Convenience foods: what, why and when (original) (raw)
Related papers
Editorial. Convenience Foods: Schopping, Cooking & Eating
Appetite, 2015
An attempt is made to assess the academic interest in convenience foods in the past decades in order to introduce this special section on historical dimensions of convenience foods, prepared by FOST, a unit that investigates the history and culture of food (up to today). First, the rise of academic interest is trailed since the appearance of the concept in the 1920s and, next, themes in connection to this interest are considered (e.g., time, health, or gender). Then, definitions of convenience foods are tracked since the 1950s, which leads to suggesting a clear focus (linking convenience foods to home cooking of meals and industrially produced foods). The conclusion stresses the changing definition of the concept, as well as the need to gain historical insight in present-day issues related to convenience foods.
This paper provides a critical review of recent research on the consumption of 'convenience' food, highlighting the contested nature of the term and exploring its implications for public health and environmental sustainability. It distinguishes between convenience food in general and particular types of convenience food, such as ready-meals, tracing the structure and growth of the market for such foods with a particular emphasis on the UK which currently has the highest rate of ready-meal consumption in Europe. Having established the definitional complexities of the term, the paper presents the evidence from a systematic review of the literature, highlighting the significance of convenience food in timesaving and time-shifting, the importance of recent changes in domestic labour and family life, and the way the consumption of convenience food is frequently moralized. The paper shows how current debates about convenience food are part of a longer discursive history about food, health and nutrition. It discusses current levels of public understanding about the links between convenience food, environmental sustainability and food waste. The paper concludes by making a case for understanding the consumption of convenience food in terms of everyday social practices, emphasising its habitual and routine character. (P. Jackson). 1 suggest that the earliest reference to convenience food was in a paper by which made the distinction between convenience, shopping and speciality goods. 2 On the nature of freshness as a complex and contested categorization of food, see Freidberg (2009) 'perishable history'.
Role, Relevance and Significance of Convenience Food -A Literature Review Approach
2021
The following paper provides a critical review of research on convenience food. It also highlights the significance of convenience food in the dimensions of time saving and time shifting and its growing importance felt due to the recent changes witnessed in domestic labor and family life. A total of 14 different classification of convenience food is presented in the paper and out of 14 categories four categories of convenience food are widely used. These are eat as it, ready to use, ready to cook and ready to heat. The paper concludes by making a comprehensive study for understanding the consumption of convenience food in terms of everyday social practices, emphasizing on its habitual and routine character.
Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, 2019
The Moralization of Convenience Food
2018
This chapter discusses the moralization of convenience food, showing how its negative evaluation frequently involves implicit or explicit comparison with other sorts of food, using fresh ingredients, cooked ‘from scratch’. The chapter demonstrates how convenience food is moralized through its associations with diet-related ill health, through deeply gendered ideas about maternal responsibility and through arguments about the alleged decline of cooking skills (explored in more detail in Chap. 8). Convenience food is also caught up in contemporary debates about the responsibilization of consumers through notions of individualized ‘food choice’. The empirical evidence presented in the chapter shows how participants justified their use of convenience food in relation to ideas about sustainability and waste, eating on a budget and the need to accommodate family members’ dietary tastes and preferences. Their frequent use of irony and self-deprecating humour highlights the moral ambivalenc...
At-Home Convenience Food Consumption and BMI
U.S. consumers spent 1,165billiononfoodin2008,anincreaseof54percentfromthe1,165 billion on food in 2008, an increase of 54 percent from the 1,165billiononfoodin2008,anincreaseof54percentfromthe740 billion spent in 1998 (USDA-ERS 2009). A changing workforce comprised of more working women and more two-income households, means that busy consumers demanded quick, easy-to-prepare convenience foods. The strong economy of the late 1990s and early 2000s has increased incomes and allows more consumers to pay for highly processed convenience foods. Consumption of value-added processing and packaging of at-home foods increased, spending at restaurants and fast-food outlets grew, and prices for marketing inputs rose. Away-from-home expenditures have increased from 47.3% of the total food expenditures in 1998 to 48.5% in 2008 (USDA-ERS 2009).
A Study on The Benefits of Convenience Foods To Non-Working Women
The last decade and half has seen a remarkable growth in the manufacture of convenience food industry in India and the non-working women are not left far behind in selecting such products for their family. She always ponders about the right kind of preparations that she needs to make for her family be it any time or any meal of the day. In this process she has to keep take the choices of her family members into account and try to strike a right equilibrium in her food preparation.
Negotiating the riskscapes of convenience food
Erdkunde
Addressing the spatial dimensions of risk, this paper examines the multiple ways that consumers negotiate the 'riskscapes' associated with the consumption of convenience food. It explores how convenience food poses a range of risks and potential ways of mitigating those risks. Drawing on empirical research from Germany and the UK, the paper demonstrates how food risks should be contextualized within the practices of everyday life and how consumer understandings of risk differ from expert risk assessments. The paper locates a number of different sites within the riskscape associated with convenience food, going beyond the focus on food safety and security that are the main concerns of health authorities and government advisors. Deicit models of food risk are criticised and alternatives are proposed that emphasise the socially embedded nature of risk within the practices of everyday life. Zusammenfassung: Mit Bezug auf die räumlichen Dimensionen von Risko werden in diesem Aritkel die unterschiedlichen Aushandlungen von "Riskscapes" im Zusammenhang mit dem Konsum von Convenience Food untersucht. Dabei wird Convenience Food nicht nur als Quelle von Risiken gesehen, sondern auch als eine Möglichkeit der Risikominderung. Mit Bezug auf empirische Forschung in Deutschland und Großbritannien zeigt der Artikel, dass Lebensmittelkonsum im Kontext der Praktiken alltäglichen Lebens betrachtet werden sollten und dass sich das Verständnis von Lebensmitteln und Risiken im Alltag von den Risikobewertungen der Experten unterscheidet. Der Artikel identiiziert mehrere Risikoorte in denen Convenience Food eine Rolle spielt und geht dabei über den Fokus auf Food Safety und Food Security hinaus, der oftmals vorrangig für Gesundheitsbehörden und Regierungsberater ist. Allgemein kritisch gesehen werden Deizitmodelle von Lebensmittelkonsum und Konsumentscheidungen. Als Alternative dazu betonen wir, dass Risiken in die Praktken des Alltagslebens eingebettet sind und kontextualisiert untersucht werden sollten.
Investigating the role of personal and context-related factors in convenience foods consumption
Appetite, 2018
In the scenario of food consumptions, we witness the consumer's growing consideration for the " convenience " attribute. Our study intends to understand the consumer behaviour towards convenience-processed foods by analysing in a single model the role of beliefs, personal traits, social influence and market availability. We applied a Structural Equation Model (SEM) to a representative sample of 426 Italian consumers. The results show a correlation between intention to consume convenience-processed foods and social influence, market availability and several personal traits, suggesting strategies for the development of the convenience food market.