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In Brazil, bacalhau dishes represent strong cultural, religious and traditional values. The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical perspective integrating theories on social identity, role‐based identity, and cultural capital to explore multi‐phase bacalhau prosumption. The aim is to understand how consumers maintain their social identity and role‐based identity in this process.

Data gathering is based on focus‐group discussions. A total of 13 focus‐group discussions were developed with 104 consumers from five different cities in Brazil. Discussions of all five phases of bacalhau prosumption reveal how people maintain and reinforce their social identity and role‐based identity.

It was found that consumers achieve their social identity through comparison with both in‐group and out‐group members in what they prosume and how they prosume. Consumers also try to maintain their role‐based identity through continuously comparing their actual behaviour with the behaviour standards associated with the role of being a good host/hostess. While economic capital is expressed by the prosumption objects, cultural capital is reflected in consumer prosumption practices.

This study has developed a new theoretical perspective, integrating theories on social identity, role‐based identity, and cultural capital. This novel perspective is applied to a complex food prosumption context including strong cultural, religious and social elements, and allows us to capture both the “being” and “doing” aspects of bacalhau prosumption.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of information on English consumers' evaluation of fresh and thawed cod fillets which in English retail stores is referred to as “chilled” seafood.

After the exploration of consumers' impressions of thawed fish, this study followed a pair‐wise comparison approach in a central location consumer test. Fish fillets were evaluated on liking, smell and texture by means of a questionnaire with additional behavioural and attitudinal questions.

This study showed that consumers in England may prefer thawed over fresh cod fillets without information. However, consumers' evaluations increased for labelled fresh cod fillets and decreased for thawed. Finally, consumers reported positive expectations about fillets labelled “fresh” or “frozen at sea”.

This study involved testing cod fillets in a central location test. Consumers do not usually evaluate cod fillets in this way in their daily life. The quality of the two types of fillets made especially for this test may vary compared to the ones usually sold and consumed.

This study can inform producers and retailers about what to expect by means of sales of fresh and thawed cod products with or without information.

It was shown that consumers are positively influenced by information and are willing to consume more fish if they know that the fish is fresh or thawed properly.

This is the first paper to present English consumers' evaluations of thawed cod.

This study sets out to explore how consumers evaluate unbranded and unlabelled food products and to what extent they are able to select the products with the highest potential to meet their expectations regarding eating quality.

The study focused on Portuguese consumers and their purchase of bacalhau, i.e. salted and dried cod, which is sold unpacked, unbranded and unlabelled in supermarkets. The collection of data encompassed observations of shoppers in supermarkets, individual interviews and focus groups with consumers, and a consumer panel that conducted quality assessments and rankings of nine different bacalhaus and subsequent taste assessments of the same products following desalting and cooking.

Results indicate that Portuguese consumers – in spite of substantial experience with buying, preparing and consuming bacalhau – are uncertain in their in‐store quality assessment. Shoppers used multiple criteria to assess the quality of the bacalhau, such as the appearance and dryness of the product. Some rather curious quality criteria that were not related to “objective” product quality were also discerned. Touching the dried and salted cod trying to “feel” the quality was common. Some even broke the fish tail to assess the dryness. Findings from the consumer panel showed large discrepancies between how the same products were assessed before and after desalting and cooking.

The study is limited to one food product and one national market. Marketing implications, such as focus on packaging, quality labelling, and branding are discussed, as well as implications for future research.

The paper shows that although unlabelled and unbranded food products are common, relatively little research addressing how consumers assess such products in a wider sense, including which strategies consumers apply and to what extent they are able to select products that meet or exceed their expectations regarding eating quality, has been conducted. The paper also addresses the role cultural rules and rituals may play in the assessment of traditional food products such as bacalhau.