Consumer Behavior Research in Food: A Focus on Health, Safety, and Sustainability, 2nd Edition
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Food".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 2334
Special Issue Editors
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
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 a great pleasure to invite you to Sustainability's Special Issue on “Consumer Behavior Research in Food: A Focus on Health, Safety, and Sustainability, 2nd Edition”.
Consumer food purchasing behaviors and consumption patterns are affected by multiple factors. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 2.8 million people die each year globally due to induced chronic diseases resulting from being overweight or obese (WHO, 2021). Increased health and nutrition awareness and the prevalence of chronic diseases have prompted consumers to make food choices that take their well-being into consideration. In addition, over 400 foodborne disease (FBD) outbreaks occur in restaurant settings annually, which accounts 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 et al., 2021). Increasingly, consumers are not only concerned about what they ingest but also about where their food is produced or grown and what impact food production and consumption have on the environment and society (Liu et al., 2022). They are also loyal to restaurants that engage in sustainable, green practices (Kim and Hall, 2020). Thus, sustainability is 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 readers about the current paradox of consumer behavior in relation to food. Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:
- 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 the sustainability movement in food.
We look forward to receiving your submissions.
References:
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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