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The Australian Dietary Guidelines support good health and disease prevention. Children with healthy eating habits established early in life have been shown to continue these habits into adulthood compared with those children who have poor eating habits in their younger years. The nutritional intake of many Australian children is not in accordance with the national guidelines. The reasons children make the food choices they do are unclear from the literature. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study used participatory action research methods to explore why primary school-aged children make the food choices that they do. A non-government primary school requested assistance in encouraging their children to make healthier choices from the school canteen menu. The authors gathered opinions from the children in two different ways; a group discussion during class and a “discovery day” that involved four class grades. The authors identified children’s food preferences and food availability in canteens. The authors explored how the children perceived healthy foods, the importance of a healthy food environment and what criteria children use to decide what foods to buy.

Children’s food preferences were mostly for unhealthy foods, and these were readily available in the canteen. The perception about what foods were healthy was limited. Despite being asked to develop a “healthy” menu, the majority of choices made by the children were not healthy. Children described unhealthy choices as preferable because of taste of the food, if it was sugary, if it was quick to eat, available and cheap, the relationship of food and weather, the connection to health conditions and peer dominance.

This study suggests that children make their food choices based on simple concepts. The challenge lies around producing healthy options in collaboration with the school community that match the children’s food choice criteria.

This paper provides a modern and inspiring whole school approach based on equity and empowerment of the children. Discovering why children make food choices from the children’s perspective will help to present healthy options that will be more appealing for children. The methodology used to uncover why children make their food choices has also provided valuable insight into a study design that could be used to address other childhood research questions. The methodology offers an educative experience while gathering rich information directly from the children. This information can be used by the school to support children to have more control over their health and to develop behaviours to increase their health for the rest of their lives.

This study aims to reveal the presence of products with negatively correlated nutrients in the marketplace and their implications for consumer choices. It also investigates the role of an overall simplified nutrition scoring system (SNSS) – health star rating (HSR), in improving the healthiness of consumer choices.

Three (lab, online and eye-tracking) experiments investigate the effects of negatively correlated nutrients and the mitigating role of an overall SNSS for consumers’ food choices. A final panel-data study analyzes the changes in actual food purchases after the introduction of HSRs (an SNSS) in Australia.

Experimental results show that consumers use a decision strategy based on a dominant nutrient to choose food products, which creates health halos and leads to less healthy choices when products have negatively correlated nutrients. The presence of an overall SNSS leads to more accurate healthiness perception and healthier choices. Panel data analysis shows that the healthiness of consumer food purchases increased after the introduction of HSRs.

The study investigated the effect of an overall SNSS on specific categories, but not on the overall shopping basket.

For policymakers, this paper shows that overall SNSS helps consumers choose healthier options. Food manufacturers and retailers could be motivated to formulate healthier products when consumers choose healthier options.

This is the first study to document the presence of products with negatively correlated nutrients and their implications for consumer choices. It highlights the unique role of an overall SNSS, in helping consumers identify healthier options when products have negatively correlated nutrients.

Previous research has concluded that there is consumer desire for nutrition information to be provided on restaurant menu items and restaurant customers presented with this information will make healthier menu choices (Mills & Thomas, 2008). Limited research has been performed in a restaurant setting measuring real rather than intended behavior. The purpose of this research experiment is to measure consumer response, in a full-service restaurant setting, to nutrition information on menu items and subsequently determine if consumers will use this information in their menu item choice. An experiment was conducted with 264 restaurant customers at a full-service a la carte restaurant. Customers chose from menu items labeled with or without a Healthy Choice® label. A logistic regression model was used to predict whether people would choose Healthy Choice menu items. Fifty-four percent of restaurant customers chose the healthy choice menu item. The logistic regression confirms that those people who desire nutrition information also use this information in their menu choice. The study concludes with recommendations for the industry on directing consumer menu choice toward healthier items.

The wide literature about healthy behaviours posits that a high level of self-control is required in order to make healthy choices. This work intends to demonstrate that retailers, through the management of in-store marketing levers, can influence shopping behaviour, no matter which is the individual tendency to engage in cognitive behaviours. For this specific purpose, we have considered participants' “Need for Cognition” as a proxy of self-control.

With reference to a specific category (cookies), we created a new display based on benefits (healthy eating) rather than products' attributes. A pre-test was conducted before the main experiment in order to assess the potential ability of the new nutritional display to help customers selecting healthier products, by testing participants' awareness and comprehension of the stimuli proposed. Then, an online between-subjects experiment was conducted by simulating the shoppers' expedition in the cookies' aisle inside a store with the aim to demonstrate that healthy choices can be also made on impulse.

Our findings showed that when both communication and visual cues are provided, people low in need for cognition (NFC) are more willing to select healthy products from the shelf, compared with people high in NFC.

While there is a wide literature explaining the mechanisms supporting healthy choices, fewer are the contributions about the role of retailers in promoting healthy eating through in-store marketing levers. More important, there is no contribution about how to promote health among people with low level of self-control.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the structural relationships among lifestyle of health and sustainability (LOHAS), healthy food choices, trust, and emotional loyalty and the moderating role of age between seniors and non‐seniors in restaurants.

Partial least squares (PLS)‐graph software (version 3.0) was used to analyze the measurements and structural models. The authors employed a PLS regression analysis for both the formative and reflective constructs in the empirical test of the research model.

The study revealed that the senior market segment differs from the non‐senior market segment in the following ways: the magnitude of impact of LOHAS on healthy food choices is much stronger for senior diners than for non‐senior diners and the impact of LOHAS on trust and emotional loyalty is greater for seniors than non‐seniors.

The results of this study can guide the restaurant industry in its research on the implications of LOHAS for seniors.

Restaurant marketers should develop different strategies for the senior and non‐senior market segments, and they need to focus on target segments rather than attempting to appeal to the market as a whole.

This paper assists researchers and practitioners by shedding light on the differences among LOHAS, healthy food choices, trust, and emotional loyalty between senior and non‐senior diners.

The paper aims to investigate the relationship between meal choices of primary school children and their knowledge of balanced diet and healthy eating.

Using a questionnaire and food photo album (FPA), children combined the different food items in the FPA to form a “healthy Sunday lunch” (balanced meal containing all the six classes of food), a “favourite Sunday lunch” (what they would like for a Sunday lunch) and “last Sunday lunch” (what they had the previous Sunday for lunch). Overall, 110 questionnaires were returned and analyzed.

Participants' choice of a favourite Sunday lunch had a better representation of the various classes of a balanced healthy meal (X=71.8 and SD=24.0) compared with their ability to create a healthy Sunday lunch, which did not reflect adequately the six classes of food (X=59.8 and SD=36.9). Last Sunday lunch had a good representation of the various classes of food (X=70.7, SD=24.8). Girls had a better ability to plan a healthy Sunday lunch than boys.

The study was carried out with year 6 pupils (n=110) in four primary schools in rural Mid‐Wales. Thus, the generality of these findings to children from other demographics is unclear.

There was no significant relationship between pupils' choice of food and their knowledge of balanced diet.

The results suggested that children will make “healthy choices” but need the knowledge underpinning these “healthy choices” in order to affect their attitude towards healthy eating.

Escalation in the number of online food ordering platforms, along with extensive junk food marketing, lucrative offers and discounts, innovation in food flavors, and doorstep delivery of food, have triggered the consumption of high-calorie and unhealthy food products which pose serious threats to the health and future well-being of individuals by making them more obese. To date, several public policy frameworks have been developed to confront obesity; however, their efficacy seems debatable. Directionally, the objective of this study is to highlight the potential influence of “digital nudging” which aims at steering individuals in desired directions, at the same time delimiting their freedom of choice. The study also establishes the effectiveness of digital nudges promoting a healthy lifestyle by steering individuals toward healthier food choices. The author strongly believes that this conceptual perusal will offer immense inputs to healthy food marketers and researchers alike in addressing the matters of obesity. Addressing the menace of obesity calls for joint efforts of the government, the public, researchers, and more specifically food product manufacturers/marketers who should incorporate healthier food options into their portfolios. E-tailers are also urged to adopt such practices in virtual markets and promote healthier food options to effectively tackle obesity.

As technology increasingly integrates into the restaurant industry, avatar servers present a promising avenue for promoting healthier dining habits. Grounded in the halo effect theory and social comparison theory, this study aims to delve into the influence of avatars' appearance, humor and persuasion on healthier choices and customer satisfaction.

This paper comprises three experimental studies. Study 1 manipulates avatar appearance (supermodel-looking vs normal-looking) to examine its effects on perceived attractiveness, warmth and relatability. These factors influence customer satisfaction and healthy food choices through the psychological mechanisms of social comparison and aspirational appeal. Studies 2 and 3 further refine this theoretical model by assessing the interplay of appearance with humor (presence vs absence) and persuasion (health-oriented vs beauty-oriented), respectively.

Results suggest that avatars resembling supermodels evoke stronger aspirational appeal and positive social comparison due to their attractiveness, thus bolstering healthier choices and customer satisfaction. Moreover, humor moderates the relationship between appearance and attractiveness, while persuasion moderates the effects of appearance on social comparison and aspirational appeal.

This research bridges the halo effect theory and social comparison theory, offering insights enriching the academic discourse on technology’s role in hospitality.

The findings provide actionable insights for managers, tech developers and health advocates.

Despite its significance, avatar design research in the hospitality sector has been overlooked. This study addresses this gap, offering a guideline for crafting attractive and persuasive avatars.

With dining out increasing globally, policy making and research have been on menu labeling as a source for meaningful nutrition information. Yet, despite attempts to mandate menu labeling and the studies examining consumer's perception of menu nutritional information and how this perception impacts dining behavior and intention to consume, concerns for obesity and malnutrition continue to be at the forefront of public health discussions. This study attempts to comprehend consumers' nutritional goals, intention and food choice behavior, thereby suggesting how to leverage this information for change.

Using survey data and a proposed and validated theoretical model, the study identified the different aspects of consumer's food choice by analyzing the relationship of consumer's perceived importance toward nutrition information, food choice and healthy daily behavior, and intention to improve health.

Consumers who perceive higher importance of nutrition information are more likely to choose healthy food when dining out and have stronger health improvement intention. The results also suggested healthy food choice and healthy daily behavior positively influenced health improvement intention.

Despite the previous studies on menu labeling and the numerous policy mandates, there is still concern about the food choice behavior of consumers while eating out. No serious effort exists to regulate food service providers similar to the regulation of other consumer products, whereby consumers are generally protected from harm. This study suggests through education, promotional marketing and industry partnerships, motivating and leveraging consumers' desire for healthy food choices could move food service providers and policy makers to change what information is provided.

This study investigated the influence of marketing- and family-related factors on consumers' in-store usage of different types of food label information. Furthermore, the authors determined the mediating role of consumers' knowledge about healthy foods between these factors and their label consultation.

The authors conducted a survey among 223 purposively selected South African working female consumers via social media. Subjective and objective knowledge about healthy foods, the importance of marketing- and family-related factors and the extent of food label usage were determined. Structural equation modelling served to test the mediating effect of knowledge in the relationship of the marketing and family-related factors with food label usage.

Marketing-related factors demonstrated a strong direct effect on food label usage. Subjective knowledge about healthy foods mediated the relationship between family members' dietary needs and food label usage. However, objective knowledge was not a mediator.

Respondents' firm reliance on marketing-related factors (instead of knowledge) during food label usage is not in the best interest of consumers' healthy food choices. Healthy food choices based on factual knowledge rather than marketing efforts are necessary to establish long-term healthy food habits, hence the need for retailers' response in supplying healthier food options. Role players in consumer education should focus on increasing consumers' healthy food knowledge.

In the context of rising awareness of public health concerns, healthy food choice among consumers is essential. This study contributes to the complexity of consumers' need to make healthy food choices within an economic-driven marketing environment.