edited by David Marshall
This book provides an interdisciplinary survey of food selection and examines each of the stages
which the consumer goes through in making choices about what food to include in their daily
domestic cuisine. The study of food provisioning is usually confined to the act of supplying
food in the food chain, and food choice limited to sensory activities, or the retail arena.
This book addresses the consumer tasks of acquiring, preparing, cooking, serving, consuming
and finally disposing of food. The `domestic food provisioning' process is under a wide range
of economic, social, nutritional and scientific influences and the book draws material from a
variety of disciplines. It illustrates the importance of adopting an `integrated' approach,
and the need to bridge some of the gaps that exist between the pure and social sciences. In
the process it brings together an international field of expertise and offers an insight into
the nature of consumer choice as an integrated set of activities.
This book provides the food
industry with an insight into the demands of its customers and a way of understanding how
they may be met.
Contents:
Introduction: Food choice, the food consumer and food provisioning. Food choice. The food consumer.
The food provisioning process. Food choice and the food consumer.
Supply and food availability:
Introduction. Food prices and the biological basis of production. Food prices and the structure of
production. Food prices and agricultural policies. Availability. Food quality. Consumer attitudes.
Conclusion.
Food choice and the demand for food: Introduction. Food
prices. Consumer income. The underlying trend in demand. Conclusion - what underlies the
underlying trend in demand.
Food retailing and the consumer: Changes in the distribution channel for food retailers.
The size and structure of food retailing. Food retailing methods. Management issues. Conclusion.
Food and nutrition: Helping the consumer understand: Introduction. Dietary intake and
changes in the 1980s and 1990s. Promoting a healthier diet. Nutrition labelling and nutritional
claims. Educating for healthy eating in the next century - coping with the health market.
Food choice, eating and the lay perspective on health. Conclusions.
The omnivore's paradox: Introduction. The cultural meanings of foods. Continuity and
change. Natural as cultural. Crises of confidence.
Convenience and the moral status of
consumer practices: The rise of convenience. Convenience products. Whose time is being saved?
Time famines: explanations are not self-evident. Why have our attitudes towards convenience
foods changed? The ways in which households and social roles are changing is complex. Fast food
as popular culture and practical aesthetics. What is 'convenience'.
Developing new products for the consumer: Introduction: overview of the food market.
The new product development process. Technology and product development.
Consumer trends and product development. Factors influencing product development.
Emerging opportunities in product development. The consumer and product development of
the future.
Raw, cooked and proper meals at home: Introduction. On the ubiquity of cooking - hearths,
recipes and cookbooks. Cooking, proper meals and the definition of food. The social organization
of cooking: divisions of labour, tools, techniques and technology. Conclusion.
Are sensory properties relevant to consumer food choice?: Introduction. Predicting food
acceptance from sensory preference? Role of sensory expectations in food acceptance? Measuring
the effect of context on sensory acceptance. Structured attitude and belief models. Communicating
about sensory properties to consumers. Concluding remarks.
Eating at home: meals and food choice: Meal patterns and structured choice (routine).
What's on the daily menu (content). Redefining `proper' meals (more content). Eating at the
family table (participation). Table manners (methods). Meals as markers (function). Pulling
the menu together. Concluding remarks.
The role of eating environments in determining food choice: Introduction to the area
and conceptual framework. Antecedents to choice: what individuals bring to the eating environment.
Altering choice via the environment: Situationally manipulating choice. Applications, future
directions and conclusions: Where we can go from here.
The Disposal of the meal: Aperitif. Starter: The consumption view. Soup: A world of foods.
Fish: Dirt and dinner. Main course: Passages of disposal. Dessert: A disposal `turn' to
consumption. Coffee: Food as `forgetting'. Mints: Disposal of the debris.
to see other books related to food product development