Food Procurement Practices Research Articles

Analysis of household food procurement practices from a sustainability perspective in grand Lomé, Togo

Over the past ten years, African cities have been trying to move towards sustainable food supply by setting up short food distribution circuits (CCs). This article analyzes household behavior towards CCs in Grand Lomé, Togo, using a survey of 963 randomly sampled households, 13 focus groups, 6 individual interviews, as well as observation. Excel spreadsheets and R-Studio software were used to process and analyze quantitative data, while content analysis was applied to the verbal statements collected. At the end of the surveys, multiple-choice questions enabled us to detect, firstly, a low level of use of CCs, with 8.79%, 7.73% and 4.66% of respondents respectively resorting to "online purchasing", "self-production of food" and "the farmer's home". On the other hand, 92.37% of households go to public markets and 81.99% use informal food shops. Next, a correlation was observed between the "type of shop" frequented and "profession" : salaried workers, shopkeepers and students go to quality shops, while artisans make do with lower-quality shops. Finally, the main reasons for visiting markets are "affordability" and "physical proximity", while "quality" and the "local character of the food" are less important. Actions are proposed to increase the role of CCs in this city.

Hunting, foraging and the pursuit of animal ontologies

Climate change and the ecological crisis are fueling growing critiques of human exceptionalism within calls to reconfigure human-nature relations. This paper explores how some self-provisioning hunters and foragers in Victoria, Australia are invoking animal ontologies within their attempts to decenter the human and create sustainable, emplaced lifestyles and diets. For this cohort, hands-on food provisioning serves as a means of re-constructing the human as animal through the embodied physicality of food procurement practices, and the multispecies engagements and intimate understandings of local ecosystems these practices entail. Meat eating remains a complex ethical conundrum, however, and I examine how their conceptualizations of the human as animal serve also to justify their killing for food. This is evident in self-provisioning hunters’ construction of the embodied human as both predator and prey and through their desires for reciprocity through the eventual return of their own bodies to the food chain within their local ecosystems.

Impact of universal free school meals on health and equity: international policy scoping review

Abstract Issue Every child should have access to healthy foods, engagement with peers, and thrive in educational environments. Universal free school meal policies can address health inequalities and the wider determinants of health. Such policies can impact economic development, community well-being, gender equity, and environmental sustainability. Description The World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Investment for Health and Well-being undertook an international scoping policy review to identify examples of universal free school meals policy and practice. Resources, including government, public health, and non-governmental organisational websites, were reviewed. Data were extracted on delivery models and outcomes including health, equity, sustainability, and economic well-being. Best practices were summarised. The findings were shared with key Government stakeholders to provide high level overview of the impact of school food programmes and procurement practices on health and wellbeing, wider determinants and social outcomes to inform local policy and practice decisions. Results The report provides evidence on the impacts of universal free school meal programmes as well as promising practices to improve health, equity and well-being. Outcomes explored within the report include inter alia: health and well-being (nutrition, physical health), wider determinants (inequities, educational attainment, poverty, food insecurity) and social outcomes (stigma, social skills, uptake of school food programmes). Taking a global perspective, the report summarises international evidence to support inclusive, sustainable, and equitable solutions, such as improving economic well-being, promoting sustainable procurement practices, and maximising social return on investment. Lessons Mobilising and sharing international evidence and best practice supports equitable, long-term action to improve the health and well-being of children, local economies, and the climate. Key messages • International learning provides key insights to support innovative, equitable and effective policies. • Sustainable policies should address health and social outcomes, and support children and the environment.

Environmental sustainability and food provision in the early childhood and education setting.

To describe environmentally sustainable (ES) and healthy food provision practices in childcare services in Victoria, Australia. Cross-sectional study. Childcare services providing food onsite. Staff completed an online survey that explored ES food provision practices including purchasing seasonal/local food, food waste awareness/management, and food cost/child/d. A purposively sampled subgroup conducted weighed audits to determine compliance with guidelines and total waste, serving waste (prepared, not served) and plate waste. Survey results found 8 % of services (n 129) had previously conducted food waste audits. Service audits (n 12) found 27 % total food waste (range: 9 % - 64 %). Statistically significant differences in plate waste were found between services who had previously conducted food waste audits (7 %) and those who had not (17 %) (P = 0·04). The most common ES practice was 'providing seasonal food'; the least common was 'maintaining a compost system' and 'less packaged foods'. Most services (95 %) purchased foods from supermarkets with 23 % purchasing from farmers' markets. This was statistically lower for regional/rural services (8 %), compared to metropolitan services (27 %) (P = 0·04). Twenty-seven per cent of services spent AUD2·50 or less per child per day on food. Only one audited service provided a menu compliant with childcare food provision guidelines. Childcare settings procure and provide large volumes of food; however, food waste awareness appears limited, and environmentally sustainable food procurement practices may be less affordable and difficult to achieve. Understanding the impact of food waste awareness on food waste practices and food costs across time merits further research.

Culinary practices and pottery use in Minoan Crete. Integrating lipidic residue analysis in the study of cooking vessels from Sissi and Malia

Minoan cooking practices and subsistence strategies have been an integral part of the archaeological discourse in Aegean prehistory for the past 20 years, although the focus was largely on feasting deposits and food consumption. Given that the spectrum of human activities related with food production and preparation is wide and complex, shedding light on pottery use can reveal important information on the resources available and the practices of cooking involved, as well as their social repercussions.We report on the analytical investigation of cooking vessels from two neighboring Minoan settlements, Sissi and Malia, both located in north east Crete. In particular, eleven (11) samples were selected from cooking pottery excavated in Area Pi, district of the Malia palace dated to the Neopalatial period. Another twenty-nine (29) cooking pottery samples were chosen from Sissi dated from Neopalatial to Postpalatial periods and therefore extending the chronological scope of the project. Molecular analysis was implemented, as part of an integrated approach on study of cooking vessels, aiming at exploring the resources available, food habits and vessel use during Middle and Late Minoan period. To this end different vessels of common cooking types were analysed, such as tripod cooking pots, cooking jars and cooking dishes. The data generated revealed the use of beeswax and Pinaceae resins, as well as the preservation of lipids derived from plant and animal fats.Significant data on vessel use through time was generated, providing significant insights on the manifold relationship between food procurement, preparation and consumption practices and on the potential of new research methods in their investigation in Minoan Crete.

Local food procurement by hospitals: a scoping review.

Local food procurement by hospitals is gaining traction as governments and advocacy groups seek to influence food systems and strengthen local communities, but there is little empirical evidence as to its practical application or efficacy. The aims of this review were to describe the extent, range and nature of local food procurement models in healthcare foodservices, and to understand the barriers and enablers to implementation, including from the perspective of stakeholders across the supply chain. A scoping review was conducted following the protocol published in the Open Science Framework Registration (DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/T3AX2). Five electronic databases were searched for the following concepts: 'hospital foodservice', 'local food procurement practices', 'the extent, range and nature' and/or 'the barriers and enablers of procurement'. Eligible peer-reviewed original research published in English from the year 2000 was included following a two-step selection process. The final library included nine studies. Most studies (7 of 9) were from the United States. Three studies used survey methods and reported high rates (58%-91%) of US hospital participation in local food procurement. Studies offered minimal description of local procurement models, but two models, conventional ('on-contract') or off-contract, were typically used. Barriers to local food procurement included restricted access to suitable local food supply, limited kitchen resources and inadequate technology to trace local food purchase thereby limiting evaluation capabilities. Enablers included organisational support, passionate champions and opportunistic, incremental change. There is a paucity of peer-reviewed studies describing local food procurement by hospitals. Details of local food procurement models were generally lacking: categorisable as either purchases made 'on-contract' via conventional means or 'off-contract'. If hospital foodservices are to increase their local food procurement, they require access to a suitable, reliable and traceable supply, that acknowledges their complexity and budgetary constraints.

Complex, Varied and Evolving Manifestations of Food Agency in Daily Life Among Diabetes Prevention Program Participants in Baltimore, Maryland

ObjectiveTo characterize food agency (one's capacity to procure and prepare food in particular contexts) among Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) participants and gather perspectives about experiences with DPP. DesignPhotograph-elicitation in-depth interviews and survey measures. SettingBaltimore, Maryland (June–August 2021). ParticipantsBlack women (n = 13) who participated in DPP. Phenomenon of InterestFood agency and strategies used to procure and prepare food and the influence of DPP on daily food behaviors. Surveys measured food agency using the Cooking and Food Provisioning Action Scale and cooking behaviors. AnalysisThematic analysis of qualitative in-depth interviews and descriptive statistics for quantitative measures. ResultsAs quantitative and qualitative data revealed, participants were frequent and confident cooks with high food agency. Participants viewed cooking as a key strategy for healthy eating and desired more hands-on cooking instruction within DPP to develop new healthy cooking skills. The primary barriers identified were related to lack of time or energy. Food procurement and preparation practices shifted over time, and DPP was a key influence on current behaviors. Conclusions and ImplicationsFood agency is complex and manifests heterogeneously in daily life. A life course, contextual, and food agency-based approach could be considered for future diabetes prevention interventions.

Looking Across and Within: Immigration as a Unifying Structural Factor Impacting Cardiometabolic Health and Diet.

Immigration has been identified as an important social determinant of health (SDH), embodying structures and policies that reinforce positions of poverty, stress, and limited social and economic mobility. In the public health literature with regard to diet, immigration is often characterized as an individual-level process (dietary acculturation) and is largely examined in one racial/ethnic subgroup at a time. For this narrative review, we aim to broaden the research discussion by describing SDH common to the immigrant experience and that may serve as barriers to healthy diets. A narrative review of peer-reviewed quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods studies on cardiometabolic health disparities, diet, and immigration was conducted. Cardiometabolic disease disparities were frequently described by racial/ethnic subgroups instead of country of origin. While cardiovascular disease and obesity risk differed by country of origin, diabetes prevalence was typically higher for immigrant groups vs United States (US)-born individuals. Common barriers to achieving a healthy diet were food insecurity; lack of familiarity with US food procurement practices, food preparation methods, and dietary guidelines; lack of familiarity and distrust of US food processing and storage methods; alternative priorities for food purchasing (eg, freshness, cultural relevance); logistical obstacles (eg, transportation); stress; and ethnic identity maintenance. To improve the health of immigrant populations, understanding similarities in cardiometabolic health disparities, diet, and barriers to health across immigrant communities-traversing racial/ethnic subgroups-may serve as a useful framework. This framework can guide research, policy, and public health practices to be more cohesive, generalizable, and meaningfully inclusive.

Assessment of the quality of inpatient meals and nutrition and dietetics service processes in select Philippine public hospitals.

The nutrition and dietetics service in Philippine public hospitals was implemented by the Department of Health in 2016 to standardise the daily allowance and nutritional content of inpatient meals. Five years later, it is timely for the Department of Health to assess the quality of inpatient meals and mandated nutrition processes in areas such as staffing, food service, and outcomes monitoring. A mixed-method sequential explanatory design was employed using (1) quantitative assessment through a facility survey (n=193 hospitals) and (2) qualitative exploration of quantitative results through 6 focus group discussions (n=36 hospitals). Philippine public hospitals were unequipped with the inputs necessary to implement processes that produce high-quality meals for patients. The hospitals were unable to comply with the required minimum meal allowance (51%), nutritional content of meals (40%), and food service standards. Moreover, they had insufficient human resources and inefficient food procurement practices. The quality of nutrition care and inpatient meals in Philippine public hospitals, who serve mostly people on low incomes, is a neglected problem in the Philippines. Moving forward, a systems approach involving the Department of Health, its regional offices, and hospital management is necessary to equip Philippine public hospitals with the inputs and structures necessary to provide high-quality nutrition care and inpatient meals that will facilitate patient recovery and overall patient health.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Accessibility Procurement for Baltimore City Corner Store Owners

ObjectivesCorner stores are small independently run retail outlets that serve their immediate neighborhoods. Since nutritious foods have high supply-side purchasing and transportation costs, these stores more readily stock energy-dense processed foods and sugar-sweetened beverages. To improve the cost-effective distribution of healthy foods in an under-resourced urban food system, we are developing the Baltimore Urban food Distribution (BUD) mobile application (app), which aims to improve the ability for corner stores to stock healthier items via collective purchasing and shared delivery from local suppliers. No studies have been conducted on how COVID-19 has impacted food procurement by corner stores. This study aims to (1) list corner store sourcing and procurement strategies pre- and post-COVID-19; (2) quantify corner store sales and traffic pre- and post-COVID-19; and (3) identify perceived barriers to the supply chain because of COVID-19. MethodsIn-depth interviews (n = 13) and unstructured interviews (n = 28) with Baltimore, MD corner store owners have been ongoing since December 2021, where 38 stores are anticipated to be recruited by spring of 2022. Interviews took place at the corner store lasting 60 minutes, and included one survey, the Store Impact Questionnaire (SIQ) and Adult Impact Questionnaire (AIQ) and additional open-ended questions. ResultsCorner store owner food procurement strategies have changed, and they have experienced decreased traffic and sales since the onset of COVID-19. This includes having to minimize what is offered in the store, having less availability of healthy items, and using fewer vendors. We anticipate this study will further demonstrate that food procurement practices were destabilized because of COVID-19. ConclusionsUnderstanding the impact of COVID-19 is crucial in improving the distribution tactics implemented by the BUD to ensure continuous availability of affordable, healthy foods and beverages. The success of the BUD app is dependent on meeting the needs of corner store owners and adapting to the changing food environment. Funding SourcesNHLBI, NIH, award number R34HL145368.

Healthy and Environmentally Sustainable Food Procurement and Foodservice in Australian Aged Care and Healthcare Services: A Scoping Review of Current Research and Training

Balancing the adoption of environmentally sustainable food systems in Australian healthcare and aged care settings whilst meeting nutritional requirements has never been more critical. This scoping review aimed to identify: the major authoritative reports/guidelines related to healthy and environmentally sustainable food procurement and foodservice in aged care and healthcare services released by international and Australian governments/organizations; and the scope of healthy and environmentally sustainable food procurement and foodservice research and training initiatives in aged care and healthcare services implemented in Australia over the past decade. A systematic search yielded n = 17 authoritative reports/guidelines and n = 20 publications describing Australian research and training initiatives. Implementation of healthy and sustainable food procurement and foodservices were limited by staff knowledge and self-efficacy, and unsupportive management. Further intervention and monitoring of healthy and sustainable food procurement and foodservice practices is needed. Whilst professionals working in and managing these services require upskilling to apply evidence-based approaches, no system-wide training programs are currently available. There is an urgent need to resolve the existing gap between recommendations to adopt environmentally sustainable practices and staff training across these sectors.

Factors related to poor diet quality in food insecure populations.

It is well-known that consumption of nutrient-rich foods, especially fruits and vegetables, are low among food insecure populations. While cost is an important reason for these inadequate diets, underlying factors such as poor food purchase and management behaviors, and low levels of psychosocial factors that motivate dietary improvements, may exacerbate food insufficiency among the food-insecure. In this analysis, we examine these underlying factors across food-secure and food-insecure populations in Texas. Data on self-reported food insecurity, dietary practices, behaviors related to food purchase and management, and psychosocial factors related to food were obtained from a survey administered to a convenience sample of SNAP-eligible adults (n = 1,171) ages 18 and older, drawn from multiple low-income areas across the state of Texas in 2018 over two survey rounds. Mixed linear regression models adjusting for zip code as a random effect were used to compare mediators of diet across food-insecure and food-secure participants. Using the binary categories defined by the U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module scale 753 participants (64.3% of the sample collected) were classified as food insecure. Food insecure participants had notably unhealthier diet profiles, with significantly lower (p < .001) frequency and average serving size of fruit and vegetable consumption. They were also less likely to use food labels to make food choices (p < .001), and to cook a meal at home (p = .008). In contrast, differences across food secure and food insecure households in planning meals before going shopping, and making lists were much smaller. Finally, levels of various psychosocial precursors of healthy eating were also lower among food insecure participants, including self-efficacy for healthy eating (p = .014), self-efficacy to plan meals with vegetables (p = .048), and stage of change of fruit and vegetable consumption (p < .001). Overall, eating habits, specific food procurement and preparation practices, and levels of psychosocial precursors of healthy eating are significantly poorer among food insecure populations compared with food-secure low-income participants. Our results point to specific behaviors that can be targeted in educational and skill building interventions seeking to address poor dietary practices among the food insecure.

District Wellness Policy Nutrition Standards Are Associated with Healthier District Food Procurement Practices in the United States.

Food procurement policies often exist to require that schools purchase foods with specific nutrient standards. Such policies are increasingly being used with the hope of improving access to healthier foods and beverages. Local wellness policies, required in any school district that participates in Federal Child Nutrition Programs, often contain specific nutrition standards that detail what can be sold to students during the school day. This study investigated the extent to which nutrition standards in wellness policies may be associated with healthier nutrition standards in district-level purchasing specifications. Cross-sectional data from the 2014–2015 school year for 490 school food authorities from 46 states and the District of Columbia were collected as part of the School Nutrition and Meal Cost Study and the National Wellness Policy Study. Survey-adjusted multivariable logistic regression models were computed to examine the association between district wellness policy nutrition standards and corresponding district food purchasing specifications. Results show that having a district wellness policy with corresponding nutrition standards and being in a rural area were associated with district food purchasing specifications for specific nutrients. These findings contribute to the literature to suggest that having a wellness policy with detailed nutrition standards may help to increase access to healthier foods and beverages.

Not Just Small Potatoes: Cultural Entrepreneurship in the Moralizing of Markets

While there is a growing literature on moral markets that aim to create social value through market exchange, much of it has focused on how producer activism is able to legitimate new, institutionally complex, organizational and economic forms that are inscribed with competing market and social/community logics. Much less attention has been directed towards understanding how moral markets are scaled by the entry of large, established organizations. While the scaling of moral markets entails the risk of conservative goal transformation, we still know relatively little about how moral values become embedded in markets, providing an ongoing catalyst for social value creation. Based on a five-year ethnographic study, we show how cultural entrepreneurship associated with the creation of a cross-sector partnership, legitimated local food procurement by large, established organizations, enabling the scaling of the overall market. We argue that a key aspect of their success had to do with bridging the institutional void segregating local and industrial food logics. Based on our study, we highlight how this institutional void bridging was facilitated by cultural entrepreneurship that initially focused on communications that decoupled the values and practices associated with the local food logic, and subsequently, reinfused locavore values by valorizing stories and activities that recoupled those values to food procurement practices after the institutional void was diminished. We discuss the implications of our study for research on moral markets and cultural entrepreneurship.

Spatial and temporal disparities in human subsistence in the Neolithic Rhineland gateway

The Alsace region bordering the Rhine River was extensively occupied during the Neolithic by farming societies with domesticated animal. The first settlers were two sub-groups of the Linearbandkeramik who appeared to diverge in several respects, including: pottery styles, house orientations and funerary rituals. To explore whether this was reflected in food procurement practices investigations were performed of organic residues in nearly 900 pottery vessels from sites across the region. The results reveal lipid biomarker and stable carbon evidence for exploitation of plant and bee products, and most significantly, extensive domestic animal products including: non-ruminant carcass products, and ruminant primary and secondary products. Critically, culturally-related economic differences were seen spatially between the upper and lower Alsatian groups. Temporal differences were confirmed using compound-specific radiocarbon dating of fatty acids preserved in potsherds, showing that while milk exploitation was widespread during the early Neolithic in UA, it only became commonplace in LA generations later.

Intended and Unintended Consequences of a Community-Based Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Dietary Intervention on the Flathead Reservation of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

Tribal communities in the United States face disparities to accessing healthy foods including high-quality produce. A six-week fresh fruit and vegetable (FV) dietary intervention, Eat Fresh, was co-designed with a Community Advisory Board of local food and nutrition stakeholders on the Flathead Reservation of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Montana. Eat Fresh was implemented as a pilot study with low-income participants (n = 19) enrolled in the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations toward improving dietary quality and perceptions of well-being. We evaluated Eat Fresh at pre- and post-intervention on the basis on food procurement practices, dietary quality using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI), Body Mass Index (BMI), blood pressure, and participant perceptions of health. Participants reported consuming a greater number of types of FVs daily during the intervention (p < 0.005 for fruits and p > 0.19 for vegetables). Overall, participants found Eat Fresh moderately challenging to adhere to with the main barriers being access to ingredients in recipes (39.51% of responses), time constraints to cook (35.80%), and lack of financial resources (33.33%). Dietary quality improved during the intervention from a mean HEI score of 48.82 (± 11.88) out of 100–56.92 (± 11.88; (p > 0.12). HEI scores for fruit consumption significantly increased (p < 0.05) from 1.69 (out of 5 points) during the pre-intervention to 2.96 during the post-intervention. BMI and blood pressure increased for several participants, highlighting an unintended consequence. Most participants responded that FV consumption made them feel either very good (51.16%) or good about their health (43.02%) with the majority (83%) perceiving an improvement in energy. Findings of this pilot study highlight both intended and unintended consequences of a dietary intervention that provide lessons in co-designing community-based programs.

Foodscape: A scoping review and a research agenda for food security-related studies.

Since 1995, the term ‘foodscape’, a contraction of food and landscape, has been used in various research addressing social and spatial disparities in public health and food systems. This article presents a scoping review of the literature examining how this term is employed and framed. We searched publications using the term foodscape in the Web of Science Core Collection, MEDLINE, and Scopus databases. Analyzing 140 publications, we highlight four approaches to the foodscape: (i) Spatial approaches use statistics and spatial analysis to characterize the diversity of urban foodscapes and their impacts on diet and health, at city or neighborhood scales. (ii) Social and cultural approaches at the same scales show that foodscapes are socially shaped and highlight structural inequalities by combining qualitative case studies and quantitative surveys of food procurement practices. (iii) Behavioral approaches generally focus on indoor micro-scales, showing how consumer perceptions of foodscapes explain and determine food behaviors and food education. (iv) Systemic approaches contest the global corporate food regime and promote local, ethical, and sustainable food networks. Thus, although spatial analysis was the first approach to foodscapes, sociocultural, behavioral and systemic approaches are becoming more common. In the spatial approach, the term ‘foodscape’ is synonymous with ‘food environment’. In the three other approaches, ‘foodscape’ and ‘food environment’ are not synonymous. Scholars consider that the foodscape is not an environment external to individuals but a landscape including, perceived, and socially shaped by individuals and policies. They share a systemic way of thinking, considering culture and experience of food as key to improving our understanding of how food systems affect people. Foodscape studies principally address three issues: public health, social justice, and sustainability. The review concludes with a research agenda, arguing that people-based and place-based approaches need to be combined to tackle the complexity of the food-people-territory nexus.

From contracts to culture: Exploring how to leverage local, sustainable food purchasing by institutions for food systems change

In recent years, certain hospitals, schools, and campuses across Canada have shown that they can transform their practices to serve more local and sustainable food. These changes have often been led by visionary champions, and in some cases aided by supportive public policies or programs. Yet the presence of these isolated success stories has so far not proven sufficient to tip a critical mass of institutions towards sustainability. There is great potential in leveraging institutional foodservices, with an estimated $8.5 billion market sales in Canada in 2016 (fsStrategy, 2016), to shift systems towards greater sustainability. In 2014, Food Secure Canada and the McConnell Foundation launched an action-research project and embarked on a learning journey to explore two key questions: how can food service operations and procurement practices be changed to increase local, sustainable institutional procurement; and how can this work be scaled. In 2014–2016, eight institutional food projects across Canada came together as a national Learning Group. Drawing from their experiences working in different contexts and scales, our action research project identified program and policy innovations to leverage systems change. This article explores how institutions currently buy food, and reveals the systemic barriers to increasing local, sustainable food procurement. We share lessons learned about the interplay of menus, food service operations, contracts, institutional demand, and food culture that helped to overcome these barriers. We identify enabling, peer-based learning and support as particularly relevant in a national context for the scaling out, up, and deep of local, sustainable food procurement.

Innovative Food Procurement Strategies of Women Living in Khayelitsha, Cape Town

The combination of persistent levels of inequality and poverty, alongside the advent of rapid urbanisation, mean urban food insecurity is set to be one of the biggest development challenges of this century. As women play a crucial role in the food security status of urban poor households, understanding and supporting the life-sustaining food procurement practices used by women ought to be a key strategy in addressing urban food insecurity. Particularly, the paper draws on primary qualitative research I conducted with women from Khayelitsha, Cape Town’s largest informal settlement. This case study explored the beliefs, practices and preferences that govern women’s food procurement choices. The study found that women adopt a range of innovative food procurement strategies, which significantly improve household food security prospects. These include buying in bulk, skilfully navigating the informal and the formal food economies, utilising their social networks and trading off food with other important non-food expenses. Understanding these practices can provide greater insight into how best to enhance urban food security. The implications are that women need to be better supported rather than, as most mainstream programmes suggest, encouraged to take on more work outside the household, whilst still faced with the lion’s share of housework.

Intelligent agent technology

智能代理科技：论其与酒店食品采购的实践和效益摘要研究目的本论文旨在研究智能代理科技（IAT）对于酒店食品采购实践（FPPRs）和食品采购效益（FPP）的作用与影响。本论文还探索了酒店业中FPPR对于FPP的作用与影响。研究设计/方法/途径本论文采用问卷采样形式，佛罗里达州豪华酒店经理为问卷样本，有效样本数量为78份。本论文采用偏最小二乘回归（PLS-SEM）的样本数据分析方法来分析数据。研究结果IAT对于FPPR和FPP有着积极有效的促进作用。此外，研究结果还表明PPR对于FPP有着积极促进作用。研究理论限制/意义本论文对IAT在FSCM领域以及酒店FPPR如何受到IAT技术的促进作用，进行全面理论概述。本论文还为酒店行业和科技领域提供了独到见解。研究实践意义酒店经理应该多关注IAT在FPPR领域的应用，特别是在搜集信息、供应商合作、采购、以及智能分析方面。此外，酒店经理应该加强酒店员工对于科技的敏感和熟识度，以最大限度发挥IAT在FPP领域的效用。研究原创性/价值本论文扩展了科技创新领域的文献，主要展示了IAT在酒店FP领域的应用。本论文采用的理论框架可以作为未来酒店业研究，特别是在FSCM领域研究的理论基础。关键词智能代理科技，食品采购实践，食品采购效益，供应链管理，豪华酒店