Food Behaviours and Culture
Core concepts
Consumer food choice is shaped by interacting factors: physiological (hunger, appetite, allergies, health status), psychological (taste, habits, attitudes, self-efficacy), social (family, peers, culture, religion, media and influencers), economic (price, income, convenience) and environmental (availability, seasonality, marketing, labelling). Culture includes traditional foods, religious dietary rules, feasting and fasting practices, and the meaning of hospitality; migration and globalisation create fusion and change. Food literacy covers planning, selecting, preparing, eating and understanding food, and is a stronger predictor of diet quality than knowledge alone. Marketing and food labelling (nutrition information panels, health claims, front-of-pack labels) influence perception; be able to explain how claims can mislead.
Traps
Do not reduce behaviour to a single cause; questions reward identifying interacting determinants. Avoid cultural stereotyping: describe practices respectfully and note variation within groups. Distinguish knowledge from behaviour (people may know but not act). Be careful with 'healthy' claims and note that a product low in fat may be high in sugar.
Worked rule of thumb
Use an ABC-style frame: Antecedents (culture, cost, availability, knowledge), Behaviour (what is bought and eaten), Consequences (health, satisfaction, feedback). To explain why a family buys takeaway, list at least one factor from each of physiological, social, economic and environmental categories, then identify the strongest influence and justify it with the scenario detail.