Modelos para la unidad de las religiones

2.1.1 The Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ)

The Food Choice Questionnaire, also known as the FCQ, uses a 36-item instrument to assess the importance of a number of factors that may influence food choice. Originally published in 1995 (Steptoe et al., 1995), the FCQ has since been used in over 40 different countries and translated into more than 20 languages (Cunha et al., 2018). The FCQ allows for a comparison of similarities and differences among consumers across cultures and focuses on the motives that consumers take into consideration when choosing food on what the survey describes as “a typical day”.

Understanding culture-specific differences in food motives can be used to inform and guide proposed nudges and interventions. A culture focused on price as a primarily food motive would likely require a different consumer nudging approach than a culture focused on sensory appeal as a primary food motive.

The original Steptoe, Pollard and Wardle paper, using the 36-item instrument on a heterogenous UK population, found that the results groups into 9 factors, which the Steptoe authors labelled as Health, Mood, Convenience, Sensory Appeal, Natural

Content, Price, Weight Control, Familiarity and Ethical Concern (Steptoe et al., 1995).As the FCQ has been used over time, adaptations have been suggested and tested to expand the FCQ including questions regarding Ecological Values, Political Values, and

Religion (Lindeman and Väänänen, 2000). However, the Ecological Values and Political Values are most often used in research focused on the sustainability of foods while the

Religion additions are most often used in research on Asian populations, where it stands out as a valued factor (Cunha et al., 2018). As this research did not focus on sustainability or Asian populations, these additions were not included in the FCQ questionnaire used for the thesis research.

The original paper used a 4-point scale, however, Cunha et al. (2018) highlights that in the FCQ use over the last 20+ years, 60 percent of authors have suggested and used scale adaptations, increasing the number of points, and most often using a scale with a neutral middle. Using a 5-point scale was often highlighted as key to avoiding forced agreement or disagreement of respondents, through the introduction of a central middle point (Milošević et al., 2012). A 5-point scale was used throughout this thesis research, both within the FCQ research and with a 5-point Likert scale in survey questions in other experiments in this thesis.

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How the FCQ data is collected has also changed over time. Studies from the 1990’s, typically used postal surveys (e.g., Pollard et al., 1998), while more recent studies have demonstrated a web-based survey is an effective means of collecting FCQ data (e.g., Sosa et al., 2015). One of the keys to the cross-country comparisons is similar data collection procedures across the countries under study (Ares, 2018). Today, the use of online survey tools and commercial companies that allow for a global selection for the population characteristics of interest (e.g., parents, millennials, seniors), with the same demographic questions and recruitment tools, allows the FCQ to be an even more effective tool for probing food motives.

2.1.2 The Millennials and food preferences

Knowing that Millennials are the largest group of consumers now entering parenthood (Barkley, 2018), understanding how they think about which foods they shop for and which foods they order when eating out is key to understanding what would motivate their food choices in a QSR, both for themselves and for their children. Millennials’ perception of what is a healthy food, their attitude towards organic products and vegetarian diets influence both what is in their grocery shopping carts and what will garner their interest from a QSR menu.

Millennials define healthy food as those foods that fit the following terminologies (in order of priority): fresh, less processed, fewer artificial ingredients, natural, low calorie, organic, fat free, local, smaller portion, sugar free, and good for the planet (Morgan Stanley Research, 2015). Low calorie, in the fifth position, is an indicator of how the Millennial consumer perceives low calorie; it is important but not the key priority when selecting food.

Millennials with children form the largest group of organic shoppers in the US at 52%, while organic purchase behaviour is much lower for GenX parents (35%) and Baby

Boomer parents (14%) (OTA, 2016). The percentage of Millennials in the US population in 2016 was at 25% and it is forecast that in the next 10 to 15 years, 80% of current

Millennials will be parents (OTA, 2016).

In overall vegetable consumption, consumers (under the age 40) are increasing their fresh vegetable consumption (by 52%), while Baby Boomers age 60 are decreasing their fresh vegetable consumption (by 30 %) (NPD, 2016).

In Australia, Canada, the US, and the UK, over 5% of the general population self-identify as vegetarian and for Millennials, vegetarianism is a growing food trend (Forbes, 2018). In Canada, 50% of consumers who identify as vegetarians, are under the age of 35, with

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Canadian women 0.6 times more likely than men to be vegetarians (The Canadian Press, 2018). The high number of Millennials looking for specialized meal options, such as vegan, will pose a challenge to the QSR industry, as well as other out of home meal providers. It would be expected that the concern with their own diets will translate into a similar concern regarding the healthiness of choices for their children’s diets, especially plant-based foods when eating out of home.

Millennials as a group dine out more on fast foods than Gen X or Baby Boomers. Fast- casual, a newer category (an intermediate concept between fast food (McDonald’s) and casual dining (Frankie & Benny's, Denny’s, The Outback Steakhouse) is even more popular with Millennials than other generations (Morgan Stanley Research, 2015).

Millennials devote the smallest share of their food expenditures to grains, white meat, and red meat; instead they allocate more to prepared foods, pasta and sugar and sweets than the other generations (Kuhns and Saksena, 2017). The current Millennial interest in fresh, organic, and more plant-based foods offers promise that if QSRs can incorporate those options into their menus, with well thought out marketing promotions to alert consumers to the availability of these options, healthy eating in QSRs could become a trend.

Food choices by millennial parents in limited service restaurants, full service restaurants, convenience stores, and grocery stores, were not included in this review but could add valuable additional insights. The research area of this thesis was limited to fast-food decisions made in-restaurant, but it is important to consider what the drivers are that prompt the initial trip to a restaurant for an out-of-home meal. A recent study by Ferrante

et al. (2018), of parents with children age 4-12 (n=349), found that they identified time, convenience, health, and the experience, as the most important factors in their decision to eat out (survey questions were not specific to fast-food restaurants). It was of interest to note that parents stated that they limit their child’s food options (64%) and that most order the child’s food from the children’s menu (67%). Although there was no follow up to see if the stated intent matched the restaurant ordering experience, it was interesting to see that ‘experience’ was one of the important factors in making the decision for the trip.

Lee-Kwan et al. (2018) in a similar survey (n=1147), but focussing on visits specifically to fast-food or chain restaurants, reported that over half of the parents had purchased a child meal in the past month and that younger parents (Millennials) purchased more of these child meals and also expressed more interest in purchasing child meals that offered healthier options, but again this was stated intent, without in-restaurant follow-up.

Nevertheless, this high purchase number of child meals suggests that much more attention should be paid by both sellers and purchasers of these meals, in terms of content and healthy choices.

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Areas not covered in this literature review but that can have a significant influence on food intake as well as food choice include ambiance (e.g., the presence of other people, sound, temperature, smell, colour, and lighting (Stroebele and De Castro, 2004).