We need more seafood influencers!

Academic presentation at the conference International Food Marketing Research Symposium, 14.06.22 - 16.06.22, San Antonio, Texas. https://mgmt.au.dk/ifmrs.Despite the fact that people have become more concerned with having a healthy diet, seafood consumption has been declining for several years - especially among the young population. The health authorities recommend eating seafood for dinner two to three times a week, ie 300 to 450 grams of fish, to provide a basis for good health [1]. Norwegian statistics indicates that it is the oldest consumers who eat the most seafood, while 18 to 34-year-olds ate 46 percent less seafood from 2012 to 2017 [2]. If this trend continues, we will hardly have seafood eaters in the future

Food retailers’ motivation and barriers for donating surplus food to schools

Academic presentation at the conference International Food Marketing Research Symposium, 14.06.22 - 16.06.22, San Antonio, Texas. https://mgmt.au.dk/ifmrsThe word is facing a food crisis that could affect millions of people worldwide. The newest reports estimate that that 811 million people go to bed hungry every night, and that the number of those facing acute food insecurity has more than doubled since 2019- from 135 million to 276 million [1]. Conflicts are the main driver for hunger. The war in Ukraine illustrates how conflicts force people out of their homes and wipes out their sources of income. The climate changes destroy lives, crops and livelihoods, weaking people’s ability to feed themselves. The economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are driving hunger to unprecedented levels as well. Prices for food is increasing, and we all have to use more of the household income to put food on the table

Vi trenger flere sjømat-influensere!

Source at https://www.intrafish.no/kommentarer/vi-trenger-flere-sjomat-influensere-/2-1-1209521>.Til tross for at folk er blitt mer opptatt av å ha et sunt kosthold, har sjømatkonsumet vært dalende i flere år – spesielt blant den unge befolkningen. Kan sosiale medier og influensere være løsningen på problemet

De unge vil lære å lage spennende torskemiddager

Source at https://blogg.forskning.no/fra-fjord-til-bord/de-unge-vil-laere-a-lage-spennende-torskemiddager/2028550.Sjømatkonsumet blant våre unge voksne fortsetter å synke. En Nofima-undersøkelse indikerer at konsumet kan økes hvis de blir inspirert til å lage spennende retter med hvit fisk

Kan kornkrisen redde flere brød?

Source at https://www.nettavisen.no/.Krig, nedbør og økte priser på olje, kunstgjødsel og papiremballasje fører til kornkrise som gjør at Ola og Kari Nordmann må betale mer for sitt daglige brød i tiden fremover

Informed consent in child research

publishedVersio

Exploring social influences on children’s food attitudes and consumption

The paper 1 of this thesis is not available in Munin. Paper 1: Alm, S. & Olsen, S. O. (2015) Exploring seafood socialization in the kindergarten: An intervention’s influence on children’s attitudes. Available in Young Consumers 16(1): 36 –49. Accepted manuscript version available in Munin at http://hdl.handle.net/10037/10130.Purpose: In light of the increasing numbers of overweight children observed today who follow inadequate diets, this dissertation mainly explored how children are socialised as food consumers. An additional purpose was to explore the advantages of using participatory photo interviews while researching children’s attitudes and behavioural patterns with respect to two food contexts, namely, lunch in kindergartens and shared dinners at home. Four research questions were addressed by four different papers. Paper 1 explored the role of mere exposure and norms in children’s attitudes to seafood (RQ 1). Paper 2 explored the role of family communication and parents’ feeding practices in children’s food preferences (RQ 2). Paper 3 explored the role of time stress coping strategies in children’s food consumption (RQ 3). Paper 4 discussed the methodological advantages and disadvantages of participatory photo interviews in exploring children’s dinner preferences (RQ 4). Methodology: Two qualitative methods were applied to explore the research questions of the dissertation. Paper 1 employed interviews of 24 children, aged four to six, in pairs, while papers 2–4 used participant photo interviews with 12 children, aged seven to eight, and their parents. Analyses for papers 1 and 2 were conducted by directed content analysis, while paper 3 applied conventional content analysis. Analysis for paper 1 was conducted manually, while the others used the NVivo 10 qualitative data analysis software. Several ethical precautions were taken to ensure children’s voluntary and informed consent to participate in research. Findings: Paper 1 found that children with high seafood exposure used more cognitive associations by describing seafood as healthy. They also expressed more positive attitudes towards seafood compared to children with low seafood exposure. The findings indicated a stronger socialisation effect from parents than preschool teachers due to the lack of descriptive norms in kindergarten. Paper 2 found that most families were conversation-oriented and communication tended to shift from consensual on weekdays to pluralistic on weekends. On weekdays, the dinner menu was often a compromise between children’s preferences and parents’ intentions to provide quick, healthy dinner options for the family. However, to a greater extent on weekends, children were allowed to choose dinner alternatives for the entire family. Restriction of unhealthy dinner alternatives was the practice most used to control children’s diets. Paper 3 found that children’s participation in sport activities made families feel stressed due to pressures of time. Unhealthy food consumption during busy days was often a consequence of substituting snacks for traditional dinners and avoiding food preference conflicts with children. Confidence in cooking, meal planning skills and engaging children and grandparents in cooking improved families’ food consumption, whereas low confidence in cooking and planning skills was more likely to result in unhealthy food consumption. By using compensating behaviour, most families treated weekend dinners as a family reward and as a chance to make up for time-stressed weekdays; thus, in some cases, they tended to choose popular foods over healthy ones on those occasions. Paper 4 found that participant photo interviews helped children remember and describe sensory, cognitive and affective situational associations of their meals with increased confidence. This approach helped explore interesting aspects of children’s preferences, such as their taste experiences, the importance of controlling and choosing meal ingredients and ambivalent food preferences. The observed disadvantages were parental involvement during data collection and the potential for sensitive information to be revealed. Conclusion and implications: To promote a healthier diet, children’s caregivers should make healthy food alternatives more easily available to children. It is important that they eat meals together with the children in order to function as positive role models. Children should be given control of what they eat and caregivers should be responsive to children’s preferences while guiding them towards healthy dinner alternatives, rather than use force and restriction. Future food interventions should aim at improving parents’ cooking and planning skills, as well as engaging other family members in cooking dinners. Participant photo interviews are a promising methodological approach to invite children into research on food attitudes, preferences and consumption behaviours

Food retailers’ motivation and barriers for donating surplus food to schools

The word is facing a food crisis that could affect millions of people worldwide. The newest reports estimate that that 811 million people go to bed hungry every night, and that the number of those facing acute food insecurity has more than doubled since 2019- from 135 million to 276 million [1]. Conflicts are the main driver for hunger. The war in Ukraine illustrates how conflicts force people out of their homes and wipes out their sources of income. The climate changes destroy lives, crops and livelihoods, weaking people’s ability to feed themselves. The economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are driving hunger to unprecedented levels as well. Prices for food is increasing, and we all have to use more of the household income to put food on the table

We need more seafood influencers!

Despite the fact that people have become more concerned with having a healthy diet, seafood consumption has been declining for several years - especially among the young population. The health authorities recommend eating seafood for dinner two to three times a week, ie 300 to 450 grams of fish, to provide a basis for good health [1]. Norwegian statistics indicates that it is the oldest consumers who eat the most seafood, while 18 to 34-year-olds ate 46 percent less seafood from 2012 to 2017 [2]. If this trend continues, we will hardly have seafood eaters in the future