Browsing by Author "Bizjak, M. C."
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- Environmental Issues as Drivers for Food Choice: Study from a Multinational FrameworkPublication . Guiné, Raquel P. F.; Batkiene, E.; Florença, S. G.; Djekić, I.; Bizjak, M. C.; Tarcea, M.; Leal, M.; Ferreira, V.; Rumbak, I.; Orfanos, P.; Szucs, V.; Klava, D.; Korzeniowska, M.; Isoldi, K.; Correia, Paula; Ferreira, Manuela; Cardoso, Ana PaulaThis work intended to explore some motivations that influence people’s eating habits to- wards sustainability. This was an observational, cross-sectional study, carried out by questionnaire survey on a non-probabilistic sample of 10,067 participants from 13 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Romania and United States). Results indicated that people prefer fresh local foods from the season, being im- portant because it allows transportation and storage to be reduced, which in many cases implies refrigeration systems and consequent energy expenditure. Although people avoid food waste at home, the awareness for the waste at restaurants still needs to be improved. Consumers seem to prefer foods that have been produced and packed in sustainable ways but still give importance to the package—understandable for food products. The results also indicated significant differences in the food choice motivations between groups for all sociodemographic variables tested (age, sex, marital status, education, professional area, living environment and country), but the association was high only for variable country. Additionally, a tree classification analysis allowed to identify the relative importance of the influential variables on the sustainable food choices, with country being the most important, followed by age and sex. Additionally, discriminant function analysis allowed establishing a model for the relation between country and six variables accounting for preservation of biodiversity, respect for life, save natural resources, save energy, reduce industrial pollution and minimal packaging. Although with some limitations, this study brings valuable in- sight into some aspects linked with sustainable food choices on a number of countries and how people shape their food choices according to some sustainability issues.
- Factors affecting eating habits and knowledge of edible flowers in different countries.Publication . Guiné, Raquel P. F.; Florença, S. G.; Ferrão, A. C.; Bizjak, M. C.; Vombergar, B.; Simoni, N.; Vieira, V.The use of edible flowers (EF) in gastronomy is gaining popularity; however, there is still a lack of information about the factors that most contribute to the acceptance of this product. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the habits associated with the usage of edible flowers in gastronomy in three different countries (Portugal, Slovenia and Brazil) and also to evaluate the major determinants for those habits. Additionally, the level of knowledge was also investigated, particularly in regards with aspects such as perceived risks of toxicity and pesticides. For that, it was used a questionnaire survey of self-response carried out on a sample of 559 participants, form the above mentioned countries. To analyse the data basic descriptive statistical tools were used combined with crosstabs and chi-square tests. Finally a tree classification was performed using the CRT (Classification and Regression Trees) algorithm. The results revealed that, regardless of the country, the participants were familiar with the use of edible flowers in gastronomy. The participants had, in general, already consumed EF and their use was more popular between the Portuguese participants, being the Brazilian those who used them less. There were found significant differences between countries in the form of consumption of edible flowers and also in the types of edible flowers consumed. There were also significant differences regarding the reasons for eating edible flowers. The classification analysis showed that the country and the level of education were the major determinants for the consuming habits and knowledge about EF. This study highlighted that eating habits are very dependent on the customs and traditions of each country and helped understanding the factors that most affect the participants’ attitudes towards the consumption and knowledge of edible flowers.
- Information, Perceptions and Motivations for Healthy Eating on a Group of European CountriesPublication . Guiné, Raquel; Correia, Paula; Ferreira, Manuela; Duarte, João; Cardoso, Ana Paula; Bartkiene, E.; Lele, v.; Starkute, v.; Juodeikiene, G.; Adomaitiene, V.; Steibliene, V.; Zadeike, D.; Szűcs, V.; Hámori, J.; Bizjak, M. C.; Stubelj, M.; Klava, D.; Straumite, E.; Kruma, Z.; Tarcea, M.; Fazakas, Z.; Buicu, F.; Ruta, F.; Rus, V.This is an original research work that is a part of the EATMOT project, which aims to study the eating motivations of different nature in a set of countries all over the world. In this work will be presented some results of the project, regarding three major areas: perceptions about healthy eating, sources of information about healthy diet and healthy motivations for food choice. This is a longitudinal observational study carried out on a non- probabilistic sample with 4870 participants residing in 6 European countries: Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia. Analysis of the data was performed using descriptive statistics and t-test for independent samples or ANOVA with Post-Hoc Tukey HSD, depending on the case. The results obtained allowed concluding that most of the participants have some knowledge about what a healthy diet entails, but still one third did not manifest an opinion for the questions related to healthy eating. Regarding the sources of information about healthy eating, internet was the source more frequently used by a significant part of the participants, while hospitals and health centres were quite irrelevant. This raises some concerns because the internet mighht not always be a reliable source of information. Finally, it was found that the health factors were more influential for the food choices in older people, females, widowed, retired and people working or studying in the area of nutrition.