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This paper aims to examine the effect of a food-inspired multimedia intervention on children’s fruits and vegetables (F&V) consumption in a real-life setting during lunch.

Children in an elementary school in Bologna (Italy) in third, fourth and fifth grade, aged between 9 and 12 years old, were examined (N = 171). Two different types of messages (generic and specific) were used to test message-tailoring in two separate intervention groups and one control group. The two intervention groups (classes) were presented with multimedia messages during an English lesson before lunchtime, and their eating behavior during lunch at school was observed. All children were served the first and second course, vegetables and fruit during lunchtime. Data was analyzed with R 3.4.2. Mann–Whitney U, Kruskal–Wallis and ANOVA tests were used to test for group differences, ordered logistic regression for modelling fruit and vegetable consumption.

The results show that children receiving a specific message targeting F&V consumed more fruit than the other two study groups. No effect on vegetable consumption was observed. Results from an ordered logit model support the notion that the multimedia message impacted fruit intake in the specific message group when taking other variables into account, such as F&V consumption and availability at home and children’s attitude toward F&V.

While many studies have considered a group of intervention for understanding the effect of multimedia, this study is focused only on the effect of a message (generic or specific). Moreover, participants, children, were not informed that they were participating in a study on fruit and vegetables consumption, and thus were following their daily routine.

Combining sensory evaluations and hypothetical valuation mechanisms, this study aims to investigate the impact of consumers' product sensory attributes on willingness to pay (WTP) and overall liking for a new apple cultivar.

A sample of non-expert participants (n = 122) evaluated the overall liking and just-about-right (JAR) attributes. A variable transformation approach was applied to make linear and interval regression models between the JAR attributes, overall liking scores and participants' WTP.

The study reveals the high consumer appreciation for the new apple in both hedonic and economic terms. After controlling the anchoring effect's bias, the predicted mean WTP for the new apple cultivar was €3.26 per kilogramme. Crunchiness and flavour significantly affect both participants' overall liking and WTP.

The main limitation is the non-probabilistic sampling procedure, which does not allow for the generalisation of the results. Penalty analysis for JAR attributes in monetary and hedonic terms is beneficial for optimising the product and evaluating its potential in the marketplace.

The findings provide helpful directions for product optimisation in future breeding programmes to ensure the long-term sustainability of the new apple cultivars in the marketplace.

This study provides evidence of the beneficial synergy of mixing sensory-oriented research with the behavioural economics field of study.

Dairy products are an essential part of a healthy diet, and dairy is an emerging food industry in China. Meanwhile, the dairy industry is one of the “disaster zones” with quality and safety issues occurring more frequently in its supply chain than in others. Based on qualitative research focused on consumers in the Northwest and South of China, the present study aims to understand and provide information on consumer perception of food safety in dairy products.

Nine focus group interviews were carried out from January to April 2018. Altogether, 61 participants (24 males, 37 females, aged 18–60 years) were recruited in four cities. Qualitative content analysis of the data was conducted using Nvivo version 11.4.0.

A high concern with the safety of dairy products is widespread, particularly among participants with children, who are especially worried about the safety of dairy products. High prevalence of food safety incidents causes consumers to lower their confidence in food safety, and make them pay more attention to the news about food safety incidents. Consumers tend to become less sensitive to price, focusing more on food safety and quality, while purchasing dairy products. Brand and purchase venue are the most important indicators for consumers to determine the quality of dairy products. Safety certification becomes increasingly important.

It has some limitations. The focus group interviews covered different two regions (Northwest and South of China). However, the number of focus groups was limited to nine because of budget constraints. The participants come from Northwest and South of the country, which means that the findings may not apply for another area of the country. A more representative sampling with a larger sample size would be necessary to increase the validity of the study. However, the results can serve as input for further research.

This paper explores the Chinese consumers' perception of food safety and dairy products, consumers' behaviour concerning dairy products based on focus group interviews with consumers. This study offers valuable insights to members of academia, food suppliers and policy-makers.

The authors propose a dairy bundle, integrating strategies to jointly maximise producer revenue and consumer utility according to the latter's preferences.

An algorithm based on a nested logit model identifies the bundle maximising producer revenue based on factors affecting consumer purchase behaviour. The data are drawn from a mall-intercept survey administered in Iran, with consumers stating a hypothetical choice among a comprehensive set of dairy products.

Demographic characteristics and marketing mix elements significantly affect consumers' preferences. An algorithm based on the estimated dissimilarity parameter determines the best bundle of dairy products, simultaneously obtaining the highest utility and the highest expected revenue.

Consumer preference and maximum producer or retail seller income are considered simultaneously. The bundling promotion strategy is widely used for food offerings and fresh foods and can be extended to other products.

我們擬根據消費者偏好，提出一個整合了多個策略的捆綁包，以使生產製作者得到最高的收入和最佳的消費者效用。

研究人員根據巢式Logit 模型的演算法確認了一個捆綁包，以使生產製作者能得到最高的收入，而這均建基於會影響消費者購買行為的各個因素。有關的數據取自於伊朗的商場內進行的攔截調查，而回應的消費者須假想他們從一整套乳製品中選擇他們會購買的產品。

研究結果顯示，人口特徵和市場營銷組合元素均會顯著地影響消費者的偏好，一個基於估算的相異性參數而建立的演算法可確認最佳的乳製品捆綁包，這演算法同時也可取得最佳的裨益和最高的預期收入。

於本研究中，研究人員同時考慮消費者的偏好和生產製作者或零售賣家的最高收入。捆綁式的促銷策略在食物供品和新鮮食品方面被廣泛使用，這策略可擴展至其他產品。

乳製品捆綁包、消費者偏好、最佳化演算法、巢式Logit 模型.

This study develops a modified food-related lifestyle (FRL) instrument to analyse Kosovo consumers' fruit consumption behaviour and attitudes.

The research study is based on a structured questionnaire designed using a reduced version of the FRL instrument, including evaluation factors related to fruit consumption, which is useful to describe a fruit-related lifestyle. Data were collected through a face-to-face survey with 300 consumers in three main cities in Kosovo. A principal component analysis (PCA) with Varimax rotation and Kaiser Normalisation was performed to interpret and investigate fruit-related lifestyles. Cluster analysis was performed to analyse market segments, using the identified factors obtained from the PCA, a hierarchical clustering algorithm with a Ward linkage method and the K-means clustering technique.

Consumption behaviour is motivated by health concerns (perceived), fruit (nutrition) content and consumption habits. Four distinct consumer clusters were identified based on the fruit-related lifestyle instrument and analysed considering the different fruit purchase and consumption behaviour, attitudes towards health, quality, taste and safety.

The authors adapted a survey tool based on a reduced FRL instrument to elaborate a specific survey instrument suitable to describe the fruit-related consumer's lifestyles. The instrument was not designed according to the standard scales design procedure, but it is a first step towards creating a fruit-related lifestyle instrument.

The fruit-related lifestyle instrument can be used in studies focused on fruit consumer segmentation. Results provide insight into fruit marketing and distribution companies, which can adjust their marketing strategies and customer-oriented initiatives tailored for specific consumer segments. Results can be useful also for policymakers to promote increased fruit consumption.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into European organic consumers’ attitudes towards natural food and in their sensory preference for it. It explores whether there is any evidence for a latent dimension that represents consumers’ attitudes towards naturalness and which aspects can be assigned to this dimension. However, the main scope is to investigate whether attitudes towards naturalness are able to predict the liking of natural food.

Sensory tests of strawberry yoghurt are combined with consumer information obtained by means of a standardised questionnaire. About 1,800 organic consumers from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland were asked to blindly test two strawberry yoghurt samples that differed only in their absence/presence of an aroma additive.

On average, the consumers revealed a positive attitude towards natural food, but a negative sensory preference for the more natural yoghurt sample. Correlations between these two variables indicate that for most countries one cannot conclude that more naturalness-oriented consumers actually prefer the taste of more naturally flavoured yoghurts. This finding is interpreted as an attitude-liking gap.

More research is necessary in order to clarify the reasons for the attitude-liking gap, since the authors can only speculate about these. Also, suitable data are needed to confirm the assumption made here that the naturalness of strawberry yoghurt can be determined by the degree of flavour intensity, especially against the background that the sensory skills of consumers are usually weak.

No attempt has been undertaken so far to test the claim that natural food products taste better and whether consumers with a positive attitude towards naturalness actually prefer the taste of a natural product over the taste of a more processed one. The present study attempts to fill this gap by exploring the preference for naturalness in a cross-national context.

This paper aims to develop a hierarchical typology of trust elements for business‐to‐business trade among European companies in the food sector.

The paper integrates desk research literature study and a qualitative survey of food industry companies. An extensive literature review about inter‐organizational trust lays a foundation for designing a draft typology based on previous studies, with special attention paid to the influence of culture. Fine‐tuning and validation of the typology is achieved through an exploratory field study based on 18 qualitative in‐depth interviews with key informants in five EU countries, involving practitioners from the fresh fruit and vegetable, grain, meat and olive supply chains.

A detailed typology of trust is developed. Although it is highly specific to the food industry, it is designed to be neutral to culture and sector, thus allowing the identification of differences in culture when dealing with trust building elements in different sectors in the food supply chain.

Since the buyer's perspective is adopted in this paper, further research is needed to validate the typology on the seller side. The typology developed here must also be tested in practice, for instance within a descriptive research quantitative study, aimed at quantifying the relative importance of the different trust elements.

The typology stimulates the consideration of cross‐cultural or cross‐sector differences in the salience of trust attributes and its construction process confirms that reputation management is an extremely important determinant of success or failure. It can serve as a checklist for any company that is interested in improving its relationships with suppliers or buyers.

The paper adds to the body of knowledge about inter‐organizational trust, providing researchers with a useful tool for conducting experimental research on trust creation mechanisms.

The aim of this paper is to assess the applicability and impact of private food standards – specifically that of the BRC (British Retail Consortium) – in a European country context, and to classify food companies into groups on the basis of their different perceptions regarding the Global Standard for Food safety impacts.

The research is developed in two stages: a qualitative investigation based on in-depth interviews with quality managers (QMs); a quantitative investigation with a structured questionnaire: with response from 192 food processors in Italy, selected through a probabilistic random sampling method. Data were elaborated with descriptive statistical techniques and subsequently with multivariate analysis (factor and cluster analysis).

QMs agree with most of the assumptions with regard to the impact elements of the BRC food standard. Some characteristics, such as geographic location, size, and type of processing and adoption of ISO 9001, seem to elicit different perceptions between the companies. Through factor analysis, eight factors were extracted; and subsequently, through cluster analysis applied to the factors, five different groups of companies are identified.

The adoption of private food standards is both useful and comprehensible for food operators. However, BRC is a minimum standard and a base level for food suppliers; it cannot wholly substitute a specific retailer's dedicated second-party audit. Findings could be used by the subjects of the certification process to determine ideal marketing strategies.

This paper provides a statistically significant description of the impact of private food standards (via the important BRC standard) in one of the most important European markets.

Reports the first results of a study on how increased awareness of food safety can influence consumer behaviour regarding specific products. Looks into consumer attitudes towards organic apples by means of a survey conducted among customers of large retail outlets located in Emilia‐Romagna (Italy). Analyses consumer attitudes toward organic food, studying the price/quantity/quality relationship for this type of product. Consumers were directly interviewed at retail outlets, A questionnaire consisting of the following four sections was used: fruit consumption; pesticide abatement; organic fruit and organic apple demand; and demographic profile of respondent. Presents the results of the preliminary test phase of the survey. The pre‐test results are quite encouraging and enable us to start the final investigation round. The survey will continue in three rounds over a 12‐month period, trying in this way to override the relatively high seasonality of apple consumption.

The research presented in this paper aims at giving a forecasting scenario of the fresh tomato industry in Italy and in Germany, through the analysis of the different drivers which influence the trends of the fresh tomato market.

The Delphi method was applied in order to obtain judgments of different experts regarding the driving forces of the fresh tomato industry in Italy and in Germany. A total of 14 experts of the fresh vegetables market participated in a three‐rounds survey; a qualitative analysis of experts' judgments drew to a possible future of the fresh tomato industry.

From the results it is possible to conclude that the service in the offer of the products will mostly influence the trend of the fresh tomato industry; this includes marketing, communication, quality certifications, special packaging (as ready to eat products). Furthermore variety selection and typicality of the product will play, as well, a fundamental role in the market trend of the fresh tomato.

The research is based on a small sample of experts, using a qualitative approach. Therefore these findings may strongly depend on the choice of the subjects.

The results may offer useful suggestions to managers and practitioners on the most promising strategies for the future.

On the methodological side, this study represents a useful contribution to qualitative food research, since the Delphi method approach was rarely used in the past. In addition, it has not been previously used in forecasting a possible scenario in the fresh vegetables industry.