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Objective: This study explored the relationship between health orientation (i.e. individual motivation to engage in healthy attitudes, beliefs and behaviours) and consumers' use of nutritional information on food labels. Specifically, this study analysed the relationship between a number of direct investments in health (namely those behaviours that can contribute directly to maintain a good health status) and use of nutritional information on food labels. Study design: Data for the analysis were collected through face-to-face interviews with a sample of 540 Italian consumers in charge of their grocery shopping. Forty grocery stores, including supermarkets and hypermarkets, were selected using a systematic sampling technique. Methods: Data were analysed using three equations and accounting for endogeneity issues. Results: This study found that those consumer groups with low health orientation (specifically smokers, those who do not exercise regularly, and those with an unhealthy body weight) show little interest in nutritional labels. Conclusion: Nutritional labels as a tool to promote healthier food choices have a limited effect on those consumers in greatest need of pursuing healthier lifestyle habits. Alternative policy intervention should be undertaken to reach these consumer groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time preferences have been recognized by numerous studies as an important driver of a number of healthy and environmentally-friendly behaviors. In this study, we first examined if healthy and environmentally-friendly food labels (e.g., USDA organic, carbon trust, health claim, and calories) are relevant in driving food choices. Second, using the Consideration of Future Consequences (CFC) scale we analyzed if individuals with different time preferences have different choice behavior and valuations in relation to these labels. Results indicate that consumers value both healthy and environmentally-friendly attributes displayed on labels. Results also suggest that time preferences can significantly influence consumers’ valuation for the USDA organic label, the presence of health claims and the calorie amount attribute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feeding is one of the daily actions that offers the richest sources to read cultural changes; it provides the means to understand the different influential factors on eating habits, understood not only as a ritual and routine behavior, but also as a stage for classification, symbolization and projection of the circumstances people are passing through. In this investigation it's decided to study qualitatively, with an ethnographical emphasis and projective methods, the case of social mobility of families from socioeconomic levels 2 to 3 in Medellín, for characterizing his adaptation process in the logical of habitus structuration, concept formulated by Pierre Bordieu for make reference to social practices associated to everyday life and the concept of social class, in this case, it allowed to consolidate a serial of phases for understanding the enrichment of eating habits. This enrichment occurs, on the one hand, in extending the range of food and its place in the daily diet: groups like fruits, vegetables, dairy and meats are now more common and relevant in the family shopping basket; and on the other hand, in shaping new consumption moments: there are more breaks, schedules and ocassions that include feeding acts beyond the traditional time for breakfast, lunch and dinner; other food consumption habits are becoming commonplace like the snacks between meals, special occasions, eating out, luxuries and cravings which involve now food classification according to new criteria. However, this process was not unidimensional and there is a great influence of traditional teachings from inherited customs. For example, the act of introducing new foods in eating habits passes first through an attitudinal flexibility: people are more open and willing to consume new foods, but in order to minimize the risks of not fitting in the acquired taste, they begin to include the new food ítems in usual recipes. This attitudinal flexibility is directly related to the improvment of access capabilities; either by having a higher budget, or closeness to various shopping channels. Families improve the quality (brand, price, freshness) and purchase frequency (they privilege freshness and enjoy having larger jouneys in their purchase rituals) of many of the foods they consider basic, so they bring a hint of differentiation to the usual behavior, a sense for these mothers of improving their role fulfillment by providing better meals. Gradually, changes in eating habits allow to see the configuration of their own arguments and the influence of some external discourses where the cultural and social change that families are going through is reflected on their consumption habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: to measure food expenditure for children living in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, and compare this expenditure to the cost of a healthy diet, based on local prices. Method: panel study, with three collection dates - 2004, 2008 and 2012 - conducted in children (5 to 9 years old) in Manguinhos. Food prices were collected by way of a sample of local food stores in 2013 and deflated using indicators specific to food prices. Twenty-four hour diet recall, qualitative food frequency and the Brazilian food pyramid adequate for the age group were used to estimate the observed expenditure and the cost of a healthy diet. Results: in 2004, 49.2% of the families interviewed lived on less than US$1 per person/day and 9.7% in 2012.In the same period, the percentage of students eating free school meals dropped from 73% to 49%. Money spent on food was concentrated on sugary products (32.4%) and snacks (12.5%). The estimated monthly cost of a healthy diet (US$142) was lower than the observed expenditure (US$176). Conclusions: increased purchasing power has not led to healthier food choices. The common belief that poor people choose food based on prices was rejected by the present study. Other factors certainly play an important role in food purchasing decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To evaluate a multifaceted supermarket intervention promoting healthier alternatives to commonly purchased foods. Design Sales of 385 foods promoted between July and October, 2012 in the Eat Right–Live Well! intervention supermarket were compared with sales in a control supermarket. Setting Two supermarkets in geographically separate, low-income, urban neighborhoods. Participants One control and 1 intervention supermarket. Intervention Product labeling, employee training, community outreach, and in-store promotions, including taste tests. Main Outcome Measures Number of items sold; absolute and percent differences in sales. Analysis Difference-in-difference analyses compared absolute and percent changes between stores and over time within stores. Sub-analyses examined taste-tested items and specific food categories, and promoted items labeled with high fidelity. Results Comparing pre- and postintervention periods, within-store difference-in-differences for promoted products in the intervention store (25,776 items; 23.1%) was more favorable than the control (9,429 items; 6.6%). The decrease in taste-tested items' sales was smaller in the intervention store (946 items; 5.5%) than the control store (14,666 items; 26.6%). Increased sales of foods labeled with high fidelity were greater in the intervention store (25,414 items; 28.0%) than the control store (7,306 items; 6.3%). Conclusions and Implications Store-based interventions, particularly high-fidelity labeling, can increase promoted food sales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]