Influence of Context on Motives Underlying Food Choice

Abstract

AbstractContext can be regarded as the situational and temporal conditions in which food choice occurs. Although context has a large effect on consumer perception and choice of food products, it has been mostly overlooked in research exploring the determinants of consumers' food choice. The aims of the present work were to study the influence of purchase and consumption context on motives underlying food choice and to evaluate if gender and age modulate this effect. One hundred and ninety‐five consumers from Montevideo (Uruguay) participated in an online survey. They were asked to complete a free‐listing task about all the things they take into account when selecting foods in four contexts: purchase, lunch, snacking and dinner. Consumer responses were qualitatively analyzed and grouped into categories and their cognitive salience was determined. Categories were grouped into 10 dimensions: price, health/nutrition, perceived quality, freshness, sensory characteristics, hedonics, convenience, context, variety and satiety. Context had a strong influence on the motives underlying consumer food choices. The dimensions with the highest cognitive salience in the purchase context were price, perceived quality and freshness, while convenience and variety were the most relevant dimensions for the consumption contexts. The effect of context on the salience of the elicited categories was not markedly affected by gender and age.Practical ApplicationsSeveral of the most salient motives responsible for food choices elicited by consumers in the free listing task of the present study are not included in the Food Choice Questionnaire. This suggests the need to revisit this instrument to include factors that have been overlooked, such as brand, satiety and variety. Besides, the fact that context had a large influence on the salience of the elicited categories indicates that asking consumers about the motives that determine their choices in a general context can lead to misleading results. Thus, specific contexts should be considered when studying consumers' motives underlying food choices.