Greek Semi-Hard and Hard Cheese Consumers' Perception in the New Global Era

The COVID-19 pandemic is almost over but has already left its mark and is changing the world fast and drastically in all social, economic, and cultural aspects of humanity, including consumers' choices and motives for foods. Since cheese is a major dietary food consumed daily worldwide, motives for its purchase and consumption in the new era are an important parameter affecting current and future production and sustainable regional development. The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on Greek consumers' motives for quality semi-hard and hard cheese, including the "Ladotyri” hard cheese. Consumers' motives were tested using variables of quality semi-hard and hard cheese, such as purchase and consumption, preference of choice, preference, and knowledge of the Ladotyri cheese. A self-response questionnaire survey was carried out in November and December 2022 on a sample of 860 participants, the majority being young people aged 18–25 (83.9%), through the Google platform. Basic statistical tools, combined with cross and chi-square tests, were used to analyze the collected data. The results indicate no significant changes in consumers' motives except a significant decline in consumption, reaching up to 8.4%. Consumers continue to purchase the semi-hard and hard cheese from the supermarket (90%), with preference for the most known kinds, such as kasseri and graviera, consuming it at home (90.9%), daily (31.8%), or two times per week (38.3%), primarily with bread and olives (57.6%), followed by meat (53%). Price remains the most important information for the selection of semi-hard and hard cheese (73.5%), taste (97%) among the organoleptic parameters, texture (70.9%) among the appearance parameters, origin of milk (63.9%) among the sustainable parameters, and value for money (85.8%) among the general characteristics of the cheese. The participants expressed similar motives for the "Ladotyri” Mytilinis hard cheese, appreciating the olive oil combined with the cheese (79.7%) and the possible production as a non-refrigerated cheese (65.2%), even though the majority of them would not buy it today (57.4%). Our findings indicate that the sustainability and growth of the quality semi-hard and hard cheese in the new era should stick to the good practices of production, promotion, and sales developed before the pandemic, exploring, however, new avenues and practices to increase consumption, which is currently declining. © 2023 by the authors.

Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Choice Motives: A Systematic Review

The economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has effected the global economy, with the main changes expected to affect human life in the future, including food consumption. However, could this pandemic be assumed as a threshold for the suspension of the usual rules behind food choices? This review highlights the changes in food choice motivations before, during, and after the pandemic that have been reported in the literature to date to answer the research question on the changes in food choice motives caused by the pandemic to consumers worldwide. The review comes up with ten key food motives important for consumers, namely health, convenience, sensory appeal, nutritional quality, moral concerns, weight control, mood and anxiety, familiarity, price, and shopping frequency behavior;these motives continue to be significant in the post-pandemic era. Our findings indicate that it is too premature to give definite answers as to what food choice motives in the post-COVID-19 era will be like. Consumers' perceptions and attitudes toward food in the new era are contradictory, depending on the country of the study, the average age, and the sex of the study group. These controversial results illustrate that, for food consumption, motives depend on the population being searched, with changes identified occurring in two directions. The definite answers will be given in three to five years when the new conditions will be clear and a number of studies will have been published. Even though it is too early to fully understand the definite food choice motive changes, defining a "new" index of consumer satisfaction is necessary since it can alter the food sale strategies of retail managers, food companies, and the other parties involved in the agri-food chain.

Short- and Mid-Term Impacts of COVID-19 Outbreak on the Nutritional Quality and Environmental Impact of Diet.

Background: Changes in dietary behaviors that occurred at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak and in particular during the first national lockdowns have been extensively studied across countries. Beyond the understanding of contextual changes in diets due to a temporary lockdown, it is of interest to study longer-term consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak as sustained changes in diets may have both an impact on population health and the environment. Objectives: This study aimed to examine both short- (after 1 month) and mid-term (after 1 year) impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on the nutritional quality and environmental impact of diets, and as a secondary objective on food choice motives. Methods: We collected dietary data [food frequency questionnaire (FFQ)] and the importance of nine food choice motives through online questionnaires before, during, and after 1 year of the first lockdown for 524 French participants. Adherence to the French dietary recommendations was estimated using the simplified PNNS-GS2, which scores from -17 to 11.5. Environmental impact of diets was assessed by calculating greenhouse gas emissions in CO2eq/2,000 kcal. Results: We showed a short-term decrease in nutritional quality (-0.26 points on sPNNS-GS2, p = 0.017) and environmental impact (-0.17 kg CO2eq/2,000 kcal, p = 0.004) but this decrease was only temporary, and nutritional quality (-0.01 points on sPNNS-GS2, p = 0.974) and environmental impact (-0.04 kg CO2eq/2,000 kcal, p = 0.472) were not different from their initial values 1 year later. Some of the food choice motives followed the trend of a short-term increase and a mid-term stability (health, natural content, ethical concern, and weight control). On the contrary, we showed both short- and mid-term decreases in convenience, familiarity, and price motives. Conclusion: Changes in diets and motives observed during the first lockdown were mostly temporary. However, we highlighted a sustained decrease in the importance of perceived constraints due to food shopping and food preparation which may suggest a trend toward a more positive perception of food-related activities.

Consumer adoption of online-to-offline food delivery services in China and New Zealand

Purpose>This study explores impacts of innovation-adoption characteristics, food choice motives, segmentation and socio-demographics on consumer adoption of online-to-offline food delivery services (O2O-FDS) in a Western developed country – New Zealand – and an Asian developing country – China.Design/methodology/approach>An online survey of 1,185 consumers provides data that the authors analyse using factor analyses, structural equation modelling and cluster analysis.Findings>The following innovation-adoption characteristics and food choice motives have statistically significant effects on consumers' attitudes and/or purchase intentions towards O2O-FDS in the pooled sample and/or the samples of two countries: perceived incentive, perceived complexity, processed convenience, cheapness, taste appeal, safety-assured and purchase convenience. Three consumer segments are recognized: conservatives (26.6%), food-value seekers (40.8%) and pioneers (32.6%). Significant differences are found in marital status, age, household income, education level, household size, occupation, country and residential areas across the three segments.Originality/value>This is the first study to systematically understand significant influencing factors for the O2O-FDS adoption by using a sample set composed of both Eastern and Western consumers.

Food Choice Motives and COVID-19 in Belgium.

To investigate the main motives driving dietary intake changes potentially introduced by preventive measures to address the pandemic, an online survey, using a 36-item Food Choice Questionnaire applied for the period before (the year 2019) and during (2020-2021) the pandemic, was distributed between July and October 2021 among adult residents from Belgium. A total of 427 eligible respondents, the majority Dutch-speaking, were included for analyses. The importance of nine motives for food choices, including health, mood, convenience, sensory appeal, natural content, price, weight control, familiarity and ethical concerns, was assessed by scoring from 1 to 5, and comparing mean scores from the during period with the before period. Sensory appeal was the most important food choice motive before (mean score of 4.02 ± 0.51) and during (3.98 ± 0.48) the pandemic. Convenience and health also ranked among the main motives, with health observed to become more important during the pandemic (3.69 ± 0.60 during vs. 3.64 ± 0.59 before). Additionally, mean scores of mood (3.41 ± 0.71 vs. 3.32 ± 0.58), natural content (3.35 ± 0.84 vs. 3.26 ± 0.85) and weight control (3.33 ± 0.79 vs. 3.25 ± 0.76) were significantly higher during as compared to before. The extent of change in the level of importance for natural content was smaller with increasing age, and for health larger for urban areas, but for other motives there were no significant differences across population subgroups. Changes in the level of importance were observed in both directions, while a moderate share of respondents declared no change, suggesting some persistence of food choice motives. Further activities within public health monitoring should be considered to fully understand the COVID-19 implications on food choice motives together with people's food behaviors and consumption.

Trajectories of Food Choice Motives and Weight Status of Malaysian Youths during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Stay-at-home orders have abruptly altered food purchasing behaviour, dietary habits, and food choice motives. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the trajectory of food choice motives and their associations with the weight status of Malaysian youths in the time of COVID-19. Socio-demographic information and anthropometric measurements were self-reported by the respondents, while the food choice motives were assessed using a validated 38-item food choice questionnaire (FCQ). Of the 1013 Malaysian youths, 48.6% gained weight due to the confinement, with an average weight gain of 3.90 ± 2.92 kg. On the other hand, 47.0% to 73.0% of the youths changed their food choice motives in the time of COVID-19. Of the 10 motives, convenience (48.5%) had the largest percentage increase, followed by weight control (47.0%) and health (45.3%). Moreover, the mean scores of health (t = -3.324, p = 0.001), convenience (t = -5.869, p < 0.001), weight control (t = -7.532, p < 0.001), natural content (t = -5.957, p < 0.001), ethical concern (t = -4.419, p < 0.001) and price (t = -3.737, p < 0.001) were significantly higher during the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic. Findings from the multinomial regression model revealed that youths highly concerned for weight control were more likely to be in the weight loss category (Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.633, Confidence Interval (CI) = 1.230-2.168, p = 0.001). Conversely, those who gained weight due to the pandemic confinement highly valued natural content in foods (AOR = 0.653, CI = 0.481-0.886, p = 0.006) when making their food choices in this unprecedented pandemic. In conclusion, Malaysian youths made healthier food choices to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 infection.

The role of life satisfaction and locus of control in changing purchase intentions for organic and local food during the pandemic.

This study investigates the relation between locus of control, life satisfaction, and Covid-19 related changes in consumers' intentions to purchase organic or local food. It is assumed that people with high internal locus of control pro-actively engage in pro-environmental behaviors, e.g. organic or local food consumption. In addition, literature suggests that internal locus of control positively influences life satisfaction and that the relation between life satisfaction and changes in local and organic food purchase intentions during the Covid-19 pandemic is mediated through food choice motives. The results of this study confirm these theoretical considerations. However, concerning the relation between internal locus of control and stated changes in food choices, a significant and positive relation could only be found between internal locus of control and the willingness to purchase more locally produced food items since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, but not between internal locus of control and the importance attached to organically produced food. As locus of control and life satisfaction have mainly been applied in health-related contexts so far, this study addresses the lack of research concerning its application in food and consumer behavior research. Comprehensive knowledge on these relations adds to theoretical framework building, and further research on these measures in different food-related contexts is necessary.

Food choice motives and the nutritional quality of diet during the COVID-19 lockdown in France.

To limit the transmission of COVID-19, nationwide lockdown was imposed in France between March, 17th and May 10th, 2020. This disruption in individuals' daily routines likely altered food consumption habits. We examined how changes in food choice motives related to changes in nutritional quality during the lockdown compared to before. A convenience sample of 938 French adults completed online questionnaires on the Qualtrics platform at the end of April 2020. Participants were retrospectively asked about their food choice motives and food consumption during the month before and in the first month of the lockdown. The importance of nine food choice motives was assessed: health, convenience, sensory appeal, natural content, ethical concern, weight control, mood, familiarity, and price, scoring from 1 to 4. Food intakes were recorded using a food frequency questionnaire including 110 foods, 12 non-alcoholic beverages and 4 alcoholic beverages. Adherence to the French dietary recommendations before and during the lockdown was estimated using the simplified PNNS-GS2, scoring from -17 to 11.5. The nutritional quality of diet was lower during the lockdown compared to before (-0.32, SD 2.28, p < 0.001). Food choice motives significantly changed and an increase in the importance of weight control was associated with increased nutritional quality (ß = 0.89, p < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.032), whereas an increase in the importance of mood was associated with decreased nutritional quality (ß = -0.43, p = 0.021, partial η2 = 0.006). The lockdown period in France was related to a decrease in nutritional quality of diet on average, which could be partly explained by changes in food choice motives. The lockdown was indeed related to modification of food choice motives, notably with an increase of mood as a food choice motive for 48% of the participants, but also with an increase of health (26%), ethical concern (21%) and natural content (19%) suggesting a growing awareness of the importance of sustainable food choices in some participants.

A Humanities-Based Explanation for the Effects of Emotional Eating and Perceived Stress on Food Choice Motives during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Perceived stress affects emotional eating and food choices. However, the extent to which stress associates with food choice motives is not completely understood. This study assessed whether emotional eating mediates the associations between perceived stress levels and food choice motives (i.e., health, mood, convenience, natural content, price, sensory appeal, familiarities, weight control, and ethical concerns) during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic. A total of 800 respondents were surveyed in the United States in June 2020. Their perceived stress, emotional eating, and food choice motives were assessed by the Perceived Stress Scale, Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire, and Food Choice Questionnaire, respectively. Moderate to high levels of perceived stress were experienced by the majority (73.6%) of respondents. Perceived stress was significantly correlated with emotional eating (r = 0.26) as well as five out of nine food choice motives: mood (r = 0.32), convenience (r = 0.28), natural content (r = -0.14), price (r = 0.27), and familiarity (r = 0.15). Emotional eating was significantly correlated with four out of nine food choice motives: mood (r = 0.27), convenience (r = 0.23), price (r = 0.16), and familiarity (r = 0.16). The mediation analyses showed that emotional eating mediates the associations between perceived stress and five food choices motives: mood, convenience, sensory appeal, price, and familiarity. Findings were interpreted using theories and concepts from the humanities, specifically, folklore studies, ritual studies, and symbolic anthropology.