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The purpose of this paper is to relate average serving size intake by the Brazilian population and declared serving size, the presence of trans fat and household measure fractioning declared on labels of processed, and ultra-processed food products.

Cross-sectional study that analyzed the food labelling of all processed and ultra-processed food products sold in a supermarket in southern Brazil.

A total of 1,071 processed and ultra-processed food products were analyzed. In 88 per cent of food groups, the average serving size consumed was larger than what was declared on labels. Consumed serving size was up to 9.2 times larger than the declared ones in food products with trans fat among their ingredients list and in false negatives and up to 9.9 times larger in foods with fractioned household measure (p<0.001). The Brazilian population consumes, on average, larger serving sizes than those declared on labels, which may represent a significant intake of trans fats without the consumers’ noticing.

This study has been performed with the use of a national database on food consumption, as well as the information from a large number of processed and ultra-processed food labels marketed in Brazil. This study is also proven to be important and novel, contributing with information as to the manner in which nutrition labelling has been presented to Brazilian consumers, discussing its possible consequences for food choices, intake, and the guarantee of consumer rights.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse and compare the serving sizes and energy values reported on the nutrition information of all processed and ultra-processed dairy products in their regular and diet/light versions available for sale in a large supermarket in Brazil.

A check was done for associations between the compliance of reported serving sizes, energy values per serving and energy density for regular foods and foods advertised at “diet/light” (with reduced fat and calories).

The data included information from 451 dairy product labels. Most of the products had serving sizes smaller than the reference set by Brazilian law. A high variability of serving sizes was found for similar products. “Diet/light” foods tend to report serving sizes that are even smaller and more inadequate. Moreover, the energy density of these products was similar to that of the regular foods. Smaller serving sizes may be being presented on “diet/light” foods in order to report lower energy values and on similar foods to show non-existent differences in energy values. These results point to the importance of standardizing serving size information on food labels so that consumers have access to clear and accurate information about food products.

This was the first census-type study to analyse the serving size information of dairy products at a supermarket of one of the ten largest supermarket chains in Brazil. This work extends the scope of current food labelling and contributes to the discussion about how nutrition labelling has been presented to Brazilian consumers and its possible consequences for food choices and the guarantee of consumer rights.

This study aims to examine consumer involvement with nutrition labels in the USA. Although food label information including nutrition, size and color are standardized and mandated by Food and Drug Administration, consumers perceive some food labels more confusing than others and many ignore the information by seeing them as unimportant. This study measures the importance of different nutrients and examines the differences between consumers that read nutrition labels and consumers that do not read nutrition labels.

In total, 300 consumers were surveyed using Qualtrics internet panel about the importance of nutrition information on food labels. Importance of food nutrients and food serving, size as they impact consumer involvement with food labels, was measured using structural equation modeling.

The results indicate perceived risk associated with nutrition labels, and food serving size information impacts consumer involvement with nutrition labels.

There are a variety of important public policy implications for government agencies and food manufacturers in educating the public about the use of nutrition information on food labels.

This study expands previous research by adding three more nutrients to the dietary scale from nutrition labels (sodium, cholesterol and carbohydrates) and focuses mainly on the nutrients that are considered to be negative for most people.

Weddings in India have become more extravagant in recent years. The ostentation goes well with the food also. Hundreds of varieties and great stock of food served making it a wasteful affair which would lead to the unsustainable demand for the natural resources. The purpose of this paper is to link the stock-induced consumption phenomenon with food waste generation in Indian weddings.

This study begins with the identification of the factors which would be responsible to make the food consumption stock-induced. A system dynamics (SD) model is developed using SD software STELLA (version 10.0) to assess the amount of stock-induced food waste. The impact of the factors on this waste is analyzed and estimation is made about the financial implications of this waste. Different scenarios have been analyzed to arrive at a most desirable scenario in the Indian context. Finally, the paper provides the recommendations for managerial implications to prevent the potential disastrous consequences of this waste.

A rigorous simulation analysis was conducted for different food-serving scenarios. The outcome of SD analysis shows that an enormous amount of food is wasted in the form of stock-induced consumption and dustbin waste. Impact analysis of factors on waste generation reveals that food wastage in marriages is entirely a behavioral phenomenon and can be controlled by exercising self and enforced behavioral control measures. Waste cost estimation gives an insight about the severity of the topic for policy making.

The study has a very high social relevance and facilitates decision makers to take required actions to mitigate the stock-induced food waste in marriages. The study conducted will encourage the researchers to use SD in analyzing complex systems for quantitative estimations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that analyzes the food waste in Indian weddings in relation with the huge stock served using SD. The study provides valuable insights in the direction to make the country food secure.

This paper aimed to examine the role of social factors and individual factors on alcohol drinking in a licensed premise.

An unobtrusive covert systematic observational study of 632 licensed premise patrons was conducted during May 2015.

Convergence between genders was observed with females drinking as much and as long as males; 57.9 per cent of patrons drank two and more servings, exceeding daily recommended amounts. Social factors such as group size are more influential on drinking than individual factors such as gender and smoking status. Serving practices such as straws and buying drinks in rounds influence the quantity of alcohol consumed.

The study focussed on one licensed premise. Replication of the method outlined in the current study in different licensed venues, states and countries will permit the role of policy, drinking environments and drinking cultures to be understood.

Drinking patterns of both genders are converging. Thus, intervention efforts should target both genders.

This paper contributes a structured observation protocol that extends our understanding of alcohol drinking beyond quantity by incorporating observation of duration of consumption for each serve, permitting identification of social and environmental factors that can be used to lower licensed premise alcohol drinking.

The purpose of this study is to examine how consumers perceive nutrition labeling on wine and how this information impacts healthiness perceptions of wine.

A series of four experiments focused on healthiness perceptions and purchase likelihood.

Consumers who read wine labels rate wine as significantly less healthy. Sugar content affects healthiness perceptions of wine more than calories. Changing the serving size on the label moderates these effects. Consumers high in dietary restraint process this nutrition information differently.

Future research could examine actual purchase behavior using retail data.

This study has implications for consumers, manufacturers and public policy. While currently most consumers are not motivated to read a nutrition label on wine, specific nutrition information can impact consumer perceptions of wine. Consumer education is recommended.

Research on nutrition labeling of alcohol specifically has been very limited.

In this chapter, we draw on health lifestyle, human capital, and health commodity theories to examine the effects of educational attainment on a wide range of individual dietary behaviors and dietary lifestyles.

Using data from the 2005-2006 iteration of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (n = 2,135), we employ negative binomial regression and binary logistic regression to model three dietary lifestyle indices and thirteen healthy dietary behaviors.

We find that having a college degree or higher is associated with seven of the thirteen healthy dietary behaviors, including greater attention to nutrition information (general nutrition, serving size, calories, and total fat) and consumption of vegetables, protein, and dairy products. For the most part, education is unrelated to the inspection of cholesterol and sodium information and consumption of fruits/grains/sweets, and daily caloric intake. We observe that having a college degree is associated with healthier dietary lifestyles, the contemporaneous practice of multiple healthy dietary behaviors (label checking and eating behaviors). Remarkably, household income and the poverty-to-income ratio are unrelated to dietary lifestyles and have virtually no impact on the magnitude of the association between education and dietary lifestyles.

Our findings are consistent with predictions derived from health lifestyle and human capital theories. We find no support for health commodity theory, the idea that people who are advantaged in terms of education live healthier lifestyles because they tend to have the financial resources to purchase the elements of a healthy lifestyle.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the effect of involvement in food preparation on estimated calorie content, perception of portion size and desirability of the food item.

To test the hypotheses, three between-subjects experiments (one online, two in a laboratory setting) were conducted. Across the three experiments, participants were presented with a food item either ready for consumption (low involvement) or with the individual ingredients in need of assembly prior to consumption (high involvement).

Results showed that when a consumer is involved in the preparation of their food, they perceive the food to be lower in calories and smaller in portion size than when the same food is presented fully prepared and ready-to-eat. In addition, the effect of food preparation involvement on perception of portion size has negative downstream consequences on food desirability, as a smaller perceived portion resulted in a less desirable food item.

To the authors’ knowledge, the results of this research are the first to focus on the impact of preparation involvement on perceptions of the specific product attributes of calorie content and portion size, and the downstream effect on desirability.

The purpose of this paper is to test whether individuals possess personal consumption norms and idiosyncratic reference points to which they target behaviour. These personal consumption norms are related to the amount of food consumed independent of industry influences, specifically the size of the package offered and the perceived healthiness of the food. We also examine the extent to which one’s commitment to adhere to their personal consumption norm (referred to as “commitment to norm”) influences food consumption volume.

Three experiments are presented, two involve estimates of food consumption and the third examines actual food consumption.

All studies demonstrate that participants can provide a personal consumption norm for how much food they would typically consume that is independent of manipulated industry influences and that actual consumption is significantly related to their personal consumption norms. Furthermore, commitment to norm is negatively related to the absolute difference between their personal consumption norm and the amount of food consumed; however, supporting evidence was only realized in the case of actual food consumption, suggesting that commitment to norm does not have an effect on the formation of intentions.

The authors demonstrate that at a point in time, personal norms are fixed. However, it is possible that norms may be shaped by industry influences over time. The authors suggest further research into how these personal norms evolve over time, as well as assessing how these norms affect the likelihood of going from zero consumption to some positive amount.

Many studies indicate that marketers can easily influence food consumption volume. However, their ability to influence actual consumption volume is circumscribed by factors beyond their control, namely idiosyncratic personal consumption norms.

Over time, it is likely that personal consumption norms have emanated from a variety of antecedents, almost certainly including prior industry experience and situational/social influences. Repeated exposure to external influences is likely to shift the personal norm reference point over time.

Personal consumption norms are carefully disentangled from industry influences and are shown to significantly relate to food consumption volume, independent (but not to the exclusion) of industry influences.

Seaweeds are gaining broader interest in Western societies through their use in product development and the health-food industry. High nutritional value, low carbon footprint and sustainability are key drivers for seaweed uptake in Europe; yet high iodine intake from seaweed remains a concern. This study seeks to identify seaweed food products available on the UK retail market between 2018 and 2021 and assess their safety in the context of iodine exposure.

Here, a market survey (n = 37–40 retailers) was conducted in three annual waves to evaluate seaweed food product availability in the UK. The iodine dose of products was estimated based on a comprehensive literature review of seaweed iodine content.

This study shows a young, dynamic market with 2.3-fold increase in seaweed food product availability since the last available published data (2015). Specific iodine content labelling remains uncommon, and median iodine doses in a single serving of food exceeded 400 µg in all years. Some products, especially seaweed supplements, provide iodine doses above the tolerable upper limit and upper level of tolerance.

This study presents the most contemporary and comprehensive overview of the market for seaweed food products in the UK. With increasing popularisation of seaweed as a food, this study highlights the need for improved dialogue amongst producers, retailers, legislators and public health specialists to address the risk of iodine excess, and the concurrent scope for processing methods to reduce the iodine content in seaweeds.