Browsing by Author "Djekić, I."
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- Analysis of food buying behavior: A multinational study frameworkPublication . Guiné, Raquel P. F.; Ferreira, Manuela; Correia, Paula; Bartkiene, E.; Szucs, V.; Tarcea, M.; Ranilović, J.; Černelič-Bizjak, M.; Isoldi, K.; EL-Kenawy, A.; Ferreira, V.; Klava, D.; Korzeniowska, M.; Vittadini, E.; Leal, M.; Frez-Muñoz, L.; Papageorgiou, M.; Djekić, I.To make everyday food choices is a complex pro- cess, involving decisions which are influenced by distinct aspects associated with, among other fac- tors, purchasing ease, competitiveness of the mar- ket, advertising campaigns and marketing strategies, to mention a few related with aspects linked to com- mercialization. Hence, the objective of this study, which is integrated in the EATMOT project, was to as- sess some factors that influence food buying and food choice, in particular related with aspects such as price,convenience and marketing, as a function of some sociodemographic and geographic variables, namely, age, gender, marital status, level of education, living environment and country of residence. This study involved a questionnaire survey undertak- en on 11,960 participants from 16 countries. The in- strument used in this study was validated and trans- lated into the different languages of the participating countries, following double sided translation-checking methodology. The participants were from: Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and United States of America. The sample was selected by convenience and the partici- pation in the study was voluntary, being the question- naire applied only to adult citizens. Basic descriptive statistics were used for data analysis and the associ- ations between variables were investigated by cross- tabs and chi square tests. Additionally, a tree classifi- cation analysis was performed to assess the relative importance of each of the sociodemographic variables (gender, age group, level of education, country, living environment or marital status). The analysis followed the Classification and Regression Trees (CRT) algorithm with cross validation and the minimum number of cas- es considered for parent or child nodes was 100 and 50, respectively. For all data analysis, the software SPSS from IBM Inc. (version 25) was used and the level of sig- nificance considered was 5%. Results showed statistically significant differences (p < 0.0005) between groups for all sociodemographic vari- ables (gender, age, education, marital status, living en- vironment, country) in terms of the value attributed to convenience, price and marketing when buying foods. In most cases, the associations between the variables were considered very weak, although with a little high- er values for the associations between the country and variables “value convenience” (V = 0.179), “value price” (V = 0.158) and “value marketing” (V = 0.167). Tree clas- sification analysis confirmed for all three dependent variables that the most influential factor was country. This work highlighted that people in different coun - tries and from different sociodemographic groups show different motivations for buying food products.
- 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.
- Estudo Internacional do nível de conhecimento sobre insetos comestíveisPublication . Guiné, Raquel P. F.; Florença, Sofia De Guiné E; Ferreira, Manuela; Costa, Cristina Amaro Da; Correia, Paula; Cardoso, Ana Paula; Campos, Sofia; Anjos, Ofélia; Chuck-Hernandez, C.; Saric, M.; Papageorgiou, M.; Baro, J.; Korzeniowska, M.; Bizjak, M.; Bartkiene, E.; Tarcea, M.; Boustani, N.; Djekić, I.; Klava, D.; Damarli, E.Resumo: Introdução – O consumo de insetos é uma prática tradicional ao longo da história humana, mas o seu consumo é muito variável de acordo com a região do globo. Objetivos – Pretendeu-se investigar o nível de conhecimento sobre insetos comestíveis numa amostra de participantes de treze países. Métodos – Os dados foram recolhidos em 2021 por questionário online. Obtiveram-se 6899 respostas válidas. Para a análise dos dados usou-se análise fatorial, análise de clusters e testes qui-quadrado. Resultados – Foram usados 27 itens para medir o conhecimento, utilizando uma escala do tipo Likert de cinco pontos. Aplicando análise fatorial obteve-se uma solução que explica 55% da variância total observada. Esta inclui 4 fatores que retiveram 22 dos 27 itens iniciais: F1 = Sustentabilidade (8 it); F2 = Nutrição (8 it); F3 = Fatores de Produção (2 it); F4 = Preocupações com a Saúde (4 it). A análise de clusters produziu três grupos de participantes (indivíduos 'receosos', 'agricultores' e 'ecológicos'). A caracterização dos clusters revelou que a idade não influenciou a inclusão nos clusters, enquanto sexo, escolaridade, país, meio onde reside, área profissional e rendimento influenciaram a composição dos clusters. Conclusões – O nível de conhecimento sobre insetos comestíveis é altamente variável de acordo com as características individuais e localização geográfica. Por outro lado, a segmentação permitiu identificar 3 tipos de indivíduos, 'receosos', 'agricultores' e 'ecológicos'.
- Food choices as influenced by environmental concerns: study involving participants from 16 countriesPublication . Guiné, Raquel; Ferreira, Manuela; Correia, Paula; Leal, M.; Ferreira, V.; Rumbak, I.; El-Kenawy, A.; Papageorgiou, M.; Szucs, V.; Vittadini, E.; Klava, D.; Bartkiene, E.; Munoz, L.; Korzeniowska, M.; Tarcea, M.; Djekić, I.; Bizjak, M.; Isoldi, K.The activities related to food production, processing, handling, transportation, storage and disposal of food products have an important impact on sustainability. Hence, people’s food choices also contribute for the definition of the extension of this impact and therefore this work aimed at studying some motivations that influence people’s eating habits. This was an observational, cross-sectional study, undertaken on a non-probabilistic sample of 11960 participants form 16 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Romania, United States of America). The survey was undertaken by means of a questionnaire of self-response, applied only to adult citizens. The results obtained indicated that a great number of participants admit to shape their food choices according to some environmental concerns, like, for example, they prefer foods from the season or those that comply with sustainable processing and packaging. Regarding the food surplus, this seems a priority to avoid at home, but not so much when it comes to restaurants. Factor analysis indicated two types of concerns: Purely Environmental Concerns (PEC) and Sustainability allied to Quality Concerns (SQC), and cluster analysis showed that 54% of the participants tend to make their food choices considering both types of concerns, which is very expressive and positive towards sustainability of the food chain.
- Food safety in Portuguese companies in covid-19 pandemic contextPublication . Gonçalves, J. C.; Guiné, Raquel P. F.; Correia, Paula; Tomašević, I.; Djekić, I.The Food Safety Management System (FSMS) seeks to ensure the quality of food products in the whole food supply chain. In Portugal, like in all European Union countries, enterprises working in the food sector have to fulfil several regulations of food safety and quality to assure those food products won’t compromise consumers’ health. The COVID-19 pandemic brought additional challenges for companies and their food safety systems. Governments also have decreed new (additional) hygiene measures to be implemented by companies and applied to workers when handling products, such as: use of masks, more frequent hand sanitization, the distance between workers, more frequent cleaning of surfaces, etc. The aim of this study is to assess the most important aspects/challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Portuguese food production companies. The instrument used in this study was a survey voluntarily answered by 58 Portuguese companies acting in the food sector, by those responsible for the quality sector, or by those in management positions, using an online platform (Slido ® ). The data was collected in the period from May to August 2020, and the data analysis was made using an Excel database and spreadsheet functionalities. The results showed that the HACCP (part or included in ISO 22000) is the most implemented food safety system in Portuguese companies (in above 50% of the companies included in the study). Also, 20% have International Featured Standards (IFS) certification, and 16% declare to have implemented the ISO 22000 standard. Among the different attributes available, the attribute selected by Portuguese companies as most influential (most scored) to affect the integrity of the companies’ FSMS was the “temperature checking of workers”, and the least influential was the “staff awareness”. Furthermore, a great majority of the companies revealed that the FSMS include documents associated with response/incidents affecting food safety; that COVID-19 pandemic was identified as originating potential emergencies in the FSMS; and that the food safety teams were trained on how to react in case of a pandemic. Globally, companies’ respondents also admit that their FSMS allowed reacting to the pandemic of Covid-19, providing additional training to their staff to implement supplementary personal hygiene procedures (as: handwashing, physical distance, …), reinforce the use of personal protective equipment (such as masks), or adjust the sanitation/ cleaning practices associated with hygiene of the objects. According to the results, the market/retail was the sector of the food supply chain most affected due to pandemic Covid-19, and the Primary sector the least affected. In conclusion, the companies are, in general, committed to implement and reinforce the measures related to the FSMS, even under difficult circumstances like those resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.