Segmenting consumers of meat and dairy products from five European countries: Implications for promoting sustainable food choices

Accelerating the transition of agri-food systems towards higher sustainability requires greater understanding of consumers’ decision-making related to sustainable food choices, together with competing drivers which may result in unsustainable food choice demand. Meat and dairy production systems negatively contribute to greenhouse gas targets, unless sustainable production methods are applied, and these are understood by consumers and used in food choices. The psychological factors determining consumers’ attitudes towards sustainably produced meat and dairy products were assessed. Data were collected through an online survey across five European countries (Czechia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom) (n = 2,490) in November 2021. The results showed consumers perceived food sustainability to be less important than sensory and healthiness attributes. UK consumers showed the strongest intentions to increase consumption of sustainably produced meat and dairy products. In contrast, Swiss consumers demonstrated the weakest intentions. A twostage cluster analysis based on consumers’ perceived attribute importance identified four distinct segments: low food involvement (19.6%), high food involvement (31.9%), price-sensitive (23.2%), and health- and sustainability-involved (25.3%) consumer segments. Respondents in low food involvement and price-sensitive consumer segments tended to be younger and have lower environmental preservation attitudes and were more prevalent in Switzerland and Czechia. Those in high food involvement and health- and sustainability-involved consumer segments perceived higher importance of food sustainability and were more prevalent in Spain and Sweden. These respondents expressed greater intentions to increase consumption of sustainably produced meat and dairy products, at the same time being more likely to recognise the utility of sustainability labelling information. Animal welfare information was perceived to be most important for respondents in all the segments with the exception of those in the price-sensitive consumer segment. Building on the results, recommendations for promoting consumer sustainable food choices are propose

A randomized, open-label study of the efficacy and safety of AZD4547 monotherapy versus paclitaxel for the treatment of advanced gastric adenocarcinoma with FGFR2 polysomy or gene amplification

Background:Approximately 5%-10% of gastric cancers have a fibroblast growth factor receptor-2 (FGFR2) gene amplification. AZD4547 is a selective FGFR-1, 2, 3 tyrosine kinase inhibitor with potent preclinical activity in FGFR2 amplified gastric adenocarcinoma SNU16 and SGC083 xenograft models. The randomized phase II SHINE study (NCT01457846) investigated whether AZD4547 improves clinical outcome versus paclitaxel as second-line treatment in patients with advanced gastric adenocarcinoma displaying FGFR2 polysomy or gene amplification detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization. Patients and methods:Patients were randomized 3:2 (FGFR2 gene amplification) or 1:1 (FGFR2 polysomy) to AZD4547 or paclitaxel. Patients received AZD4547 80 mg twice daily, orally, on a 2 weeks on/1 week off schedule of a 21-day cycle or intravenous paclitaxel 80 mg/m2 administered weekly on days 1, 8, and 15 of a 28-day cycle. The primary end point was progression-free survival (PFS). Safety outcomes were assessed and an exploratory biomarker analysis was undertaken. Results:Of 71 patients randomized (AZD4547 n = 41, paclitaxel n = 30), 67 received study treatment (AZD4547 n = 40, paclitaxel n = 27). Among all randomized patients, median PFS was 1.8 months with AZD4547 and 3.5 months with paclitaxel (one-sided P = 0.9581); median follow-up duration for PFS was 1.77 and 2.12 months, respectively. The incidence of adverse events was similar in both treatment arms. Exploratory biomarker analyses revealed marked intratumor heterogeneity of FGFR2 amplification and poor concordance between amplification/polysomy and FGFR2 mRNA expression. Conclusions:AZD4547 did not significantly improve PFS versus paclitaxel in gastric cancer FGFR2 amplification/polysomy patients. Considerable intratumor heterogeneity for FGFR2 gene amplification and poor concordance between FGFR2 amplification/polysomy and FGFR2 expression indicates the need for alternative predictive biomarker testing. AZD4547 was generally well tolerated

The views of key stakeholders on an evolving food risk governance framework: Results from a Delphi study

Evidence of a decline in public trust associated with food risk governance over recent years has called into question the appropriateness of the current dominant risk analysis framework. Within the EU-funded SAFE FOODS project a novel risk analysis framework has been developed that attempts to address potential shortcomings by increasing stakeholder (including consumer) input, improving transparency, and formally incorporating benefit and non-health aspects into the analysis. To assess the viability of this novel framework, the views of food risk experts from the EU and beyond were sought using a distributed online questionnaire process called Delphi. In this paper the main results of this survey are described, revealing varying levels of support for the key innovations of the novel framework. Implications of our results for the new and old frameworks, for the future of risk analysis, and for the policy community more widely, are discussed

European Permanent Grasslands: A Systematic Review of Economic Drivers of Change, Including a Detailed Analysis of the Czech Republic, Spain, Sweden, and UK

\ua9 2024 by the authors. Permanent grasslands (PG) feature in the European rural landscape and represent a major agricultural production resource. They support multiple non-provisioning ecosystem services (ES), including climate regulation, flood control, biodiversity, and pollination. PG are at risk of loss or degradation due to agricultural land use and land management changes. The objective of this systematic review is to identify the main economic influences shaping management and maintenance of PG, and the risks and opportunities for delivery of a range of ES. A total of 51 papers were included. Relevant policy interventions and economic drivers are identified in relation to how they shape the management of EU grasslands over time and across farming systems, countries, or biogeographic zones. A high reliance on public payments from the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), with uneven impact on mitigating PG losses and associated ES provisions, was identified, which needs to be considered in relation to ongoing CAP reform. There is a gap in the literature regarding economic tipping points for change. Future research needs to identify and map ES provisions by PG along with trade-offs and synergies, and link this to policy. There are substantive challenges to maintaining Europe’s PG area and management, which must be addressed through EU-wide instruments

Consumers across five European countries prioritise animal welfare above environmental sustainability when buying meat and dairy products

Food production systems, especially meat and dairy supply chains, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. An important question emerges as to whether consumers care about environmental sustainability when buying food products, as this can determine their consumption practices. Further, if sustainability labels are available, identifying information that is relevant to consumers is important. This research therefore aimed to identify the attributes that are most important for consumers when buying meat or dairy products and the perceived helpfulness of sustainability labels for meat and dairy products and important label properties. An online survey was conducted in five European countries (i.e. Czechia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK). Consumers valued similar attributes when buying meat and dairy products across all countries. Freshness, quality/taste and animal welfare emerged as the most important attributes, while environmental attributes such as food miles, carbon footprint, and organic production were the least important. Sustainability labels for meat and dairy products were perceived as helpful. Regression analysis identified similar patterns within all five countries regarding the predictors of the perceived helpfulness of sustainability labels. Attitudes towards sustainable food consumption, environmental attitudes, and food production and policies emerged as significant positive predictors in most models. Most importantly, information regarding animal welfare, food safety, and health and nutrition was perceived as being more important than environmental sustainability. This suggests that food choice decisions are unlikely to be made based on the environmental sustainability of a food product’s production alone

Critical review of methods for risk ranking of food related hazards, based on risks for human health.

This study aimed to critically review methods for ranking risks related to food safety and dietary hazards on the basis of their anticipated human health impacts. A literature review was performed to identify and characterize methods for risk ranking from the fields of food, environmental science and socio-economic sciences. The review used a predefined search protocol, and covered the bibliographic databases Scopus, CAB Abstracts, Web of Sciences, and PubMed over the period 1993-2013. All references deemed relevant, on the basis of of predefined evaluation criteria, were included in the review, and the risk ranking method characterized. The methods were then clustered - based on their characteristics - into eleven method categories. These categories included: risk assessment, comparative risk assessment, risk ratio method, scoring method, cost of illness, health adjusted life years, multi-criteria decision analysis, risk matrix, flow charts/decision trees, stated preference techniques and expert synthesis. Method categories were described by their characteristics, weaknesses and strengths, data resources, and fields of applications. It was concluded there is no single best method for risk ranking. The method to be used should be selected on the basis of risk manager/assessor requirements, data availability, and the characteristics of the method. Recommendations for future use and application are provided

Psychological Determinants of Consumer Acceptance of Personalised Nutrition in 9 European Countries

YesObjective: To develop a model of the psychological factors which predict people’s intention to adopt personalised nutrition. Potential determinants of adoption included perceived risk and benefit, perceived self-efficacy, internal locus of control and health commitment. Methods: A questionnaire, developed from exploratory study data and the existing theoretical literature, and including validated psychological scales was administered to N = 9381 participants from 9 European countries (Germany, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, the UK, and Norway). Results: Structural equation modelling indicated that the greater participants’ perceived benefits to be associated with personalised nutrition, the more positive their attitudes were towards personalised nutrition, and the greater their intention to adopt it. Higher levels of nutrition self-efficacy were related to more positive attitudes towards, and a greater expressed intention to adopt, personalised nutrition. Other constructs positively impacting attitudes towards personalised nutrition included more positive perceptions of the efficacy of regulatory control to protect consumers (e.g. in relation to personal data protection), higher self-reported internal health locus of control, and health commitment. Although higher perceived risk had a negative relationship with attitude and an inverse relationship with perceived benefit, its effects on attitude and intention to adopt personalised nutrition was less influential than perceived benefit. The model was stable across the different European countries, suggesting that psychological factors determining adoption of personalised nutrition have generic applicability across different European countries. Conclusion: The results suggest that transparent provision of information about potential benefits, and protection of consumers’ personal data is important for adoption, delivery of public health benefits, and commercialisation of personalised nutrition.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement n u 265494 (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/home_en.html). Food4Me is the acronym of the project ‘‘Personalised nutrition: an integrated analysis of opportunities and challenges’’ (http://www.food4me.org/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Capturing health and eating status through a nutritional perception screening questionnaire (NPSQ9) in a randomised internet-based personalised nutrition intervention : the Food4Me study

BACKGROUND: National guidelines emphasize healthy eating to promote wellbeing and prevention of non-communicable diseases. The perceived healthiness of food is determined by many factors affecting food intake. A positive perception of healthy eating has been shown to be associated with greater diet quality. Internet-based methodologies allow contact with large populations. Our present study aims to design and evaluate a short nutritional perception questionnaire, to be used as a screening tool for assessing nutritional status, and to predict an optimal level of personalisation in nutritional advice delivered via the Internet. METHODS: Data from all participants who were screened and then enrolled into the Food4Me proof-of-principle study (n = 2369) were used to determine the optimal items for inclusion in a novel screening tool, the Nutritional Perception Screening Questionnaire-9 (NPSQ9). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed on anthropometric and biochemical data and on dietary indices acquired from participants who had completed the Food4Me dietary intervention (n = 1153). Baseline and intervention data were analysed using linear regression and linear mixed regression, respectively. RESULTS: A final model with 9 NPSQ items was validated against the dietary intervention data. NPSQ9 scores were inversely associated with BMI (β = -0.181, p < 0.001) and waist circumference (Β = -0.155, p < 0.001), and positively associated with total carotenoids (β = 0.198, p < 0.001), omega-3 fatty acid index (β = 0.155, p < 0.001), Healthy Eating Index (HEI) (β = 0.299, p < 0.001) and Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS) (β = 0. 279, p < 0.001). Findings from the longitudinal intervention study showed a greater reduction in BMI and improved dietary indices among participants with lower NPSQ9 scores. CONCLUSIONS: Healthy eating perceptions and dietary habits captured by the NPSQ9 score, based on nine questionnaire items, were associated with reduced body weight and improved diet quality. Likewise, participants with a lower score achieved greater health improvements than those with higher scores, in response to personalised advice, suggesting that NPSQ9 may be used for early evaluation of nutritional status and to tailor nutritional advice. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT01530139 .Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Food choice motives, attitudes toward and intention to adopt personalised nutrition

yesObjective: This study explored associations between food choice motives, attitudes towards, 5 and intention to adopt personalised nutrition in order to inform communication strategies 6 based on consumer priorities and concerns. Design and Setting: A survey was administered 7 online which included the food choice questionnaire (FCQ), and items assessing attitudes 8 towards and intention to adopt personalised nutrition. Participants: Nationally representative 9 samples were recruited in 9 EU countries (N=9381). Results: Structural equation modelling 10 indicated that the food choice motives, weight control, mood, health and ethical concern had 11 a positive association and price had a negative association with attitude towards, and 12 intention to adopt, personalised nutrition. Health was positively associated and familiarity 13 negatively associated with attitude toward personalised nutrition. The effects of weight 14 control, ethical concern, mood and price on intention to adopt personalised nutrition were 15 partially mediated by the attitude. The effects of health and familiarity were fully mediated 16 by attitude. Sensory appeal was negatively and directly associated with intention to adopt 17 personalised nutrition. Conclusion: Personalised nutrition providers may benefit from taking 18 into consideration the importance of underlying determinants of food choice, particularly 19 weight control, mood and price, in potential users when promoting services and in tailoring 20 communications that are motivationally relevant.Post peer-review accepted manuscript; changes are in red

What do stakeholders want in relation to the control of production diseases?

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