Development and testing of two tools to assess point-of-sale food and beverage marketing to children in restaurants.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the development and testing of two assessment tools designed to assess exterior (including drive-thru) and interior food and beverage marketing in restaurants with a focus on marketing to children and teens. DESIGN: A scoping review on restaurant marketing to children was undertaken, followed by expert and government consultations to produce a draft assessment tool. The draft tool was mounted online and further refined into two separate tools: the Canadian Marketing Assessment Tool for Restaurants (CMAT-R) and the CMAT-Photo Coding Tool (CMAT-PCT). The tools were tested to assess inter-rater reliability using Cohen's Kappa and per cent agreement for dichotomous variables, and intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) for continuous or rank-order variables. SETTING: Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. PARTICIPANTS: Restaurants of all types were assessed using the CMAT-R (n 57), and thirty randomly selected photos were coded using the CMAT-PCT. RESULTS: The CMAT-R collected data on general promotions and restaurant features, drive-thru features, the children's menu and the dollar/value menu. The CMAT-PCT collected data on advertisement features, features considered appealing to children and teens, and characters. The inter-rater reliability of the CMAT-R tool was strong (mean per cent agreement was 92·4 %, mean Cohen's κ = 0·82 for all dichotomous variables and mean ICC = 0·961 for continuous/count variables). The mean per cent agreement for the CMAT-PCT across items was 97·3 %, and mean Cohen's κ across items was 0·91, indicating very strong inter-rater reliability. CONCLUSIONS: The tools assess restaurant food and beverage marketing. Both showed high inter-rater reliability and can be adapted to better suit other contexts.

Share of food group expenditure in Mexican households according to the gender of the head of household and size of the locality.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate differences in the percentage of expenditure on food groups in Mexican households according to the gender of the household head and the size of the locality. DESIGN: Analysis of secondary data from the National Household Income and Expenditure Survey (ENIGH) 2018. We estimated the percentage of expenditure on fifteen food groups according to the gender of the head of household and locality size and evaluated the differences using a two-part model approach. SETTING: Mexico, 2018. PARTICIPANTS: A nationally representative sample of 74 647 Mexican households. RESULTS: Female-headed households allocated a lower share of expenditure to the purchase of sweetened beverages and alcoholic beverages and higher percentages to milk and dairy, fruits and water. In comparison with metropolitan households, households in rural and urban localities spent more on cereals and tubers, sugar and honey, oil and fat and less on food away from home. CONCLUSIONS: Households allocate different percentages of expenditure to diverse food groups according to the gender of the head of the household and the size of the locality where they are located. Future research should focus on understanding the economic and social disparities related to differences in food expenditure, including the gender perspective.

Analysis of factors influencing college students' food waste behavior and evaluation of labor education intervention.

Background: Food waste remains a major problem for the world and food security. Despite the fact that consumers are significant producers of food waste, little research attention has been paid to college students. The present study aimed to assess food waste and the influence factors among college students. Additionally, the goal was to improve college students' food waste attitudes and behaviors through labor education. Methods: Through an online questionnaire survey, 407 college students from three universities were asked about food waste; 27 students of them were randomly selected as the research object, and labor practice was carried out in groups in the student cafeteria. Mann-Whitney U test was performed to show food waste behavior of college students and logistical regression analysis was used to analyze the factors affecting food waste behavior. Results: The results indicated that the food waste is more serious among college students in East China, senior or female students, BMI plays a positive role in food waste among college students, while monthly consumption and peers waste play a negative role in food waste. After participating in the labor education, the students' views and practices toward their peer's food waste have improved. Conclusion: The implementation of labor education in college canteens is conducive to the establishment of a correct outlook on labor as well as saving consciousness among college students, and to the formation of a social consciousness of saving.

Comparison of Sales From Vending Machines With 4 Different Food and Beverage Messages: A Randomized Trial.

Importance: Point-of-sale food messaging can encourage healthier purchases, but no studies have directly compared multiple interventions in the field. Objective: To examine which of 4 food and beverage messages would increase healthier vending machine purchases. Design, Setting, and Participants: This randomized trial assessed 13 months (February 1, 2019, to February 29, 2020) of vending sales data from 267 machines and 1065 customer purchase assessments from vending machines on government property in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Data analysis was performed from March 5, 2020, to November 8, 2022. Interventions: Study interventions were 4 food and beverage messaging systems: (1) beverage tax posters encouraging healthy choices because of the Philadelphia tax on sweetened drinks; (2) green labels for healthy products; (3) traffic light labels: green (healthy), yellow (moderately healthy), or red (unhealthy); or (4) physical activity equivalent labels (minutes of activity to metabolize product calories). Main Outcomes and Measures: Sales data were analyzed separately for beverages and snacks. The main outcomes analyzed at the transaction level were calories sold and the health status (using traffic light criteria) of each item sold. Additional outcomes were analyzed at the monthly machine level: total units sold, calories sold, and units of each health status sold. The customer purchase assessment outcome was calories purchased per vending trip. Results: Monthly sales data came from 150 beverage and 117 snack vending machines, whereas 1065 customers (558 [52%] male) contributed purchase assessment data. Traffic light labels led to a 30% decrease in the mean monthly number of unhealthy beverages sold (mean ratio [MR], 0.70; 95% CI, 0.55-0.88) compared with beverage tax posters. Physical activity labels led to a 34% (MR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.51-0.87) reduction in the number of unhealthy beverages sold at the machine level and 35% (MR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.50-0.86) reduction in mean calories sold. Traffic light labels also led to a 30-calorie reduction (b = -30.46; 95% CI, -49.36 to -11.56) per customer trip in the customer purchase analyses compared to physical activity labels. There were very few significant differences for snack machines. Conclusions and Relevance: In this 13-month randomized trial of 267 vending machines, the traffic light and physical activity labels encouraged healthier beverage purchases, but no change in snack sales, compared with a beverage tax poster. Corporations and governments should consider such labeling approaches to promote healthier beverage choices. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT06260176.

Wild capuchin monkeys use stones and sticks to access underground food.

Primates employ different tools and techniques to overcome the challenges of obtaining underground food resources. Humans and chimpanzees are known to tackle this problem with stick tools and one population of capuchin monkeys habitually uses stone tools. Although early hominids could have used stones as digging tools, we know little about when and how these could be useful. Here, we report a second primate population observed using stone tools and the first capuchin monkey population to habitually use the 'stick-probing' technique for obtaining underground resources. The bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) from Ubajara National Park, Brazil, use 'hands-only' and 'stone-digging' techniques for extracting underground storage organs and trapdoor spiders. Males also use 'stick-probing' and 'stone-stick' techniques for capturing trapdoor spiders. Tool use does not increase success in obtaining these resources. Stone-digging is less frequent in this population than in the only other known population that uses this technique. Females use stones in a lower proportion of their digging episodes than males in both populations. Ecological and cultural factors potentially influence technique choice and sex differences within and between populations. This population has a different pattern of underground food exploration using tools. Comparing this population with others and exploring the ecological and cultural factors under which capuchin monkeys employ different tools and techniques will allow us to better understand the pressures that may have shaped the evolution of those behaviors in primates.

Fine-grained food image classification and recipe extraction using a customized deep neural network and NLP.

Global eating habits cause health issues leading people to mindful eating. This has directed attention to applying deep learning to food-related data. The proposed work develops a new framework integrating neural network and natural language processing for classification of food images and automated recipe extraction. It address the challenges of intra-class variability and inter-class similarity in food images that have received shallow attention in the literature. Firstly, a customized lightweight deep convolution neural network model, MResNet-50 for classifying food images is proposed. Secondly, automated ingredient processing and recipe extraction is done using natural language processing algorithms: Word2Vec and Transformers in conjunction. Thirdly, a representational semi-structured domain ontology is built to store the relationship between cuisine, food item, and ingredients. The accuracy of the proposed framework on the Food-101 and UECFOOD256 datasets is increased by 2.4% and 7.5%, respectively, outperforming existing models in literature such as DeepFood, CNN-Food, Wiser, and other pre-trained neural networks.

Valorisation of Agri-Food Waste for Bioactive Compounds: Recent Trends and Future Sustainable Challenges.

Worldwide, a massive amount of agriculture and food waste is a major threat to the environment, the economy and public health. However, these wastes are important sources of phytochemicals (bioactive), such as polyphenols, carotenoids, carnitine, coenzymes, essential oils and tocopherols, which have antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticarcinogenic properties. Hence, it represents a promising opportunity for the food, agriculture, cosmetics, textiles, energy and pharmaceutical industries to develop cost effective strategies. The value of agri-food wastes has been extracted from various valuable bioactive compounds such as polyphenols, dietary fibre, proteins, lipids, vitamins, carotenoids, organic acids, essential oils and minerals, some of which are found in greater quantities in the discarded parts than in the parts accepted by the market used for different industrial sectors. The value of agri-food wastes and by-products could assure food security, maintain sustainability, efficiently reduce environmental pollution and provide an opportunity to earn additional income for industries. Furthermore, sustainable extraction methodologies like ultrasound-assisted extraction, pressurized liquid extraction, supercritical fluid extraction, microwave-assisted extraction, pulse electric field-assisted extraction, ultrasound microwave-assisted extraction and high hydrostatic pressure extraction are extensively used for the isolation, purification and recovery of various bioactive compounds from agri-food waste, according to a circular economy and sustainable approach. This review also includes some of the critical and sustainable challenges in the valorisation of agri-food wastes and explores innovative eco-friendly methods for extracting bioactive compounds from agri-food wastes, particularly for food applications. The highlights of this review are providing information on the valorisation techniques used for the extraction and recovery of different bioactive compounds from agricultural food wastes, innovative and promising approaches. Additionally, the potential use of these products presents an affordable alternative towards a circular economy and, consequently, sustainability. In this context, the encapsulation process considers the integral and sustainable use of agricultural food waste for bioactive compounds that enhance the properties and quality of functional food.

Predicted impact of banning nonessential, energy-dense food and beverages in schools in Mexico: A microsimulation study.

BACKGROUND: Childhood obesity is a growing concern worldwide. School-based interventions have been proposed as effective means to improve nutritional knowledge and prevent obesity. In 2023, Mexico approved a reform to the General Education Law to strengthen the ban of sales and advertising of nonessential energy-dense food and beverages (NEDFBs) in schools and surroundings. We aimed to predict the expected one-year change in total caloric intake and obesity prevalence by introducing the ban of NEDFBs sales in schools, among school-aged children and adolescents (6 to 17 years old) in Mexico. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We used age-specific equations to predict baseline fat-free mass (FFM) and fat mass (FM) and then estimated total energy intake (TEI) per day. The TEI after the intervention was estimated under 4 scenarios: (1) using national data to inform the intervention effect; (2) varying law compliance; (3) using meta-analytic data to inform the intervention effect size on calories; and (4) using national data to inform the intervention effect by sex and socioeconomic status (SES). We used Hall's microsimulation model to estimate the potential impact on body weight and obesity prevalence of children and adolescents 1 year after implementing the intervention in Mexican schools. We found that children could reduce their daily energy intake by 33 kcal/day/person (uncertainty interval, UI, [25, 42] kcal/day/person), reducing on average 0.8 kg/person (UI [0.6, 1.0] kg/person) and 1.5 percentage points (pp) in obesity (UI [1.1, 1.9] pp) 1 year after implementing the law. We showed that compliance will be key to the success of this intervention: considering a 50% compliance the intervention effect could reduce 0.4 kg/person (UI [0.3, 0.5] kg/person). Our sensitivity analysis showed that the ban could reduce body weight by 1.3 kg/person (UI [0.8, 1.8] kg/person) and up to 5.4 kg/person (UI [3.4, 7.5] kg/person) in the best-case scenario. Study limitations include assuming that obesity and the contribution of NEDFBs consumed at school remain constant over time, assuming full compliance, and not considering the potential effect of banning NEDFBs in stores near schools. CONCLUSIONS: Even in the most conservative scenario, banning sales of NEDFBs in schools is expected to significantly reduce obesity, but achieving high compliance will be key to its success. WHY WAS THIS STUDY DONE?: - School-based interventions have been recognized as effective means to improve nutritional knowledge and prevent obesity-related diseases.- In December 2023, the Chamber of Representatives of Mexico approved an amendment that strengthens and updates the General Education Law (Article 75) and nutritional guidelines to ban the sales and advertising of nonessential energy-dense food and beverages (NEDFBs) in schools. WHAT DID THE RESEARCHERS DO AND FIND?: - We used age-specific equations to predict baseline fat-free mass (FFM) and fat mass (FM) and total energy intake (TEI) per day.- We used microsimulation modeling to predict body weight and obesity prevalence of children and adolescents 1 year after implementing the intervention in Mexican schools.- Our modeling study suggests that an important impact on obesity prevalence can be expected if the law is implemented and enforced as intended. WHAT DO THESE FINDINGS MEAN?: - If successful, this law could serve as an example beyond Mexico on how to achieve changes in body weight through school food regulation.- An important limitation of our main scenario is that we assumed full compliance of schools with the law, yet lower compliance will reduce its impact. We also did not consider historical trends on obesity or NEDFBs consumed in schools during our 1 year simulation, and we considered only the ban impact inside schools, excluding effects near and outside schools.

The relationship between the price and demand of alcohol, tobacco, unhealthy food, sugar-sweetened beverages, and gambling: an umbrella review of systematic reviews.

BACKGROUND: The WHO highlight alcohol, tobacco, unhealthy food, and sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes as one of the most effective policies for preventing and reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases. This umbrella review aimed to identify and summarise evidence from systematic reviews that report the relationship between price and demand or price and disease/death for alcohol, tobacco, unhealthy food, and SSBs. Given the recent recognition as gambling as a public health problem, we also included gambling. METHODS: The protocol for this umbrella review was pre-registered (PROSPERO CRD42023447429). Seven electronic databases were searched between 2000-2023. Eligible systematic reviews were those published in any country, including adults or children, and which quantitatively examined the relationship between alcohol, tobacco, gambling, unhealthy food, or SSB price/tax and demand (sales/consumption) or disease/death. Two researchers undertook screening, eligibility, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment using the ROBIS tool. RESULTS: We identified 50 reviews from 5,185 records, of which 31 reported on unhealthy food or SSBs, nine reported on tobacco, nine on alcohol, and one on multiple outcomes (alcohol, tobacco, unhealthy food, and SSBs). We did not identify any reviews on gambling. Higher prices were consistently associated with lower demand, notwithstanding variation in the size of effect across commodities or populations. Reductions in demand were large enough to be considered meaningful for policy. CONCLUSIONS: Increases in the price of alcohol, tobacco, unhealthy food, and SSBs are consistently associated with decreases in demand. Moreover, increasing taxes can be expected to increase tax revenue. There may be potential in joining up approaches to taxation across the harm-causing commodities.

Predicting the short and long term effects of food price inflation, armed conflicts, and climate variability on global acute malnutrition in Somalia.

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition poses a substantial challenge in Somalia, impacting approximately 1.8 million children. This critical issue is exacerbated by a multifaceted interplay of factors. Consequently, this study seeks to examine the long-term and short-term effects of armed conflicts, food price inflation, and climate variability on global acute malnutrition in Somalia. METHODS: The study utilized secondary data spanning from January 2015 to December 2022, sourced from relevant databases. Two distinct analytical approaches were employed to comprehensively investigate the dynamics of global acute malnutrition in Somalia. Firstly, dynamic autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) simulations were applied, allowing for a nuanced understanding of the short and long-term effects of armed conflicts, food price inflation, and climate variability on malnutrition. Additionally, the study employed kernel-based regularized least squares, a sophisticated statistical technique, to further enhance the robustness of the findings. The analysis was conducted using STATA version 17. RESULTS: In the short run, armed conflicts and food price inflation exhibit positive associations with global acute malnutrition, particularly in conflict-prone areas and during inflationary periods. Moreover, climatic variables, specifically temperature and rainfall, demonstrate positive associations. It is important to note that temperature lacks a statistically significant relationship with global acute malnutrition in the short run. In the long run, armed conflicts and food price inflation maintain persistent impacts on global acute malnutrition, as confirmed by the dynamic ARDL simulations model. Furthermore, both temperature and rainfall continue to show positive associations with global acute malnutrition, but it is worth noting that temperature still exhibits a non-significant relationship. The results from kernel-based regularized least squares were consistent, further enhancing the robustness of the findings. CONCLUSIONS: Increased armed conflicts, food price inflation, temperature, and rainfall were associated with increased global acute malnutrition. Strategies such as stabilizing conflict-prone regions, diplomatic interventions, and peace-building initiatives are crucial, along with measures to control food price inflation. Implementing climate adaptation strategies is vital to counter temperature changes and fluctuating rainfall patterns, emphasizing the need for resilience-building. Policymakers and humanitarian organizations can leverage these insights to design targeted interventions, focusing on conflict resolution, food security, and climate resilience to enhance Somalia's overall nutritional well-being.

Waste-green infrastructure nexus: Green roof promotion by digestate and digestate biochar from food waste.

Waste-Green Infrastructure Nexus is crucial to mitigate carbon emissions in waste disposal and promote eco-functions of green infrastructure in a circular bio-economy. Our purpose is to verify the feasibility of the nexus via "food waste anaerobic digestion - digestate/digestate biochar - green roof promotion". The results found that food waste digestate and digestate biochar significantly promoted green roof plant growth, evapotranspiration, rainwater retention, runoff reduction, and prevention of nutrient leaching. Digestate treatments were better than digestate biochar for the green roof promotion. The promotion ranked consistently with 20 % digestate > 10 % digestate > 20 % digestate biochar > 10 % digestate biochar > control in stolon growth, leaf emergence, branching of Paspalum vaginatum, green roof establishment, rainwater retention, runoff reduction, and the leaching of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium. This study demonstrated that food waste could be regenerated to promote urban green infrastructure to form a circular bio-economy by the Waste-Green Infrastructure Nexus.

Food and family care during the COVID-19 pandemic: A study of women's domestic workload during the first wave in Chile.

This study aimed to explore women's perceptions of domestic work related to food and family care during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile and its association with sociodemographic and health variables. We conducted a cross-sectional, analytical, non-probabilistic study. A sample of 2047 women answered an online self-report survey that included a Likert scale about the perception of domestic work associated with food. The survey also included an open comment section. The survey was available between May and June 2020, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and when most of the country had some degree of mobility restriction. 70.2% of participants perceived their domestic work as "regular"; being younger, having a higher educational level, caring for children or the elderly, and having worse self-perception of mental and general health status increased the chances of having a lower perception of the burden of these tasks. In comments, women declared how heavy the domestic work was, the challenges of being together with their families and of paid job requirements, and how family demands from them increased. Most women felt that their domestic work was heavier during this pandemic period: some groups of women could be at risk of being more affected by this extra workload at home. The importance of interventions and public policies with a gender perspective becomes relevant, considering the role of women in the home and the necessity to generate a social change regarding the domestic burden associated with gender.

Food price trends during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil.

The present study aims to analyze the trends in food price in Brazil with emphasis on the period of the Covid-19 pandemic (from March 2020 to March 2022). Data from the Brazilian Household Budget Survey and the National System of Consumer Price Indexes were used as input to create a novel data set containing monthly prices (R$/Kg) for the foods and beverages most consumed in the country between January 2018 and March 2022. All food items were divided according to the Nova food classification system. We estimated the mean price of each food group for each year of study and the entire period. The monthly price of each group was plotted to analyze changes from January 2018 to March 2022. Fractional polynomial models were used to synthesize price changes up to 2025. Results of the present study showed that in Brazil unprocessed or minimally processed foods and processed culinary ingredients were more affordable than processed and ultra-processed foods. However, trend analyses suggested the reversal of the pricing pattern. The anticipated changes in the prices of minimally processed food relative to ultra-processed food, initially forecasted for Brazil, seem to reflect the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global economy. These results are concerning as the increase in the price of healthy foods aggravates food and nutrition insecurity in Brazil. Additionally, this trend encourages the replacement of traditional meals for the consumption of unhealthy foods, increasing a health risk to the population.

Improving anaerobic digestion performance after severe acidification: Unveiling the impacts of Fe3O4-bentonite composites in co-digestion of waste activated sludge and food waste.

Acidification recovery in anaerobic digestion of food waste is challenging. This study explored its in-situ recovery using a co-substrate of food waste and waste activated sludge. Fe3O4 and bentonite were used as conductor and carrier, respectively, to enhance AD performance under severe acidification. The application of Fe3O4-bentonite resulted in a 152% increase in cumulative methane in the Fe3O4-bentonite 10 digester, demonstrating its effectiveness in restoring the acidified AD system. In acidified systems, bentonite enhanced the diversity and richness of microbial communities due to its buffering capacity. The excessive non-conductive polysaccharides excreted by bacteria in extracellular polymeric substances reduced the possibility of electron transfer by Fe3O4. However, in the synergistic application of Fe3O4 and bentonite, this resistance was alleviated, increasing the possibility of direct interspecies electron transfer, and accelerating the consumption of volatile fatty acids. This approach of integrating carrier and conductive materials is significant for in-situ restoration of acidified systems.

Effects of sleep deprivation on food-related Pavlovian-instrumental transfer: a randomized crossover experiment.

Recent research suggests that insufficient sleep elevates the risk of obesity. Although the mechanisms underlying the relationship between insufficient sleep and obesity are not fully understood, preliminary evidence suggests that insufficient sleep may intensify habitual control of behavior, leading to greater cue-elicited food-seeking behavior that is insensitive to satiation. The present study tested this hypothesis using a within-individual, randomized, crossover experiment. Ninety-six adults underwent a one-night normal sleep duration (NSD) condition and a one-night total sleep deprivation (TSD) condition. They also completed the Pavlovian-instrumental transfer paradigm in which their instrumental responses for food in the presence and absence of conditioned cues were recorded. The sleep × cue × satiation interaction was significant, indicating that the enhancing effect of conditioned cues on food-seeking responses significantly differed across sleep × satiation conditions. However, this effect was observed in NSD but not TSD, and it disappeared after satiation. This finding contradicted the hypothesis but aligned with previous literature on the effect of sleep disruption on appetitive conditioning in animals-sleep disruption following learning impaired the expression of appetitive behavior. The present finding is the first evidence for the role of sleep in Pavlovian-instrumental transfer effects. Future research is needed to further disentangle how sleep influences motivational mechanisms underlying eating.

Thermophilic-mesophilic temperature phase anaerobic co-digestion compared with single phase co-digestion of sewage sludge and food waste.

Anaerobic co-digestion is an effective method for addressing the issue of a single substrate not being able to achieve optimal conditions for anaerobic digestion. By adjusting the mixture ratio of sewage sludge and food waste to achieve the optimal carbon to nitrogen ratio, the effectiveness of thermophilic-mesophilic temperature phase anaerobic co-digestion (TPAcD) was evaluated in comparison to single phase mesophilic anaerobic co-digestion (MAcD) and thermophilic anaerobic co-digestion (TAcD). The results indicated that TPAcD increased methane yield by 50.3% and 32.7% compared to MAcD and TAcD, respectively. The variation in VFA, pH, and ammonia nitrogen levels demonstrated that TPAcD combines the advantages of both MAcD and TAcD, with a higher hydrolysis rate in the early stage under thermophilic conditions (55 °C) and a suitable environment in the later stage under mesophilic conditions (35 °C). The kinetic parameters of anaerobic co-digestions also demonstrated that TPAcD performs better. Therefore, further research on TPAcD of sewage sludge and food waste is warranted due to its significant improvements in methane production rate, total methane yield, and system stability. Additionally, TPAcD contributes to reducing carbon emissions and supports the realization of "carbon neutrality".

Mechanisms underlying food devaluation after response inhibition to food.

Multiple studies reveal that a requirement to stop a response to appetitive food stimuli causes devaluation of these stimuli. However, the mechanism underlying food devaluation after stopping is still under debate. The immediate-affect theory suggests that an increase in negative affect after stopping a response is the driving force for food devaluation. A competing value-updating theory presumes that food devaluation after stopping occurs through the need to align behavior with goals. The current study assessed how food devaluation after response inhibition is influenced by negative emotional reactivity and behavior-goal alignment on a trial-by-trial basis. The study included 60 healthy participants who completed a Food-Stop-Signal-Emotion task. Participants categorized high vs. low-calorie food stimuli and stopped their response upon encountering a stop signal. Subsequently, participants made subjective negativity ratings of negative- or neutral-valenced emotional images, and rated their desire to eat the previously depicted food. In contrast to predictions made by the immediate-affect account, food devaluation after stopping was not mediated nor moderated via changes in negative emotional reactivity after stopping. In support of the value-updating account, food devaluation was modulated by behavior-goal alignment, indicated by larger food devaluation after successful vs. failed stopping. In agreement with this theory, the findings indicate that devaluation occurs more strongly when performance aligns with the task requirement. This study sheds light on the mechanism that likely underlies food devaluation after stopping. Implications regarding applied use of food-inhibition trainings are discussed.

Unperceived, the impact of information gap design plateware on food waste.

Curiosity is a powerful motivator of behaviour. Although there have been some studies pertaining to the application of curiosity in the realm of food, research examining the potential to influence consumer food waste behaviour through the induction of curiosity is lacking. This study conducted two onsite dining experiments to explore the role and mechanism of curiosity in reducing food waste in a real dining environment by utilising an information gap design in tableware to induce participants' curiosity. Experiment 1 investigated the differences in food waste between participants using bowls with an information gap design and those using bowls with no information gap (blank bowls). Experiment 2 further controlled for other variables that could potentially influence the outcomes between bowls with and without information gaps; the latter displayed complete text externally. The results of both experiments consistently demonstrated a significant reduction in participants' food waste when utilising utensils with an information gap design. Moreover, we conducted an exploratory analysis combining these two experiments to examine the mediating mechanisms involved. Furthermore, the exploratory analysis suggested the mediating mechanism of curiosity elicited by the information gap design, ultimately leading to a decrease in food waste. This study presents a potential avenue for a simple and innovative approach for mitigating food waste.