Dear Colleagues,

There are many food products and beverages sold in supermarkets and/or convenience stores. Manufacturers consider product quality, e.g., good taste, high safety, high quality, good for health, etc., as the most important factors motivating consumer purchase behavior. However, new products introduced to the market are not always good or long sellers. Consumers do not purchase new foods, even if the foods have many advantages to the former products and have functions related to the health-related problems, such as vitamin-enriched, having reduced salt, and/or being sugar-free, etc. This Special Issue aims to better understand factors influencing consumer behavior toward functional food items.

One reason for consumers’ lack of acceptance for functional foods is that they cannot perceive or understand the function of the foods with regard to their health. It is believed that knowledge about human eating and drinking behavior helps us to understand how consumers accept foods and beverages. Thus, it is suggested that understanding the neural and behavioral mechanisms associated with food cognition will help researchers, processors, and marketers design functional food items that will be accepted by consumers, thereby maintaining or improving their health and wellness.

The other reason for consumers’ lack of acceptance for functional foods is the discrepancy between food cognition and eating behaviors. In this case, understanding the development of attitudes and beliefs about foods and beverages helps us persuade people to accept functional foods for their health.

This Special Issue aims to collate studies, results, and data from interdisciplinary studies aiming to reveal the mechanisms underlying cognition of foods and eating behaviors. Manuscripts discussing human eating and drinking behaviors, our attitude for accepting novel foods and beverages, the basic mechanisms of food acceptance, learning behavior about food likes/dislikes, cultural and religious regulations about foods and drinks, etc., are welcome. We encourage submissions of all forms of manuscript, e.g., original experimental studies, original theoretical studies, systematic reviews and/or theoretical reviews.

Prof. Dr. Nobuyuki Sakai
Dr. Han-Seok Seo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• attitudes
• beliefs
• healthy eating
• psychology
• food acceptance
• food likes/dislikes
• eating and drinking behaviors
• food neophobia
• functional foods