries and significantly very less in India despite obesity being an epidemic in India.

This paper focuses on determining a food choice model in wake of changing food and eating habits in India, using literature reviews, exploratory surveys and reliable data sources.

This paper aims to examine the effects of professional job experience on the lifestyle and dietary habits of participants who have studied food science and nutrition and acquired a dietitian license. The dietary habits of students of departments of food science and nutrition have been reported. However, no study has compared the dietary habits of graduates with and without actual clinical experience.

In total, 206 participants who graduated from the department of food science and nutrition of a university located in Tokyo between 1975 and 1984 completed a questionnaire on food and nutrient intake and lifestyle habits in 2011.

Total fat and SFA intake adjusted for energy intake or frequency of snack and fast food intake differed among participants with and without experience as dietitians, indicating that dietitian experience influenced the dietary habits of participants for approximately 30 years after graduation. Nutritional knowledge and skills acquired during attendance at a dietitian school are effective in maintaining favorable behavior for a long time. However, nutritional knowledge and skills were enhanced by later professional experience.

The refining effect of clinical experience appears to contribute to the maintenance of daily dietary habits and health. Professional experience can contribute to the prevention of lifestyle-related diseases not only personally but also for other people in terms of public health nutrition or nutritional education.