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The present study compared the calculated nutritional content of midday meals eaten by primary schoolchildren (n=90, 45 boys, 45 girls, mean age 10.5±0.4 years), in the Portsmouth area, with the Caroline Walker Trust (CWT) published guidelines. Comp‐Eat 5 was used to determine the dietary content of children’s midday meals. Children’s lunchtime meals were not deficient in essential micronutrients; however, the macronutrient content of their diet differed significantly from the published guidelines. Data analysis also revealed that significant differences were evident between the macronutrient content of the two meal subgroups (food provided by the school, referred to as “school meals” and food brought from home, referred to as a “packed lunch”). In conclusion, several changes need to be made to midday meals, eaten by primary schoolchildren, before they will meet the CWT guidelines, and the two meal subgroups require separate solutions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the changes in emotion brought by eating the midday meal. Many aspects of eating out have been studied, yet emotions remain an under‐researched area, despite having been shown to play a significant role in food consumption.

This paper reports findings from a qualitative study, involving semi‐structured interviews with British undergraduates about changes in their emotional state after eating their lunchtime meal. Data were analysed through the technique of thematic analysis.

Participants observed a clear relationship between their emotions and eating a meal, with changes noted in concentration, energy and happiness levels. The quality of the food eaten was an issue of concern to participants; access to a healthy meal was seen to be important, given the perceived benefits for emotional and physical health. Finally, eating was deemed to be both a physical and social activity. Eating in company enhanced the emotional experience of dining, as it offered the opportunity to bond with friends. Recommendations for further research are made.

This research addresses a paucity of information on the link between food and emotion, helping to better understand the role of emotions when eating out. Further research into different settings is called for in order to broaden the understanding of the relationship between eating and emotional state, and to find out whether or not similar findings emerge from alternative settings.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the profiles of those frequenting full-service restaurants and eating raw vegetable salads, as well as to analyze the influence of socio-demographic variables and of the tendency for social desirability in consumption frequencies.

A non-probabilistic consumer sample (n=630) was interviewed in the city of Campinas, Brazil. Besides the frequency of eating in full-service restaurants and the frequency of eating salads (as a function of the meal type and week day) in this type of restaurant, the survey instrument was also composed by socio-demographic variables and a social desirability scale. To compare data, non-parametric tests were used.

Of the interviewees, 52.3 percent were shown to eat in full-service restaurants at least once a week. The frequency of eating salads in full-service restaurant stood out as being significantly higher (p<0.05) for weekday lunches. Individuals who graduated in the areas of health or food showed a significantly higher frequency for the consumption of salads at weekends. Apparently the social desirability did not influence the responses of the consumers with respect to the frequencies studied.

The sample was of a non-probabilistic type, bringing reservations with respect to generalizations.

Socio-demographic variables should be considered in elaborating strategies for promoting vegetable salads consumption in restaurants. Health and nutrition education programs can be effective in aiding consumers to choose healthier food in this context.

Studies about frequency of salad consumption in restaurants are scarce. The influence of social desirability bias on reported frequency was analyzed in this paper.

The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the meal context and the food offering in Quebec public nursing homes for non-autonomous seniors, particularly with respect to first-generation immigrants.

A focused ethnography approach was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three distinct groups: non-Quebec-born residents (n=26), their families (n=24) and frontline care staff (n=51). Structured non-participative observations were made in facilities.

First-generation immigrants, however, long ago they arrived in Quebec, adapted with difficulty and often not at all to the food offering. Resident’s appetite for food offer was a problem for reasons related primarily to food quality, mealtime schedules, medication intake, physical and mental condition, and adaptation to institutional life. Family/friends often brought in food. Care staff tasks were becoming increasingly tedious and routinized, impacting quality of care.

Institutions should render procedures and processes more flexible and adapt their food offering to the growing diversity of their client groups. For residents, the meal experience is profoundly transformed in nursing homes in terms of form, conditions, rituals and meaning. A better understanding of lived situations shaped by a more refined cultural sensitivity would go a long way toward achieving a better quality of life not only for residents but also for their families and friends. Care aides, on whose shoulders rests the responsibility of ensuring that meals are safe and pleasant moments for socializing and maintaining social dispositions, are ambivalent about their work.

The paper is based on an original study. To the authors’ knowledge, the literature on the meal context and food offering in Quebec public nursing homes, regardless of population type, was non-existent. Analyzing and interpreting the results by crossing the discourses of immigrant residents, their family and friends, and frontline care staff made it possible to reveal different aspects of the phenomenon, which, if considered together, shed light on the meal context in public nursing homes.

There are initiatives proposed in a number of states that would mandate calorie information disclosures from restaurant chains on their menus and menu boards. Such labeling laws have already been passed in New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle, and the states of Massachusetts and California. This paper aims to analyze whether nutrition disclosures are necessary for the average consumer to identify meal calorific content, to address consumer motivation to attend to nutrition labels, and to assess whether such labeling efforts may influence consumers' subsequent behaviors.

To address issues related to nutrition labeling of chain restaurants, a food court field study and a longitudinal quasi‐experiment were conducted.

The results indicate that as meal calorie, fat, and sodium levels increase, the level of consumers' underestimation of calories and nutrients increases. Consumers generally need the help of nutrition labeling to identify the content of menu items. Furthermore, there is an effect of perceived item healthfulness on repurchase intentions, and this effect is strengthened by disclosure of nutrition information. However, even after nutrition disclosure, the strength of the effect of taste perceptions on repurchase intentions dominates the effect of meal healthfulness.

This paper identifies that consumers do not have adequate nutrition knowledge when it comes to foods consumed outside the home. Relative comparisons among alternatives may be made, but consumers do not understand the absolute nutritional value of foods consumed. The authors identify that nutritional labeling does influence healthier consumer decisions. However, the key variable is consumer motivation. Only for the most nutritionally motivated consumers will this influence of healthfulness withstand the influence of taste.

The business lunch may take different forms, according to cultural and culinary traditions, but it remains a popular way of going about doing business. Despite today’s heavy workloads and the pressures for efficiency, the business lunch appears to keep its popularity, showing the importance of personal contact in the process of networking in today’s business practices. Some sporadic research has been conducted on this issue, but little is yet known about the business lunch as a management tool. As a contribution to fill this gap, the paper presents a research agenda for the analysis of business lunching.

Poor eating habits established during adolescence are likely to lead to negative long-term health consequences. The childhood obesity epidemic is a growing public health concern, largely attributed to obesogenic environments. This study aims to explore the multiple factors contributing positively or negatively to young consumers’ attitudes towards their food consumption.

In total, 42 11- to 13-years-old (24 men and 18 women) from three secondary schools in Wales participated in five focus group discussions. The process of thematic analysis resulted in several identified themes that influenced young consumers’ eating habits.

Extrapersonal factors compromised: education, peer pressure, parenting, availability and social media; and intrapersonal factors included: health consciousness, taste preferences, convenience and price consciousness. Contrary to previous research, the adolescent participants perceived their parents as more influential than their peer group, even during decision-making in the school canteen.

These research findings are beneficial for policy-makers working to develop an age-appropriate multi-factorial approach to promote healthful dietary practices amongst young consumers. For instance, increasing easily accessible food-to-go choices that are not only convenient to purchase and consume but also healthful could improve dietary intake.

A novel connection between peer pressure and convenience was discovered. Multiple factors contribute to young consumers’ attitudes towards food and their dietary habits.

This study aims to examine Victorian primary school parents’ perspectives about a potential school-provided lunch program (LP).

An online cross-sectional survey was conducted in Victoria, Australia, in 2022 to explore parents’ perceptions regarding the lunch menu, funding source, amount willing to pay, frequency of meals and special dietary needs of a school-provided LP.

Over half of parents (57% out of 359) said they would allow their child to participate in a school LP, 34% were unsure and only 9% said they would not. The opportunity for hot cooked lunches at school and the perceived convenience for parents were the top two reasons for favouring such a program. Fifty-eight percent were in favour of hybrid-type funding from both the government and parents. The most preferred amount to pay per meal was AUD5-6 (43%), followed by AUD3-4 (25%). Parents expected meals to be healthy and made from whole food and cater to the special dietary and cultural needs of their children. They also expected enough time to be allocated so children could eat and enjoy the meals.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore Victorian parents’ perceptions regarding the above aspects of a school-provided LP. The findings suggest that parents are receptive to a school-provided LP; they, however, did have several expectations regarding the menu and time for eating. These findings provide important directions for designing future school-provided LPs at primary schools in Australia.

The purpose of this paper is to show the relationship between food as a shared good (or public within the household) in the economic sense, and food as a shared meal in the sociological sense.

Quantitative data derived from a household budget survey (HBS) in Cyprus are used to set up questions to which answers are suggested using the qualitative approach of in-depth interviews.

The main finding is that the relatively high expenditure by elderly couples on food for home consumption may be explained by frequent inter-household, intra-extended family meals in Cyprus.

The paper provides evidence that household expenditure on food may not be directly indicative of household consumption of food. Researchers interested in household consumption of food should therefore be aware of the differences between household and extended family and, where extended family continues to be significant, they should be wary of using data from HBSs to analyse food consumption. One limitation is that the results are derived from in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of nine households. It may be appropriate to replicate the study, either in Cyprus or in similar societies where extended family remains significant, at a larger scale.

The evidence that household expenditure may not be indicative of household consumption suggests that questions on social context of consumption should be included in HBSs.

This paper draws together, for the first time, economic ideas on expenditure on food derived from the quantitative research of Ernst Engel on one hand and implications of the theories of Georg Simmel on the sociology of the meal on the other. The paper shows that some issues arising from quantitative analysis of HBSs cannot be explained using data from that source; this is particularly so where consumption of food is inter-household.