Importance of food choice motives vary with degree of food neophobia

The association between food neophobia, bi-dimensional aspects of orthorexia, and anxiety among vegetarians and omnivores

Vegetarianism is a growing trend, and food neophobia and orthorexia nervosa could act as barriers to achieving a healthy vegetarian diet. The aim of this study is to compare the levels of food neophobia, anxiety, and both healthy and pathological aspects of orthorexia among vegetarians and omnivores. Additionally, the study aims to identify the relationships between food neophobia, anxiety, and orthorexia. In this cross-sectional online survey, a total of 324 vegetarian and 455 omnivores adults participated. The questionnaire consisted of four sections: sociodemographic, lifestyle, and health-related characteristics, the Food Neophobia Scale (FNS), the Teruel Orthorexia Scale (TOS), and the Generalized Anxiety Disorders-7 Scale. Vegetarians exhibited lower FNS scores (p < 0.001) and had higher healthy orthorexic scores (p < 0.001) than omnivores. There were no differences between groups for anxiety scores (p > 0.05). Regression analysis indicated that higher food neophobia (OR: 0.953, 95% CI:0.937-0.968) and TOS-OrNe scores (OR: 0.946, 95% CI: 0.901-0.993) were associated with lower odds of following a vegetarian diet. Conversely, higher TOS-HeOr scores (OR: 1.135, 95% CI:1.096-1.176) were linked to an increased likelihood of adopting a vegetarian diet. Furthermore, both FNS and GAD-7 scores showed negative correlations with TOS-HeOR (r = -0.124, p < 0.001 and r = -0.129 p < 0.001, respectively), and positive correlations with TOS-OrNe (r = 0.106, p < 0.001 and r = 0.146, p < 0.001). In conclusion, vegetarians exhibit lower levels of food neophobia and a greater interest in healthy eating than omnivores. Additionally, the distinct correlation between two dimensions of orthorexia and food neophobia and anxiety provides support for the two-dimensional nature of orthorexia.

"I find it hard to change poor food habits": Measuring food choice motives in an emerging economy

Food choices are driven by an array of motives that have been approached, determined and quantified in a number of ways, mainly in developed countries. The objective of this study was to better understand the motives behind food choices in an emerging economy by collecting information from urban people in South Africa in a series of four studies. (1) Items generated through focus group discussions with low, middle and high income participants by Magano et al. (2023) were checked for content and face validity and (2) 123 statements derived from them were evaluated by 621 respondents. After exploratory factor analysis (EFA), 46 statements best representing the motivational space were (3) presented to another group of respondents (n = 259). Here, the EFA resulted in a 31-item, 7-factor food choice questionnaire for emerging economies (FCQ-EE) which was (4) confirmed by a nationwide sample (n = 814) and further refined to an alternative 19-item, 7-factor solution. The emerging factors were: Healthy eating constraints (HEC), Frugality (FR), Emotional eating (EE), Meat appeal (MA), Weather (WE), Quality seeking (QS) and Cooking constraints (CC). Whether used in the 31-item or 19-item format, this set of statements highlights factors underlying food choice in an emerging economy and offers a way to study their importance in similar contexts. Further research is needed to show the extent to which these factors can predict actual food choices.

The difficult decision of buying food for others: Which puree will my baby like?

When selecting commercial baby food, parents make the initial decision, but the baby's approval ultimately determines the likelihood of repurchasing. However, discerning what babies prefer and enjoy can be challenging for food developers because babies cannot verbally express their preferences. To gain insight into the decision-making process of parents when selecting food for their infants, this study aims to examine: 1. the reasons behind choosing commercial baby food purees, 2. the sensory factors that influence baby acceptance, and 3. how accurately parents can predict baby acceptance. Two experiments were performed. The first investigated the purchasing decisions and underlying reasons of 100 parents, who evaluated 14 different commercial baby food purees. Second, a study was conducted involving 40 parents and their babies (8-30 months) who evaluated a set of 9 baby food purees in two different settings: 1. the parents tasted the puree, and 2. the babies ate the product at home. The results of the first experiment were analyzed using regression trees to uncover the hierarchy of factors that influenced parental decisions. Two negative factors, product unfamiliarity, and high price, were the most important factors leading to parental rejection. Healthiness, tastiness, satiety and good price were the reasons that contributed to a final positive purchasing decision. In the second experiment, the influence of the sensory attributes on babies' perception were determined through a PLS-regression model. The findings revealed that the chicken flavor and vegetable flavors, such as potato, onion, peas, and legumes, positively correlated with infants' liking, whereas fish, tomato, and acidic flavors had negative implications. The texture attributes of sandiness and stickiness had a positive effect on baby liking, whereas smoothness had a negative impact. The results of the regression model based on the predictions revealed that flavor attributes that drive liking and disliking for babies coincided with their parents. However, the texture attributes did not match. Parents considered texture attributes, specifically creaminess and smoothness, as relevant and positive. However, these texture attributes did not affect or slightly decrease babies' acceptance that was positively affected by sandiness and stickiness.

Effect of perception of sustainability in local food experiences on healthy eating tendency: mediator and moderator effects

Tourists who favor local food typically care about healthy food choices. Their view of locally produced food as healthy is related to perceptions of sustainability. This relationship can be explained by tourists' personality traits and tendency to eat local food. This study aimed to establish the effect of tourists' perceptions of sustainability in the context of local food experiences on healthy eating tendencies. In addition, we aimed to determine the role of tourists' personality traits and local eating tendencies and elucidate the moderating role of searching online for information on food choices. An online questionnaire (via e-mail and WhatsApp) was used to obtain data from 379 research participants, recruited using a non-probabilistic sampling technique. A research model and hypotheses were formed based on Hayes PROCESS Macro models 90 and 6, and moderator and mediator effects were analyzed using these models. Healthy eating was well-explained by the model, and the perception of social and environmental sustainability in local food experiences (LFE-SES) positively affected food-related personality traits (FRPT), local food eating tendencies (LFET), and healthy eating (HE). While food-related personality traits did not mediate the relationship between the perception of sustainability and healthy eating, local food eating tended to mediate this relationship. In addition, when food-related personality traits and local food eating tendencies were evaluated together, they had a mediating role between the perception of sustainability and healthy eating. Searching online for information had an insignificant moderating effect. These findings help promote an understanding of healthy eating tendencies. Within the context of local food, they suggest critical theoretical and practical implications for the relationship between the perception of sustainability, food-related personality traits, local food eating tendencies, and healthy eating.

High arousal as the source of food rejection in food neophobia

Food neophobia (FN) at moderate to high levels is very common among adult populations in all cultures and is usually defined in terms of rejection of unfamiliar foods. However, food rejection in FN is only partly related to food familiarity. Experimental and survey studies have suggested that unpleasantly high arousal may be induced by food novelty, but also be produced by foods with intense or complex flavours, that are perceived as dangerous or foreign, or that have unusual ingredients. Liking for foods with these characteristics have recently been shown to be strongly negatively associated with FN. Thus, induced high arousal may underlie food rejection in FN. Here, we collected familiarity, liking and arousal ratings, and scores on the standard Food Neophobia Scale from more than 7000 consumers in four countries - Australia, United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia - for a series of food names that were manipulated to produce standard and 'high arousal' (variant) versions of the same foods. Consistent across all four countries, arousal ratings increased, and liking decreased, with decreases in food familiarity. Variant food names were always associated with ratings of higher arousal than the standard names. The variant foods were generally less familiar than the standard foods, although this was not a necessary condition for their higher arousal ratings, suggesting that the other arousal-inducing factors (e.g., flavour intensity) also played a role. Across all foods, arousal ratings increased, and liking ratings decreased, as FN increased, but these effects were accentuated for the variant foods. The consistency of these effects across multiple countries supports a view that arousal is universally a strong determinant of liking for foods and that this underlies the rejection of foods, familiar and novel, in FN.

Advancing Health Research Impact through a Systemic Multi-Sectoral Approach: A Protocol for Introducing Reduced-Sodium Salts and Salty Condiments in Vietnam

Better alignment between health research organisations with the needs (and interests) of key stakeholders in the health policy and research system is critical to improving research impact. The George Institute for Global Health's 'Healthier Societies' program focuses on harnessing the power of governments, markets, and communities to improve population level health equity outcomes and maximise research impact. This protocol outlines a systemic multi-sectoral approach to advance health research impact globally applied to a project to reduce population salt intake in Vietnam by introducing reduced-sodium salts and salty condiments. We defined a systemic multi-sectoral approach to be a strategy that involves engaging with government, market and communities in a deliberate and joined-up way to solve a problem in which they all have a role to play. The project objectives are to: (i) produce reduced-sodium fish sauce products and test consumer acceptability; (ii) investigate the market feasibility of introducing reduced-sodium foods (salt, bot canh and fish sauce) into the Vietnamese market; (iii) estimate the cost-effectiveness of three different government strategies to support the implementation of reduced-sodium products; and (iv) develop an advocacy roadmap to maximise potential research impact. Methods will include standard quality and safety assessments, consumer sensory testing for the locally produced reduced-sodium fish sauces, market feasibility assessment (including collating market data and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders), cost-effectiveness modelling (Markov cohort model), multi-sector stakeholder engagement, and the development of a coordinated advocacy strategy using the Kotter Plus framework. Health research organisations are increasingly seeking ways to achieve greater impact with their research. Through the application of a systemic multi-sectoral approach with governments, markets and communities, this protocol provides an example of how health research projects can achieve such impact.

Consumers' acceptance of the first novel insect food approved in the European Union: Predictors of yellow mealworm chips consumption

Climate and environmental-related challenges are high on the agenda of the European Union (EU). One priority is to redesign the existing food system into a more sustainable one, where the link between healthy people and a balanced environment is considered. The EU bets on the role of insect farming in supporting the transition toward healthier and future-proof diets. Following this orientation, we investigated consumers' attitude toward yellow mealworm chips (YMC) and identified the predictors of YMC consumption. The causal relationships between constructs were explored using the structural equation modeling (SEM) based on partial least squares (PLS) using SmartPLS software. The perceived lower environmental impact of YMC compared to meat was the most appreciated characteristic of YMC. The study identified five predictors of YMC consumption, among which the perceived characteristics of YMC have the strongest influence on the consumption probability. Against the expectations of the authors, disgust with the accidental encounter of insects in foods did not influence the probability of eating YMC. Age was another predictor of YMC consumption. It is known that food preferences and eating behaviors are mainly developed during childhood and tend to manifest in adult life. Consequently, it can be inferred that acceptance and preference for insect-based foods (IBF) should be stimulated from early childhood. Finally, practical implications are advanced as possible solutions to overcome the obstacles toward YMC consumption.

Food neophobia and its relationship with dietary variety and quality in Irish adults: Findings from a national cross-sectional study

Food neophobia is characterised by a reluctance to eat novel or unfamiliar foods and has been linked to reduced dietary variety and quality. However, this link has been primarily studied in children. Therefore, we aimed to explore the relationship between food neophobia and dietary variety and quality in adults using a sub-sample of the National Adults Nutrition Survey collected between 2008 and 2010 (n = 1088). Food and nutrient intakes were assessed using a 4-day semi-weighed food diary. Food neophobia was measured using the Food Neophobia Scale (FNS). Dietary variety was assessed in three ways; Total Dietary Variety (TDV), Food-Group Variety (FGV) and Fruit and Vegetable Variety (FVV). Diet quality was assessed using the Mean Adequacy Ratio (MAR) and Nutrient-Rich Food Index (NRF9.3). A multivariate general linear model was used to assess the linear relationships between FNS score and all dietary measures, controlling for age, sex, education level, social class, location and BMI. Food neophobia was found to be inversely associated with TDV, FGV and FVV. In addition, food neophobia was negatively associated with vitamin C, magnesium and fruit and vegetable intakes and positively associated with percentage energy from free sugars. However, food neophobia was not significantly associated with all other nutrients, MAR and NRF9.3. While these results suggest food neophobia may not be a particularly important risk factor for poor nutrient status, adherence to certain dietary recommendations remains low within the Irish population and food neophobia may further inhibit the adaption of healthy and sustainable diets. Future research should seek to understand the implications of food neophobia on dietary behaviour change.

Variations in the Strength of Association between Food Neophobia and Food and Beverage Acceptability: A Data-Driven Exploratory Study of an Arousal Hypothesis

The negative impact of food neophobia (FN) on food and beverage (F&B) liking extends beyond foods and beverages that are novel. In addition, F&Bs that are high in flavour intensity, perceived as dangerous, or have connections to other cultures are likely to elicit rejection by those high in FN. Each of these factors have been established as producing increased arousal, potentially to an unpleasant degree. The aim of this study was to explore the hypothesis that increased arousal underlies all causes of rejection due to FN. To do this, we analysed and interpreted existing data based on online surveys that measured FN and liking for a broad range of F&B names from 8906 adult consumers in the USA, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and Denmark. Negative associations between FN and liking of varying strengths were evident for 90% of the F&Bs. Consistent with the arousal hypothesis, F&Bs (a) with high flavour intensity, whether produced by chilli, other spices, or flavours, (b) from other cultures, (c) often perceived as dangerous, or (d) that were novel or had novel ingredients showed the strongest negative relationships between FN and liking. Conversely, F&Bs whose liking scores were only very weakly related to FN had low arousal characteristics: high familiarity, sweetness, mild flavours, strong connections to national food cultures, or some combination of these factors. Since this study was exploratory and conducted on existing data, there was no direct measure of arousal, but this is recommended for future, stronger tests of this arousal hypothesis.

Healthier eating: Covid-19 disruption as a catalyst for positive change

Healthy and sustainable diets are necessary for global development goals, but people struggle to modify their eating behaviours which are often habitual and resistant to change. However, disruption can provide the impetus for change, and in the present research we view the Covid-19 pandemic as a potential catalytic disruption with the potential to induce positive behaviour change. Data were obtained from ~900 USA adults, of which 44% self-reported to have made positive dietary change/s. Those who did so tended to be younger rather than older and with higher educational attainment. They also were less food neophobic than people who did not make positive change/s and placed greater importance on health as a motive of daily decisions about what to eat and drink. The contribution of psychographic variables in differentiating between groups of people who did / did not make positive changes once again show their importance in uncovering and explaining the complex factors that motivate food-related consumer behaviour. It seems this holds also when daily lives are disrupted by unforeseen events.

Barriers to consumption of plant-based beverages: A comparison of product users and non-users on emotional, conceptual, situational, conative and psychographic variables

Production and consumption practices that reduce the environmental burden of eating and drinking and promote global sustainability are of paramount interest. Against this background, we present a quantitative study of US adults' perceptions of selected non-alcoholic beverages including pairs of regular and plant-based alternatives (iced coffee/iced coffee with almond milk, fruit smoothie/fruit smoothie with soy milk and cow's milk/oat milk). Particular focus was directed to comparing product perceptions of consumers who never consumed these plant-based alternatives with those who did (n = 249 and n = 274), as a means for contextualising the barriers that hinder uptake among non-users. The data were collected via an online survey with a multi-response empirical strategy where the beverages were characterised using a large set of emotional, conceptual, situational, and attitudinal/behavioural variables. Fitting expectations, negative associations were dominant in the group of consumers who never consumed the plant-based beverage variants. However, these associations were product dependent and decreased in the order: oat milk, fruit smoothie with soy milk and iced coffee with almond milk. This pointed to a likely interplay of sensory properties, situational appropriateness and household routines. Food neophobia negatively influenced perceptions of less familiar products, including but not limited to plant-based beverages. While the research was limited to a small number of beverages and plant-based alternatives, it identified the important role that in-depth and product-specific investigations have in helping to uncover and overcome barriers to sustainable eating and drinking solutions.

Food Neophobia among Adults: Differences in Dietary Patterns, Food Choice Motives, and Food Labels Reading in Poles

Food neophobia (FN) is associated with reduced quality of diet in adults; thus, the understanding of the relationship between FN and food consumption in more depth appears to be a key issue. The aim of the study was to assess the relationship between food neophobia, dietary patterns, food choice motives, and food label reading in the group of adults. Data were collected using the computer-assisted personal interviewing technique (CAPI). A cross-sectional quantitative survey was carried out in November-December 2017 in a sample of 1017 Polish adults. The questionnaire used in the study included the Food Neophobia Scale (FNS), the Beliefs and Eating Habits Questionnaire (KomPAN), and questions regarding food choice motives, reading food labels, and sociodemographic characteristics. The food neophobics were older, had a lower level of education, and had higher BMI compared to others. Compared to others, among the food neophobics, there were more people who often consumed vegetables, fruit, meat, and meat products and who rarely consumed functional and convenience food, sweets, and sweetened beverages. When choosing food, more food neophobics chose healthy and tasteless food products, while more food neophilics chose unhealthy and tasty products. More food neophobics declared not reading price and shelf-life information on food labels compared to the other two groups. Although food neophobia may make adaptation to dietary recommendations difficult, health-promoting features of the diet were observed within the food neophobics. Actions focusing on food choice motives may help even more to limit the effects of food neophobia in adults. Further research is recommended to confirm the observed relationships under different sociocultural conditions.

Yuck, This Biscuit Looks Lumpy! Neophobic Levels and Cultural Differences Drive Children's Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) Descriptions and Preferences for High-Fibre Biscuits

Food neophobia influences food choice in school-aged children. However, little is known about how children with different degrees of food neophobia perceive food and to what extent different sensory attributes drive their liking. This paper explores liking and sensory perception of fibre-rich biscuits in school-aged children (n = 509, age 9–12 years) with different degrees of food neophobia and from five different European countries (Finland, Italy, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom). Children tasted and rated their liking of eight commercial biscuits and performed a Check-All-That-Apply task to describe the samples and further completed a Food Neophobia Scale. Children with a higher degree of neophobia displayed a lower liking for all tasted biscuits (p < 0.001). Cross-cultural differences in liking also appeared (p < 0.001). A negative correlation was found between degree of neophobia and the number of CATA-terms used to describe the samples (r = −0.116, p = 0.009). Penalty analysis showed that degree of food neophobia also affected drivers of biscuit liking, where particularly appearance terms were drivers of disliking for neophobic children. Cross-cultural differences in drivers of liking and disliking were particularly salient for texture attributes. Further research should explore if optimizing appearance attributes could be a way to increase liking of fibre-rich foods in neophobic children.