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The aim of the study is to capture consumers' conceptualization of ethnic food and ethnic restaurants, focusing on what it takes for ethnic restaurants to be perceived authentic.

Qualitative research, based on semi-structured in-depth interviews which were transcribed and subjected to inductive thematic analysis.

The findings conceptualize what ethnic food and ethnic-authentic restaurant are, leading to formulating the criteria that authentic ethnic restaurant should meet.

Findings have practical implications for restaurateurs interested in establishing themselves as ethnically authentic and for businesses focusing on ethnic food. This study was based on Israeli-Jewish participants; studies with other populations will contribute to the findings' trustability.

This study provides novel and critical insights into ethnic restaurant managements and to the customer conceptualization of the concept of ethnic authentic, demonstrating it being a multifaceted concept.

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.

This study examined the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) regarding food safety and hygiene among street food vendors (SFVs) in Jordan, along with associated factors.

This study utilized a cross-sectional design and targeted a sample of 405 SFVs in Jordan's two most densely populated cities. Data were collected through in-person interviews using a validated and reliable structured questionnaire. Descriptive analysis and linear regression were conducted using SPSS v.25 software to examine associations and predict outcomes.

The findings reveal that SFVs possess a moderate level of knowledge but exhibit negative attitudes and inadequate practices regarding food safety. Significant associations were identified between age, education level, work experience, marital status, gender and the vendors' KAP. Older SFVs tend to exhibit lower knowledge and attitudes, whereas those with more experience and higher education levels demonstrate better KAP. Marital status and gender also influence knowledge and attitudes.

This study fills a critical gap in the research landscape by comprehensively examining the knowledge, attitudes and practices of street food vendors regarding food safety, with a focus on Jordan. Its findings shed light on the challenges facing the street food vending industry and offer actionable recommendations for enhancing food safety practices. As such, the study's originality and significance lie in its potential to drive positive change within this vital culinary tradition, safeguarding public health and economic livelihoods.

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  The study's novelty lies in its exploration of street food vendors' knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) related to food safety, a facet critical to understanding and addressing the challenges facing this industry. It offers an in-depth examination of factors such as education, experience, age, and marital status that influence vendors' adherence to food safety measures. By focusing on the two most populous cities in Jordan, the study not only provides a comprehensive picture of the situation but also sets the groundwork for policy recommendations and interventions.

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  The research highlights a series of concerning findings. Street food vendors exhibit a moderate level of knowledge regarding food safety, with substantial gaps in understanding specific pathogens and transmission routes. Negative attitudes towards food safety are prevalent, translating into suboptimal hygiene practices. The study's results underscore the urgent need for tailored interventions to address these challenges and improve overall food safety practices within the street food vending sector.

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  The findings offer actionable insights for policymakers, public health authorities, and local governments. They suggest targeted educational initiatives to enhance vendors' understanding of food safety principles and their significance in preventing foodborne illnesses. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the need for improved infrastructure, access to clean water, and proper sanitation facilities to support vendors in implementing safer practices. By highlighting the associations between socio-demographic factors and food safety KAP, the study offers a blueprint for crafting interventions that address the unique needs of different subgroups of street food vendors.

The study's novelty lies in its exploration of street food vendors' knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) related to food safety, a facet critical to understanding and addressing the challenges facing this industry. It offers an in-depth examination of factors such as education, experience, age, and marital status that influence vendors' adherence to food safety measures. By focusing on the two most populous cities in Jordan, the study not only provides a comprehensive picture of the situation but also sets the groundwork for policy recommendations and interventions.

The research highlights a series of concerning findings. Street food vendors exhibit a moderate level of knowledge regarding food safety, with substantial gaps in understanding specific pathogens and transmission routes. Negative attitudes towards food safety are prevalent, translating into suboptimal hygiene practices. The study's results underscore the urgent need for tailored interventions to address these challenges and improve overall food safety practices within the street food vending sector.

The findings offer actionable insights for policymakers, public health authorities, and local governments. They suggest targeted educational initiatives to enhance vendors' understanding of food safety principles and their significance in preventing foodborne illnesses. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the need for improved infrastructure, access to clean water, and proper sanitation facilities to support vendors in implementing safer practices. By highlighting the associations between socio-demographic factors and food safety KAP, the study offers a blueprint for crafting interventions that address the unique needs of different subgroups of street food vendors.

Unsafe food consumption results in adverse health conditions, foodborne illness and undernutrition among households and communities. The consumption of food contaminated with harmful microorganisms or with harmful pesticide residuals results in adverse health conditions and undernutrition. However, there are a number of challenges to maintaining food safety in the food systems of developing countries, like Nepal, where awareness of food safety is low and research on these issues is lacking.

We conducted an experiment among youth aged between 20 and 26 years in Nepal to assess their food safety awareness and affinity to safer fresh produce choices. In the classroom setting experimentations with and without information nudges conducted among 224 youth participants, participants chose one fresh produce packet among the four. We analyzed results using multinomial and mixed logit models appropriate for discrete choice modeling.

We found that the youth’s perceived higher importance of sustainable food systems and their knowledge levels on microbial contamination and foodborne illnesses play significantly positive roles. The likelihood of choosing microbial safety-labeled fresh produce or both microbial- and chemical safety-labeled fresh produce increased with nudging among those who have some knowledge of microbial contamination and foodborne illnesses – we found that the interaction of nudging and level of knowledge is significantly positive. Youth belonging to higher income classes do not necessarily have a higher affinity to safer fresh produce but with nudging, the higher income class youth have a higher likelihood of choosing safer fresh produce choices.

Youth engagement and their awareness of food safety could be one of the important strategies to potentially develop them as effective promoters, adopters and educators in enhancing food safety in food systems in Nepal. Our predicted premium for food safety attributes points to the potential scope for the emerging market segment or business opportunities augmenting food safety in Nepal.

We examined the factors influencing the safer fresh produce choices among youth in Nepal. We tested whether awareness levels of microbial contamination and foodborne illness and information nudging affect the likelihood of safer fresh produce choice. Then we predicted the willingness to pay (premium) for safety attributes. To the best of our knowledge, none of the previous studies have examined this aspect in Nepal.

This scoping review aims to explore how “food media”, “food messages” and “food content” are referred to in scholarly writing to enhance a shared understanding and comparability.

Following the PRISMA, ScR-guidelines, four scientific databases were screened on published manuscripts in academic journals, books and doctoral theses mentioning food media, content and messages within the prevalent meaning as in human communication.

Of the 376 included manuscripts, only a small minority (n = 7) provided a conclusive definition of at least one of the three earlier-mentioned concepts; 40 others elucidated some aspects of food media, messages or content; however, they emphasized different and, sometimes even, contrasting aspects. In addition, the review explores in which disciplines the manuscripts mentioning food media, messages or content occur, which methodologies are used and what target groups and media are most common.

Based on this aggregated information, a definition of food media, messages and content is proposed, aiming to enhance the comparability of diverse academic sources. This contribution invites scholars to critically reflect on the included media and content types when comparing studies on food media, messages or content.

Examining the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) and expenses spent on food preparation on nutritional intake has always been one of the critical concerns for policymakers. This study aims to investigate the association between household food expenditure as well as SES and dietary nutrient intake in Kermanshah, Iran.

In this cross-sectional study, households were randomly selected from different strict in Kermanshah, Iran. Data were collected with an SES questionnaire, a demographic data collection form, a weekly food purchase checklist and a food record. The authors performed the analysis of covariance to determine the relationship of dietary nutrient intake of study participants across quintile categories of SES and total food expenses per day.

Out of 125 households, 119 households including 401 people finished the study. A significant association was observed between higher SES and higher intake of vitamin B2 (p-value = 0.03). Moreover, the household members at the top level of total food expenses per day had significantly greater dietary nutrient intake of energy (p < 0.001), potassium (p < 0.001), magnesium (p < 0.001), calcium (p < 0.001), zinc (p < 0.001), vitamin B2 (p < 0.001), B6 (p < 0.001), B12 (p = 0.002) and vitamin C (p = 0.04).

In our study, higher dietary nutrient intake was observed in the household members at the highest level of total food expenses daily as well as SES. Therefore, governments and policymakers should pay basic attention to optimizing food costs and improving the economic status of people.

This article explores in a qualitative manner the motivations of women entrepreneurs who start and run ethnic food businesses in London.

Our approach is qualitative and deploys phenomenographical analysis of interview narratives around categories of motivation.

We find that women ethnic food entrepreneurs are driven by a combination of desire for self-actualisation, identity-maintenance and community considerations. We demonstrate that women ethnic food entrepreneurs often go against the logic of the market, and they do so not because they lack other options, but for reasons that have to do with their (self-)identification as women and professionals, their prerogatives as mothers and daughters, their ethnic heritage, their emplacement in urban and global communities and their need to contribute. Our findings enrich understanding of female-led ethnic food entrepreneurship not as a demanding, overall unproductive undertaking for women with no other options, but as a realm of inspiration, community engagement and female-led innovation.

Our main contributions are the qualitative interrogation of perceptions and experiences of identity and difference in urban entrepreneurship from the point of view of our interviewees; providing concrete empirical evidence for it through our sample and proposing an approach to thinking women-led ethnic food entrepreneurship as a vehicle for translating urban superdiversity into social interactions across barriers of difference. We speak to the field of women entrepreneurship studies but specifically to the understudied realm of women-led food entrepreneurship, and to the cross-disciplinary field of (im)migrant entrepreneurship.

This paper aims to address the critical labor shortage in the food industry by exploring the potential of 3D food printing technology as a strategic solution. The study investigates how 3D food printing can enhance productivity, reduce labor costs, and offer innovative applications in various sectors of the food industry.

The research employs a comprehensive review of existing literature and case studies to analyze the current state of labor scarcity in the food industry and the technological advancements in 3D food printing. The paper also assesses the technical, operational, regulatory, and ethical challenges of 3D food printing and provides strategic recommendations for stakeholders.

3D food printing technology presents a viable solution by automating labor-intensive tasks, enhancing labor efficiency, and enabling customized food production. The technology’s potential benefits include improved productivity, reduced operational costs, and the ability to meet personalized nutritional needs. However, the adoption of 3D food printing faces challenges such as high initial costs, maintenance requirements, and scalability issues. Additionally, regulatory and consumer acceptance hurdles need to be addressed.

Policymakers are encouraged to support the development and adoption of 3D food printing through funding and clear regulatory frameworks. Business leaders should consider strategic investments in 3D printing technology and training programs to harness its benefits. Technology developers must focus on advancing the capabilities and user-friendliness of 3D food printers. Addressing these aspects can help the food industry overcome labor scarcity and achieve long-term sustainability and efficiency.

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of 3D food printing technology as a strategic response to labor scarcity in the food industry. It contributes to the existing body of knowledge by highlighting the potential of 3D food printing to revolutionize food production and offering practical recommendations for its adoption and integration.

Transitional periods are important for people, such as birth, marriage and death, are important times when ceremonial meals are prepared and served and certain practices are carried out. These periods and the practices constitute our gastronomic cultural heritage. In order to keep our cultural heritage alive and pass it on to future generations, existing values must first be identified and recorded. For this reason, in this study, gastronomic practices of Mentese's transitional periods were examined within the scope of intangible cultural heritage.

In this research, data was collected using ethnographic design, which is one of the qualitative research methods, and document analysis, interviews and focus group studies, as well as participant observation techniques and image/audio materials. The sample was determined using snowball sampling, convenience sampling and maximum diversity sampling methods. In the analysis of the data, themes and codes related to gastronomic practices in transitional periods were created and direct quotations were included with a descriptive approach.

It has been found that traditions are kept more alive in rural areas, while those living in the city centres no longer perform these practices dating back to the ancient times. Participants attribute the main reason for this to the fact that economic conditions are not favourable and that some traditional practices are “unnecessary” today. While wedding meals, which are the main part of the weddings, used to be made by women in the past, they are now mostly made by catering companies.

It was accepted that some of the participants started to give short answers as the duration of the interview increased and that the answers given were limited to what the participants could remember.

This study reveals special day meals and practices, rituals and traditions related to food within the scope of Mentese's culinary culture, which has a very deep-rooted history. In this regard, in addition to making an important contribution to the literature, the study also contributes to the articles about “recording and promoting the culture” mentioned in the Intangible Cultural Heritage convention.

This study aimed to determine the factors affecting consumers’ perceptions and intention to purchase home meal kit services (HMK), a convenient home-cooked meal option, considering the moderating effects of monetary restriction, through the lens of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB).

This cross-sectional study used an online, self-administered survey to collect data from 374 US adults. Results were tested for variable associations via multiple linear regression and moderation analyses.

HMK adoption intention was positively associated with attitude and subjective norms but negatively associated with perceived behavioural control. Consumers’ HMK attitude demonstrated a significant positive relationship with food safety concerns and perceived time constraints. Income and financial constraints were significant moderators of the associations between TPB determinants and HMK intention. The findings emphasised the possibility of using HMK as a foodservice option for time-challenged consumers with food safety concerns.

This study addressed the limited research on HMK, a competitive meal option that foodservice businesses could implement to boost revenue. The study establishes the contribution in understanding the motivators and barriers that potentially affect consumers’ HMK behaviour through the lens of TPB. The results expand the scope of the TPB application in food-related research, providing a deeper understanding of antecedents and other factors on consumers’ HMK behavioural attitudes. Understanding this information will enable practitioners to develop strategies that meet consumers’ concerns when embracing this service to promote HMK.