Food choices - socio-cultural influences Flashcards
What 3 parameters need to be measured when it comes to C + S influences?
Techniques - food preparation, storage, distribution, processing and meal preparation
Actual food consumption - including variables such as seasonal fluctuations and status of family members
Food ideology - how people think about food and its particular meanings and values
What can cultural influences lead to?
- Differences in habitual consumption of certain foods
- Traditions of preparations
- Can lead to restrictions
Culture rules dictate appropriateness of where, how and what types of food are consumed.
How does food have ‘symbolic’ status in terms of culture?
- Food used within ceremonies and celebrations, hospitality
- Food withdrawal seen as punishment
Why does culture effect food choice?
People construct their perceptions, beliefs and attitudes about foods on the basis of their cultural values.
What is a traditional UK cultural food choice?
Having 3 meals a day
In what way can culture relate to the consumption of food?
- Meal times/ patterns
- Types of food eaten
- Who we eat with and where
- Celebrations
What are some examples of cultural religious food choices?
Jews cannot eat pork
During Ramadan, Muslims eat between sunset and sun rise, fasting in between.
Muslims do not eat pork
What are some environmental/ ethical concerns that impact food choice?
- Packaging
- Additives vs natural ingredients
- Organic products
- GM or irradiated foods
- Food miles
- Local produce - sustainable farming
- Welfare of producers (fair trade)
- Food scares (e.g salmonella
- Welfare of produce (e.g. battery farm vs free range)
What are some social influences towards food choice?
- Families/ households sitting down together to have a meal
- Celebrations, .e.g. going out for a meal for mother’s day or a birthday
- Meeting up with people/ socialising often included coming together with food, e.g going for a meal to catch up or going out for a picnic
- Lunch times at school are for eating and children are allowed to socialise and spend time talking about what they want, without it being regimented in a school classroom environment.
- Cooking and food is a career, people can meet other people through food and cooking
- Homeless people sometimes only socialise with others when meeting in soup kitchens or charity food runs
What does commensality mean?
Positive social interactions that are associated with people eating together.
How does education and knowledge effect food choice?
- People need to know what to do with the food when it is purchased
- Some people don’t know how to cook
- People don’t aren’t educated on what the best foods to eat are and how to incorporate them into their lives
- People may not know how to provide healthy meals when they have not much time to cook so choose the quick unhealthy options
- People may not understand what balance is and what it requires to build a balanced plate and have a healthy balanced lifestyle
- A lot of more healthy options are more complicated to cook in order for them to taste nice
How does media influence people’s food choices?
- Marketing
- Brands
- Product placement
- Influencers/ social media
- Billboards
- Posters
- Adverts
- Documentaries
- Sponsorship deals
- TV shows
All these things can trick people’s psychology into ‘wanting’ to choose certain foods.
How do social trend influence food choices and types?
- War time rationing –> people could only buy certain amounts of food
- Electronic development –> people having ovens, fridges and microwaves in houses
- Introduction of convenience foods –> not having to spend a long time cooking
- Fast food places opening
- Increases in food travel –> bringing over cultural food
- Celebrities and chefs making cookery books
- Social media –> a way of food promotion
- Novelty food for children
What needs to be considered in order to make sense of consumer’s food choices?
- Production/ processing
- Distribution
- Acquisition
- Preparation
- Consumption
What geographical factors effect food choice?
- Proximity of and access to shops
- Town centre shops moving to suburbs in large industrial estates
- People may struggle to get to shops (transport)
- Often small villages have a small local shop which may not have a wide variety of food
