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Collective catering sector is increasingly offering alternative and more sustainable food propositions, but their success rests on their reception by guests and changes induced in individual behaviors. The authors investigate food-change determinants by examining the relationship between food behavior at staff restaurants and at home.

In an experiment over four days conducted in three staff restaurants, the authors monitored the behavioral changes and motivations of guests (n = 599) offered choices between standard and sustainable options for meat, fish, dairy products, fruit-based desserts and a vegetarian dish. The calculation of a “sustainable consumption score,” based on actual consumption at a restaurant by a subsample (n = 160) of guests gives an indication of interest for sustainable options.

Higher overall choices were observed for vegetarian dishes and for the sustainable meat options rather than for the sustainable fish and desserts options, thus suggesting contrasted perceptions of the sustainable alternatives. The results revealed two profiles of consumers with contrasting scores. The “lower receptive guests” had lower commitment to sustainable food at home and at staff restaurants, while the “higher receptive guests” found in the intervention meaningful propositions for pursuing their existing at-home commitment.

Long-term research would be required to verify whether repeated sustainable offers can break down deep-rooted choices and instill durable changes among consumers with lower commitment to sustainable food. This research contributes to the identification of some types of food that are more suitable for sustainable-oriented interventions.

Some food triggers are identified to further norm activation among the lower receptive profile of consumers.

By addressing continuities/discontinuities between at-home and at-restaurant consumption and mobilizing the “norm-activation” concept, the authors question the efficiency of sustainable food offers at work.

This is an exploratory study on consumer information and behaviour towards green, health, local, social and environmental credentials on labels. It focusses on many dimensions of sustainability in the food products that affect consumer choices with a dual purpose: to identify and define “sustainable consumption” behaviour in broad sense and to investigate empirically the factors affecting the real consumption behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on consumers’ understanding, motivation and use of sustainable labelling in order to understand the role sustainability information plays in the food products market.

Two focus groups in order to investigate consumer motivation and behaviour in-depth and to prepare the questionnaire. Identification of the outcomes that could summarize sustainable consumption combining: purchase of local products, consume only seasonal fruit, prefer products with recyclable packaging, attention to the fat content in foods, give importance to traceability and purchase products only in the place of origin. Identification of the “at risk” virtuous consumer, using a binary logistic regression approach, taking into account demographic characteristics, the food and nutrition value system, experience, knowledge, institutional factors and marketing.

Results from the focus groups are mainly in line with the empirical analysis, highlighting the key role of education in influencing consumer attitude and behaviour. Consumers give little attention to information provided on the label for sustainable food consumption and environmental protection and have little knowledge of environmental problems. The virtuous consumer appears to give importance to a better food nutrition value system, to pay more attention to ingredients and instructions on the label, to be more attentive to environmental and sustainable attributes, to be concerned about product quality and to be slightly influenced by brands and special offers.

The findings from the empirical analysis confirm the results from focus groups even if it was not possible from the empirical analysis to investigate in-depth the marketing aspects concerning the food choice. This limit probably comes from the low number of observations. Further research will focus on these marketing aspects.

Products with sustainable attributes can become a strategic variable and allow companies to gain a competitive advantage, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises. This may encourage the development of new marketing channels based on the direct relationship between producer and the new consumer demand, increasingly sensitive to the food security issues.

There is a potential interest and sensitiveness to having sustainable behaviour in a broad sense, but there is a lack of knowledge about how to behave to be sustainable. In the absence of binding rules, it is necessary that government promote information and campaigns to generate greater awareness on sustainability, aiming at increasing knowledge to drive the consumer’s choices. This may lead to virtuous results in terms of reducing social costs related to an unhealthy diet, food waste and unsustainable consumption.

The results show that despite the appearance of attention to the environment and to healthy food which is associated with this emerging critical consumer in the literature, there remains the problem of the consumer giving little attention to information provided on the label for sustainable food consumption and environmental protection. This is the problem of “rules of thumb” in purchasing decisions that prevail in the following situations: when consumers have an overload of information that exceeds their processing limits; when they tend to base their decision making on heuristics, focussing their choices on brands as a proxy for high-quality, product-related characteristics.

Reducing food-related greenhouse gas emissions is one of the major tasks in the future, as food causes one-third of global emissions. Influencing customers' purchasing decisions towards low-carbon food is thus decisive. Nudging has been proven to be an adequate mechanism to influence people towards sustainable food choices. Another relatively new approach is boosting, which promotes people's education, inducing autonomous decision-making. In the context of sustainable food, research on nudging and boosting is still at the beginning. Therefore, this chapter conducts a systematic literature review to identify, classify and assess the potential of cognitively oriented nudges and boosts towards sustainable food choices. The sample consists of 217 English-speaking papers published between 2011 and 2021. After three filtering steps, 21 scientific journal publications remained in the data extraction form. All articles are field experiments, comprising descriptive labelling, evaluative labelling, and visibility enhancements. The analysis shows that menu restructurings (e.g. placing a vegetarian option on the top of the menu) in restaurants are the most effective intervention to reshape customers' demands. Evaluative labels (e.g. traffic-light labels on the menu or product packaging) are the second most effective measure. They help people understand eco-related information and thus make better decisions. The effect of descriptive labels seemed small, as they provide no meaningful frame assisting people in processing the data. In conclusion, the research recommends applying cognitively oriented nudges and boosts to promote sustainable food choices and deduces practical implications for appropriate implementation and marketing.

University students are a unique population with great potential to adopt eating habits that promote positive human and planetary health outcomes. The purpose of this study is to illustrate the current perceptions of sustainable eating behaviours among the students and to examine the determinants of sustainable eating behaviours.

Data were collected from December 2020 to May 2021 through focus group discussions among university students in Ontario, facilitated through synchronous online sessions. There were 21 student participants during the course of five focus group sessions (4–5 participants per session) from various departments within the university. The discussions were transcribed and analyzed for main themes and concepts using open coding; deductive coding based on the framework by Deliens et al. as well as the literature; and inductive coding for emerging themes.

The students had different perceptions about what constituted sustainable eating behaviours, some of which were not based on fact. A variety of individual, environmental (macro, micro and social) and university characteristics were mentioned as factors influencing sustainable food choices, with “food literacy” and “campus food” being the top two factors.

This study presents a novel and holistic overview of how sustainable eating behaviours and sustainable foods are perceived among university students and identifies the perceived determinants of adopting sustainable eating behaviours. This study helps with identifying opportunities to promote sustainable eating behaviours among university students and the design/implementation of informed interventions and policies aimed at improving eating behaviours.

This paper aims to develop a deeper understanding of what (un)sustainable food behaviours and values are transmitted across generations, to what extent this transference happens and the sustainability challenges resulting from this for individuals and households.

A total of 25 semi-structured in-depth interviews are analysed regarding the value of inherited food, family food rituals, habits and traditions, aspects of food production and understanding of sustainability.

Intergenerational transferences are significant in shaping (un)sustainable consumption throughout life, and those passed-on behaviours and values offer opportunities for lifelong sustainable change and food consumption reappraisal in daily life, beyond early years parenting and across diverse households.

Participants were limited to British families, although the sample drew on multiple ethnic heritages. Future research could study collectivist versus more individualistic cultural influence; explore intergenerational transference of other diverse households, such as multigeneration or in rural and urban locations, or whether sustainable crossover derived from familial socialisation continues into behaviours and values beyond food.

The findings show the importance of families and intergenerational transference to the embedding of sustainable consumption behaviours. Mundane family life is a critical source of sustainable learning, and marketers should prioritise understanding of the context and relationships that drive sustainable consumer choices. Opportunities for intentional and unintentional sustainable learning exist throughout life, and marketers and policymakers can both disrupt unsustainable and encourage sustainable behaviours with appropriate interventions, such as nostalgic or well-being communications. The paper sheds light on flexible sustainable identities and how ambivalence or accelerated lives can deflect how policy messages are received, preventing sustainable choices.

The findings provide greater understanding about the mechanisms responsible for the sustainable transformation of consumption habits, suggesting intergenerational transferences are significant in shaping (un)sustainable food consumption throughout life. The study shows secondary socialisation can play a critical role in the modification of early behaviour patterns of food socialisation. The authors found individuals replicate food behaviours and values from childhood, but through a process of lifelong learning, can break formative habits, particularly with reverse socialisation influences that prioritise sustainable behaviours.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential of digital displays to enhance consumers’ shopping experience and sustainable consumption by more specifically informing consumers on the origin and sustainability of products.

An experimental field study was conducted in the Supermarket of the Future at the World Expo where sustainability information was displayed on interactive screens. There were three experimental groups: supermarket visitors who were put in a sustainability mind-set, supermarket visitors without a sustainability mind-set activation and non-visitors.

Store visitors extensively used the interactive displays, they intent to behave more sustainable in the future, and act more sustainable outside the food domain. Sustainability information through digital displays thus triggers consumers to think more about environmental concerns. Consumers who were activated to process sustainability information before entering the supermarket, show increased interest in the innovative shopping concept. Strong evidence that the increased interest translates into more sustainable consumer choices in the supermarket itself is lacking.

The authors obtain insight in consumer use of sustainability information presented on interactive displays in a retail environment and how this in turn affects behaviour. The study reveals that consumers can successfully be motivated to become more sustainable through interactive displays.

Strategies to promote more sustainable consumer choices have been gaining interest among tourism and hospitality scholars. In particular, behavioral economic theories of decision-making have gained popularity in the past decade, led by behavioral interventions (BIs) such as the nudge movement. This paper aims to present a critical reflection on this recent trend, with a specific focus on whether these BI approaches are an adequate tool to contribute to long-term behavioral changes, one crucial aim of the promotion of sustainable consumption.

Based on a critical review of recent significant academic works in the field, this paper reflects on how nudge principles are applied in the hospitality and tourism sectors, as well as the usual justifications given for their use. This paper then discusses the potential limitations, both theoretical and practical, of using these short-term focused approaches to decisions that intend to have long-term outcomes and aims.

BIs in hospitality and tourism have the potential to create long-term sustainable changes through a more comprehensive view of behavioral factors influencing decisions; however, such approaches would need to be strongly embedded in theoretical arguments that question “how” and “why” behavior change could be sustainable in the long term. This paper proposes a conceptual framework to address these concerns for future research.

This critical reflection proposes a comprehensive framework that will help guide stronger theoretically motivated identification, design and empirical testing of BIs and nudges. Industry can eventually benefit from theoretically stronger interventions that provide a balance between the short-term and long-term influence of BIs to attain customer loyalty and eventually greater value for business stakeholders.

This reflection paper critically reviews the basis of BIs and recommends a framework to strengthen their theoretical arguments. This reflection focuses on the theoretical critique of BIs and nudges to ensure long-term behavior changes are sustainable. The paper also proposes a comprehensive framework that incorporates well-founded theoretical models to enhance BIs and nudge literature.

The consumption of animal-based food products faces several sustainability challenges. To date, however, meat intake plays an important role in everyday food choices. With their ability to change the opinions of a critical mass, opinion leaders in food choices are assumed to play a predominant role in influencing future dietary styles. Thus, the objective of this study was to identify opinion leaders in food choices and their personal meat consumption behaviour as well as their attitude towards policy interventions aiming to meat reduction.

The sample consisted of 1,479 German participants aged between 15 and 29 years who were online surveyed in autumn 2020. A latent profile analysis (LPA) identified three distinct groups of opinion leader in the younger generation labelled “non-opinion leaders”, “weak opinion leaders” and “opinion leaders”. The identified profiles were used to understand opinion leaders and their food choices by using chi-square tests as well as univariate ANOVA with Tukey or Games-Howell post hoc tests.

Opinion leadership in food choices was associated with a higher interest in meat-reduced dietary styles and with more positive attitudes towards innovative food ideas. Moreover, opinion leaders were associated with politicised food decisions, indicating that their food choices align with their political and social interests.

The results contribute to a better understanding of the development of future dietary styles, provide evidence for a shift towards more sustainable dietary patterns in the near future and highlight that food decisions are no longer solely decisions on an individual basis but rather becoming of political relevance.

Food insecurity and poor access to healthy food is known to compromise tertiary studies in university students, and food choices are linked to student perceptions of the campus food environment. The purpose of this study is to describe the prevalence, demographic and education characteristics associated with food insecurity in a sample of Australian university students and their satisfaction with on-campus food choices.

An online, cross-sectional survey conducted as part of the bi-annual sustainability themed survey was conducted at the University of Tasmania in March 2020. A single-item measure was used to assess food insecurity in addition to six demographic and education characteristics and four questions about the availability of food, affordable food, sustainable food and local food on campus.

Survey data (n = 1,858) were analysed using bivariate analyses and multivariate binary logistic regression. A total of 38% of respondents (70% female; 80% domestic student; 42% aged 18–24 years) were food insecure. Overall, 41% of students were satisfied with the food available on campus. Nearly, half (47%) of food insecure students were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the availability of affordable food on campus. A minority of students were satisfied with the availability of sustainable food (37%) and local food (33%) on campus.

These findings demonstrate a high prevalence of food insecurity and deficits in the university food environment, which can inform the development of strategies to improve the food available on campus, including affordable, sustainable and local options.

This paper aims to investigate the impacts of a science-based environmental communication campaign at a university dining hall. The impacts are assessed in terms of student attitudes toward sustainability, food consumption choices and perceptions and understanding of the campaign and the information it communicated.

A communication campaign was designed to convey the water footprint of food entrées available at a university dining hall. This campaign was tested during a three-week field experiment in which students at the dining hall were exposed to information about the sustainability of their food. To measure behavior and attitude change, sales and production data were collected before, during and after the campaign, and pre- and post-test surveys were administered. To better understand perceptions, the authors conducted in-depth interviews with undergraduate students who frequented the dining hall.

Consumption patterns did not change significantly as a result of the campaign, and students’ attitude scores actually became slightly less positive toward choosing low water footprint foods. Interview data helped explain these results by showing that the ability and desire of students to choose sustainable food were overwhelmed by convenience and time pressures; other food attributes often outweighed sustainability; limited food source information could not verify the benefits of sustainable food; and the science of water footprints was disconnected from students’ subjective concepts of sustainability.

This paper empirically examines how students understand and interpret an environmental change campaign focused on sustainable food. It addresses an important gap in the literature by augmenting experimental and survey results with in-depth interview data, which help explain the often ineffective outcomes of behavior change campaigns. The research was conducted in the novel setting of a university dining hall.