Consumer Psychology and Food Design

Dear Colleagues,

Background: Consumer psychology and food product design are inextricably linked as current food trends that dictate recent product innovations in terms of structure, composition, safety, and packaging of food are strongly influenced by consumer needs. Consumer needs play a big role when designing food products with added value. With increasing health awareness amongst consumers, there is currently more demand for functional foods that are either fortified to increase nutritional value, plant-based, minimally processed, and healthy for adults, children and the elderly. In addition, the consumer product experience in terms of aesthetics and emotional responses can also influence food product design.

Aim and Scope: This Special Issue invites researchers in the relevant field to submit original research and systematic reviews to expand knowledge in the field of product development, food product design, and consumer sensory perception and psychology.

History: Consumer-driven product development, which started in the early 1990s, recognised the importance of understanding consumers' current and future needs when developing new value-added food products. With increased globalisation, changes in consumers’ economic and social lives have greatly influenced food choice and behaviour. Hence, a deeper understanding of the role that consumer behaviour and psychology play in food product design is increasingly vital for food companies to be successful and thrive in current modern markets.

Cutting-Edge Research: Newly-developed technologies in food product development to address consumers’ concerns and needs. Food perception and multisensory aspects. Functional food development.

What kind of papers we are soliciting: Consumer-driven product development and optimisation; role of sensory perception, emotion, and consumer preferences in food product design; interdisciplinary papers in the area of culinary science, gastronomy, nutrition, business, and marketing that will also contribute to the growing body of knowledge in the area of consumer psychology and food product design.

Prof. Dr. Nazimah Hamid
Dr. Kevin Kantono
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized 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.