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Consumer Behavior Research in Food: A Focus on Health, Safety, and Sustainability

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2024) | Viewed by 13867

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Dr. Pei Liu

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Guest Editor

Hospitality Management, 214B Mumford Hall, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
Interests: consumer behaviors in food and beverage; food safety in food operations; healthy food consumption; sustainable development in consumer behavior
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Yee Ming Lee

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Guest Editor

Horst Schulze School of Hospitality Management, 238H Rane Culinary Science Center, Auburn University, 205 South College Street, Auburn, AL 36830, USA
Interests: food safety; restaurant practices and employee training; food allergies: consumers’ experience and restaurant practices; consumer decision-making for healthy foods
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is the great pleasure to invite you to Sustainability's Special Issue entitled “Consumer Behavior Research in Food: A Focus on Health, Safety, and Sustainability”.

Consumer food purchase behaviors and consumption patterns are affected by multiple factors. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 2.8 million people died of induced chronic diseases as a result of being overweight or obese each year globally (WHO, 2021). The increased awareness of health and nutrition, as well as the prevalence of chronic diseases have prompted consumers to make their food choices by taking their well-being into consideration. In addition, over 400 foodborne disease (FBD) outbreaks occur in a restaurant setting annually, which account for more than half of FBD outbreaks in the US (Angelo et al., 2017). Thus, food safety practices and preventive measures implemented by dining facilities are important to consumers when eating out, especially in the aftermath of COVID-19 (Soon et al., 2021; Wei, Chen, and Lee, 2021). Increasingly, not only that consumers are concerned about what they ingest, but the source of food is produced or grown, and what impact food production and consumption have on the environment and society (Liu et al., 2022), it is found that they are loyal to restaurants that engage in sustainable and green practices (Kim and Hall, 2020). Thus, sustainability is also a key influencer of food decision making that cannot be ignored.

This Special Issue invites researchers to submit high-quality original research and reviews on consumer behavior from the perspectives of health, safety, and sustainability. Ultimately, the empirical findings of the published studies will enlighten the readers about the current paradox of consumer behavior in relation to food. Topics of interest for the Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

Consumers’ food choice motivations;
Determinants of consumer food decision making;
Innovation and technology applications in health, safety, and sustainability;
Changes in consumer food-related behaviors due to the COVID-19 pandemic;
Consumer behavior and marketing strategies for sustainability movement in food.

We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Reference:

Angelo, K. M., Nisler, A. L., Hall, A. J., Brown, L. G., & Gould, L. H. (2017). Epidemiology of restaurant-associated foodborne disease outbreaks, United States, 1998–2013. Epidemiology & Infection, 145(3), 523-534.

Kim, M. J., & Hall, C. M. (2020). Can sustainable restaurant practices enhance customer loyalty? The roles of value theory and environmental concerns. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 43, 127-138.

Liu, P., Segovia, M., Tse, E. C. Y., & Nayga, R. M. (2022). Become an environmentally responsible customer by choosing low-carbon footprint products at restaurants: Integrating the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 52, 346-355.

Soon, J. M., Vanany, I., Abdual Wahab, I. R., Hamdan, R. H., & Jamaludin, M. H. (2021). Food safety and evaluation of intention to practice safe earing out measures during CODIV-19: Cross sectional study in Indonesia and Malaysia. Food Control, 125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2021.107920.

Wei, C., Chen, H., & Lee, Y. M. (2021). Factors influencing customers’ dine out intention during COVID-19 reopening period: The moderating role of country-of-origin effect. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2021.102894.

World Health Organization. (2021). Obesity. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/facts-in-pictures/detail/6-facts-on-obesity.

Dr. Pei Liu
Dr. Yee Ming Lee
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. Sustainability 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 2400 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.

Keywords

consumer behavior
sustainability
food safety
healthy and nutritional food choices
food choice motivations
food choice decisions
technology

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Related Special Issue

Consumer Behavior Research in Food: A Focus on Health, Safety, and Sustainability, 2nd Edition in Sustainability

Published Papers (7 papers)

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19 pages, 466 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Formation Mechanism of Traditional Chinese Health Food Purchase Intention Among Young People

by Rong Jin, Xuehua Liu, Yong Zhu and Xiao Yang

Sustainability 2025, 17(2), 707; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17020707 - 17 Jan 2025

Viewed by 356

Abstract

The traditional Chinese health food consumption market in China has experienced significant growth in recent years, with rising popularity among young people. However, how young people form their intentions to purchase traditional Chinese health food is still unclear. This study aims to redefine the concept of traditional Chinese health food and provide a theoretical foundation for understanding consumer behavior within this context. A specialized survey was conducted to test the proposed conceptual model. The results indicate that both health anxiety and traditional cultural identity have a significantly positive influence on young people’s purchase intention for traditional Chinese health food. Perceived consumption risk negatively affects their purchase intention for such products. Perceived consumption risk plays a negative moderating role in the relationship between traditional cultural identity and young people’s purchase intention for traditional Chinese health food. This study offers novel insights and strategic directions for traditional Chinese health food industry professionals, while also serving as an illustrative case for other countries seeking to comprehend the health food consumption landscape. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Consumer Behavior Research in Food: A Focus on Health, Safety, and Sustainability)

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21 pages, 12870 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Consumer Usability Test of Mobile Food Safety Inquiry Platform Based on Image Recognition

by Jun-Woo Park, Young-Hee Cho, Mi-Kyung Park and Young-Duk Kim

Sustainability 2024, 16(21), 9538; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16219538 - 1 Nov 2024

Viewed by 1021

Abstract

Recently, as the types of imported food and the design of their packaging become more complex and diverse, digital recognition technologies such as barcodes, QR (quick response) codes, and OCR (optical character recognition) are attracting attention in order to quickly and easily check safety information (e.g., food ingredient information and recalls). However, consumers are still exposed to inaccurate and inconvenient situations because legacy technologies require dedicated terminals or include information other than safety information. In this paper, we propose a deep learning-based packaging recognition system which can easily and accurately determine food safety information with a single image captured through a smartphone camera. The detection algorithm learned a total of 100 kinds of product images and optimized YOLOv7 to secure an accuracy of over 95%. In addition, a new SUS (system usability scale)-based questionnaire was designed and conducted on 71 consumers to evaluate the usability of the system from the individual consumer’s perspective. The questionnaire consisted of three categories, namely convenience, accuracy, and usefulness, and each received a score of at least 77, which confirms that the proposed system has excellent overall usability. Moreover, in terms of task completion rate and task completion time, the proposed system is superior when it compared to existing QR code- or Internet-based recognition systems. These results demonstrate that the proposed system provides consumers with more convenient and accurate information while also confirming the sustainability of smart food consumption. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Consumer Behavior Research in Food: A Focus on Health, Safety, and Sustainability)

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21 pages, 877 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Cultural Perspectives on the Sustainable Use and Added Value of Plant-Based Food Dyes—A Case Study from Bulgaria

by Mihail Chervenkov, Teodora Ivanova, Yulia Bosseva and Dessislava Dimitrova

Sustainability 2024, 16(20), 9049; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16209049 - 18 Oct 2024

Viewed by 1925

Abstract

Raised personal health awareness and social environmental responsibility put pressure on the agri-food industry to adopt more sustainable ways of production, including the use of more natural ingredients, reducing waste, conservation and the regeneration of resources and energy. Plant-based colorants are ecologically friendly alternatives to artificial food dyes, especially with regards to the current reports on the adverse effects of some of the latter on human health. Various plants are traditionally used by many cultures to obtain vivid food coloration; however, the knowledge and means to produce them becomes less and less accessible to urbanized societies, and affordable organic alternatives are not always available on the market. An online questionnaire was performed to explore the awareness on plant-based dyes and pro-environmental attitudes of Bulgarian customers through the lens of Orthodox Easter eggs dyeing and the obtaining of plant dyes. From a total of 294 adult participants, only 5% reported a strict preference for natural dyes, while more than half of them (54%) were found to use natural and artificial ones concomitantly or switching between both. Of 45 plant taxa used for egg coloration, 12 were most frequently cited with many new additions of imported plants. Most of the used plant-based dyes were common fruits, spices, herbal infusions and even food waste like onion peels and avocado pits that were readily available from home gardens, markets and food shops. Additionally, we made a review of the scientific literature regarding their antioxidant and antimicrobial activity against food spoilage bacteria and foodborne pathogens isolated from eggs. All frequently used taxa were reported to exhibit antibacterial activities against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and possess antioxidant activity due to the presence of various polyphenols, essential oils and other compounds. Grape and red wine, roselle and stinging nettle are the species with the most diverse antibacterial activity, effective against 15 out of the 16 bacterial species of spoilage and foodbourn microorganisms included in our focus. The antimicrobial activities, however, were found mostly tested against bacterial strains in vitro, and further studies are needed to confirm their potential antibacterial activity when applied to Easter/boiled eggs or other food products. Our findings suggest that traditional cultural practices, as a multifaceted and engaging phenomenon, have the potential to promote environmental responsibility and a healthy lifestyle using both contemporary and traditional knowledge. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Consumer Behavior Research in Food: A Focus on Health, Safety, and Sustainability)

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15 pages, 1317 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Consumer Satisfaction with the Quality and Availability of Gluten-Free Products

by Nada Knežević, Sven Karlović, Krisztina Takács, Viktória Szűcs, Sara Knežević, Marija Badanjak Sabolović and Suzana Rimac Brnčić

Sustainability 2024, 16(18), 8215; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16188215 - 21 Sep 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1972

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate consumer attitudes toward the quality and availability of gluten-free products. For this purpose, quantitative research was conducted using a questionnaire completed by 107 respondents who consumed gluten-free products. The results of the research showed that most consumers prepared their own meals, paid attention to ingredients, and strictly adhered to a gluten-free diet. About 10% of the respondents declared that they occasionally did not follow a gluten-free diet. Respondents were generally not satisfied with the price and availability of gluten-free products on the market. An additional aggravating circumstance for them when eating out was that restaurants generally do not have a sufficient selection of gluten-free dishes in their daily offer. Although most of them stated that they buy basic, well-known gluten-free products, they want to try new products with different, new flavors. This demand offers food manufacturers the opportunity to capitalize on the rapidly growing gluten-free market by developing creative and sustainable products that not only meet dietary requirements but also exceed consumer expectations. By focusing on innovation and variety, companies can participate in a profitable market while contributing to the growth of a more sustainable economy. The results of this study pointed to consumer preferences that could be used to influence the improvement and development of new gluten-free products, which are on the rise and will have a better nutritional quality and thus had a positive impact on health. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Consumer Behavior Research in Food: A Focus on Health, Safety, and Sustainability)

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12 pages, 491 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Nutrition and Nature: Means-End Theory in Crafting Sustainable and Health-Conscious Meal Kit Experiences

by Damla Sonmez and Scott Taylor, Jr.

Sustainability 2024, 16(8), 3327; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16083327 - 16 Apr 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2927

Abstract

Meal kits have become increasingly popular as a convenient solution for consumers seeking to prepare high-quality meals at home, falling under the ready-to-cook category. The rising number of subscriptions and the growing presence of companies offering meal kit services illustrate the popularity of this industry. The aims of this study include (a) identifying consumer perceptions of the health and sustainability aspects of meal kit services; (b) exploring how these perceptions influence consumer satisfaction; (c) examining the influence of consumer satisfaction on the intention to repurchase meal kits and recommend them to others; and (d) investigating potential significant differences among meal kit users with dietary, health, and environmental concerns. This exploration encompasses the effects of meal kits’ attributes on each group’s perceived value, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. The partial least squares technique was utilized to test the research model using SmartPLS 4. Results of the current study support findings of past research suggesting that consumer perceptions of sustainability and healthiness positively influence their satisfaction and consequently their behavioral intentions. The findings of this study also offer practical implications for meal kit companies. Since consumer satisfaction is significantly influenced by both perceived healthiness and sustainability, companies should re-consider their branding strategies by focusing more on environmentally friendly advertising that makes connections between their attributes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Consumer Behavior Research in Food: A Focus on Health, Safety, and Sustainability)

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17 pages, 2291 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Effect of Brand Lovemark on Reusable Cups in Coffee Shops: Machine Use Intention, Willingness to Pay a Deposit, and Green Brand Loyalty

by Yooin Noh, Min Jung Kim and Dae-Young Kim

Sustainability 2024, 16(3), 1113; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16031113 - 28 Jan 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2621

Abstract

Despite significant coffee shops’ efforts to promote sustainable practices, customers’ actual CSR engagement in the coffee shop industry is still low. This is because CSR practices in the hospitality industry often require customer engagement, which can sometimes be inconvenient for customers, and some customers may even be skeptical about green practices themselves. Thus, this study examines the effect of brand lovemark on three customer behavioral outcomes (i.e., green brand loyalty, willingness to pay a deposit, and machine use intention) in coffee shops’ CSR practices. We used a scenario-based experimental design on CSR practices in two coffee shop brands (i.e., Starbucks and Dunkin’). The study demonstrates that consumers with a high brand lovemark act more positively toward coffee shop CSR practices than customers with a low brand lovemark. In addition, the interactions between brand lovemark and gender appear to be important in all three behavioral outcomes. Specifically, it confirms that men and women show different levels of behavior outcomes depending on their level of brand lovemark. Theoretical and managerial implications are also suggested with the direction for future study. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Consumer Behavior Research in Food: A Focus on Health, Safety, and Sustainability)

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22 pages, 2476 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Cue Words of Locally Grown Food Menu Items and Consumers’ Choice at Hyper-Local Restaurants: An Eye-Tracking Study

by Yoonah Kim Conoly and Yee Ming Lee

Sustainability 2023, 15(17), 12733; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151712733 - 23 Aug 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2056

Abstract

This research examined whether intrinsic (fresh) and extrinsic (local) cue words of locally grown food menu items were associated with consumers’ visual attention (i.e., fixation count and total fixation duration) and menu choice using an eye-tracking methodology and an online survey. Fifty consumers were randomly assigned to read a hyper-local restaurant menu that featured four items (with or without intrinsic or extrinsic cue words) while being eye-tracked. The participants of this study showed a somewhat favorable attitude towards locally grown food though their behaviors were not incongruent with their attitudes. The results showed that there was a relationship between fixation counts and the extrinsic cue word, local, for subsequent menu choices in the way that participants who chose the menu item with the word local appeared to look at it more frequently before making their final menu selection. The participants of this study further identified that factors such as attractive menu descriptions, personal preference, and healthfulness were important when making menu selections. The findings of this study suggested that restaurant operators could use well-crafted descriptions with the word local in their menu, as this approach could influence consumers’ menu selections. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Consumer Behavior Research in Food: A Focus on Health, Safety, and Sustainability)

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