Determinants of economic motivations for food choice: insights for the understanding of consumer behaviour

Food consumption involves several dimensions, being some of them directly associated with the consumers' characteristics. The interrelationships between these domains impact consumer behaviour for food choice and the consequent decisions for food consumption. In these frameworks, economic motivations are determinant. On the other hand, the scientific literature highlights that the economic-based stimuli to choose food is still underexplored. In this perspective, the objective of this study was to assess the main sociodemographic and anthropometric determinants of the economic motivations for food choice. For that, a questionnaire survey was carried out involving 11,919 respondents from 16 countries. A validated questionnaire was used, translated into the native languages in all participating countries, using a back-translation process. First, the information obtained was assessed through factor analysis to reduce the number of variables associated with the economic motivations and to identify indexes. After, and considering the indexes obtained as dependent variables, a classification and regression tree analysis was performed. As main insights, it is highlighted that the main determinants of the economic motivations are country of residence, age, gender, civil state, professional activity, educational level, living environment, responsibility for buying food, weight, height, body mass index, healthy diets and physical exercise practices. Additionally, the results also reveal that economic motivations may be associated with two indexes, one related to convenience attitudes and the other to quality concerns. Finally, the younger persons and the women are the social groups more concerned with healthy diets and food quality. In conclusion, this work confirmed that food choice is to a high extent influenced by several sociodemographic and behavioural factors.

Consumption of fibre rich foods

Foods such as fruit, vegetables, and cereals, and particularly whole grain, are rich in dietary fibre and have been proved to have multiple beneficial effects for the human health. The present research was designed to assess some eating practices related to fibre-rich foods in different countries, namely Argentina, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Portugal, and Romania. A cross-sectional descriptive study was undertaken on a sample of 4905 adult participants, obeying all ethical guidelines for this type of research. Regarding the data treatment, basic statistics was complemented with the tree classification analysis. Generally, the results show a low consumption of salads and vegetables, i.e., up to 11 servings/week (for 78.2% of participants), with Croatia in the lead (86.6%). Regarding fruit, a great majority of data also indicated low consumption (92.3%), most especially for Latvia (98.3%). The level of consumption of whole cereals was also low (72.6%), particularly for Latvia (90.0%). The tree classification analysis showed that while the first discriminant variable for the consumption of salads and vegetables was country, followed by education, for the consumption of fruit, it was country and then sex, and finally, for the consumption of whole cereals, it was sex and followed by country. The results allowed the conclusion that the consumption of foods rich in dietary fibre was very low for these countries, highlighting the necessity to implement strategies that incentivise the consumption of such foods, which are very important for a healthy diet.

[Quality of life of consumers following a gluten-free diet. Results of a questionnaire survey in Hungary and Romania]

Introduction and aim: With the rising consumer's health awareness, especially towards patients with celiac disease, gluten has become a food ingredient to be avoided by many people expecting various positive health effects. The strict adherence of diet requires serious abandonments and lifestyle changes that affect directly their quality of life. The aim of the present study was to recognise the quality of life of Hungarian and Romanian consumers following a gluten-free diet as well as to explore the negative effects on them. Method: An online questionnaire survey was conducted upon 1155 Hungarian and Romanian respondents. Results: For gluten-free consumers, self-control was relatively easy to overcome, but their lifestyle was negatively affected by social events and dining out. In addition, diet adherence was a burden from both lifestyle and financial point of view. For Hungarian consumers, external factors such as price, choice, taste and availability of products had become a major obstacle, while Romanian ones were more likely to be affected by internal factors (product information, diet knowledge, lifestyle, self-control). Mandatory labelling of substances and products causing allergies and intolerances has achieved its purpose, as it has made it easier for consumers on diet to choose food and increased their confidence. Conclusions: The study points out that dieters' quality of life can be enhanced not only by general actions (improving the preparedness of out-of-home meal services and rationalising the price of products), but also through country-specific community intervention. Orv Hetil. 2019; 160(25): 980-986.

[Consumer knowledge about dietary fibre -- Results of a national questionnaire survey]

INTRODUCTION

Dietary fibres are key elements of healthy and balanced diet.

AIM

The aim of the present study was to explore consumers' knowledge considering fibre, their role in the purchasing decisions, and the cognition of the currently used as well as the possible information sources to encourage the fibre consumption.

METHOD

A questionnaire survey was conducted with 303 respondents.

RESULTS

Knowledge about the fibre sources has showed a kind of uncertainty of the respondents, while knowledge about their possible health effects was relatively profound. Internet appeared as a remarkable information source in the topic; however, results pointed out the importance of education, too. Participants more often consuming foodstuffs rich in fibre, women and respondents over 45 years old showed conscious attitudes regarding fibres.

CONCLUSIONS

Guidelines and education containing authentic information and practical elements are essential, and as a result, consumers' latent knowledge will appear in their conscious food choice decisions.

[Exploration of attitudes about healthy nutrition based on a questionnaire survey]

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays the number of people suffering from different non-communicable diseases is continuously rising. However, the risk of the incidence of these diseases can be reduced with the help of conscious and healthy lifestyle.

AIM

The main aim of the study was to explore Hungarian consumers' attitude related to healthy diet.

METHOD

A questionnaire survey was conducted with 473 respondents.

RESULTS

According to the participants it is difficult to make head or tail of information about healthy nutrition, and the "Internet" is the most frequently used source of information. With cluster analysis 3 significantly different consumer groups were identified: participants of the "ambitious" group show positive attitude towards healthy diet; the "health conscious" cluster cares about and actively supports health and diet; and members of the "indifferent" cluster are less interested and do not make a remarkable effort for their healthy diet.

CONCLUSIONS

Results of the questionnaire survey pointed out the importance of targeted information to relevant consumer groups, as well as the importance of popularization of accurate and reliable information sources. Furthermore, presentation and popularization of cost-effective healthy nutrition are of outstanding importance, especially for consumers in need (e.g. elderly, low-income people).

Trends in the utilization of food additives

The frequent media reports on food additives weakened consumers’ trust in food producers and food control authorities as well. Furthermore, consumers’ uncertainty is also raised by the fact that they obtain their information from inadequate, mistrustful sources and, therefore, consumers might avoid the consumption of certain foodstuffs. While food producers may react by replacing artificial components by natural ones, they try to emphasize the favourable characteristics of their products. The authors describe the main trends and efforts related to food additives. On the basis of the overview it can be concluded that – besides taking into consideration consumers’ needs – product development and research directions are promising. Food producers’ efforts may help to restore consumer confidence and trust and they may help them to have informed choice. Orv. Hetil., 154(46), 1813–1819.

The past, present and future of food consumption databases

Results of the food consumption surveys are utilized in many areas, such as for example risk assessment, cognition of consumer trends, health education and planning of prevention projects. Standardization of national consumption data for international comparison is an important task. The intention work began in the 1970s. Because of the widespread utilization of food consumption data, many international projects have been done with the aim of their harmonization. The present study shows data collection methods for groups of the food consumption data, their utilization, furthermore, the stations of the international harmonization works in details. The authors underline that for the application of the food consumption data on the international level, it is crucial to harmonize the surveys’ parameters (e.g. time of data collection, method, number of participants, number of the analysed days and the age groups). For this purpose the efforts of the EU menu project, started in 2012, are promising. Orv. Hetil., 2012, 153, 1692–1700.