Food choice determinants and perceptions of a healthy diet among Italian consumers

Healthy food choices are crucial for a healthy lifestyle. However, food choices are complex and affected by various factors. Understanding the determinant factors affecting food choices could aid policy-makers in designing better strategies to promote healthy food choices in the general public. This study aims to evaluate the food choice motivations and to segment consumer groups, according to their food choice motivations, in a sample of 531 Italian consumers (collected by convenience sampling), through offline and online survey platforms. K-means cluster analysis was applied to identify consumer groups using six food choice motivation categories (health, emotional, economic and availability, social and cultural, environmental and political, and marketing and commercial). The results suggest that the strongest determinants for the food choices of Italian consumers are Environmental factors and Health. Two consumer profiles were identified through the segmentation analysis: Emotional eating and Health-driven consumers. The respondents were found to have a good awareness of what comprises a healthy diet. There is a potential market for healthy and sustainable food products, especially products with minimal or environmentally friendly packages. Food labels and information strategies could be promoted as tools to assist consumers to make healthy food choices

Highly site-specific H2 adsorption on vicinal Si(001) surfaces

Experimental and theoretical results for the dissociative adsorption of H_2 on vicinal Si(001) surfaces are presented. Using optical second-harmonic generation, sticking probabilities at the step sites are found to exceed those on the terraces by up to six orders of magnitude. Density functional theory calculations indicate the presence of direct adsorption pathways for monohydride formation but with a dramatically lowered barrier for step adsorption due to an efficient rehybridization of dangling orbitals.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. (1998). Other related publications can be found at http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/th/paper.htm

The impact of food choices on human and animal rights protection and environmental sustainability

Introduction: People’s food choices are of the utmost importance to regulate markets and the food chain towards the global goal of sustainability. Objectives: The objective of this work was to evaluate to what extent some aspects linked to sustainability in the food chain influence people’s food choices, specifically in the domains of packaging, food surplus, transportation and human or animal welfare. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study involving 3183 people from Portugal, Italy, Lithuania and Romania, who participated in this questionnaire survey between January and June 2018. Results: People tend to condition their food choices in view of contributing for a more sustainable food chain with respect for environment, humans and animals. The areas in which this behaviour is stronger include avoiding food waste at home (80% of participants), preference for local foods (60%), sustainable food growing, preparation or packaging (66%). The respect for animal rights is very important for 62% of the participants, but the respect for Human rights is a concern for just 32%. The results of statistical tests indicated that age, education, country, professional area and type of diet all significantly influenced people’s choices regarding the sustainability of the food chain. Conclusions: Although the results are indicative that people start to condition their eating behaviours also according to sustainability issues, it is a fact that there is still work to be done, since the adoption of these sustainable choices is still in a limited extent.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Density-functional study of hydrogen chemisorption on vicinal Si(001) surfaces

Relaxed atomic geometries and chemisorption energies have been calculated for the dissociative adsorption of molecular hydrogen on vicinal Si(001) surfaces. We employ density-functional theory, together with a pseudopotential for Si, and apply the generalized gradient approximation by Perdew and Wang to the exchange-correlation functional. We find the double-atomic-height rebonded D_B step, which is known to be stable on the clean surface, to remain stable on partially hydrogen-covered surfaces. The H atoms preferentially bind to the Si atoms at the rebonded step edge, with a chemisorption energy difference with respect to the terrace sites of >sim 0.1 eV. A surface with rebonded single atomic height S_A and S_B steps gives very similar results. The interaction between H-Si-Si-H mono-hydride units is shown to be unimportant for the calculation of the step-edge hydrogen-occupation. Our results confirm the interpretation and results of the recent H_2 adsorption experiments on vicinal Si surfaces by Raschke and Hoefer described in the preceding paper.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B. Other related publications can be found at http://www.rz-berlin.mpg.de/th/paper.htm

Marketing motivations influencing food choice in 16 countries: segmentation and cluster analysis.

Food behaviour is governed by different kinds of motivations, some of individual nature and others related with the external food environment. This study investigated the eating motivations in sixteen countries with respect to commercial and marketing influences on food choices. The questionnaire survey was developed between September 2017 and June 2018, via online tools, targeting a convenience sample of residents in sixteen countries (Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and the United States of America). The number of valid responses received was 11,919 participants. The data were treated using SPSS software, and the main statistical techniques used included exploratory factor analysis, evaluation of internal reliability through Cronbach’s alpha, cluster analysis (hierarchical and k-means) and logistic regression. The results obtained showed two groups of people: low motivated and notably motivated consumers. The results showed high asymmetries between countries, with highest percentage of highly motivated consumers in Egypt and the lowest percentage of highly motivated in Portugal. It was further observed that consumers more influenced by commercial and marketing aspects (the notably motivated) tend to be women, young, single, less educated, less likely to be professionally active, and those who live mostly in rural or suburban areas. Less exercise and overweight are also factors associated with greater propensity for commercial and marketing motivations. Furthermore, health problems such as shellfish or gluten intolerance, hypertension and high cholesterol confer less propensity to be in the segment of the notably motivated consumers. In conclusion, this work highlighted the role of geographic, sociodemographic and lifestyle factors as food choice determinants.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Magneli-like phases in epitaxial anatase TiO2 thin films

Using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and image simulation techniques in combination with ab initio calculations, we show the existence of two different superlattices of crystallographic shear planes, analogous to the Magn\ue9li phases of rutile, in oxygen-deficient films of anatase TiO2 epitaxially grown on LaAlO3 substrates. (103)- and (101)-oriented shear plane structures are detected in the outer film region and in proximity of the film/substrate interface, respectively. We show that these shear planes are characterized by TiO-like cubic local structures, which can deviate from the TinO2n 121 stoichiometry of the classical rutile-derived Magn\ue9li phases, particularly in the outer part of the film. Computed formation energies provide insights into the thermodynamic stability of the observed structures and their relations to the growth dynamics

Sources of Information about Dietary Fibre: A Cross-Country Survey

Dietary fibre (DF) has been recognized as a major determinant for improvement of health. Hence the means of information through which people become aware of its benefits are crucial. This work aimed at studying the sources of information about DF, as a means to educate people about aspects related to healthy eating. Factors such as gender, level of education, living environment or country were evaluated as to their effect on the selection of sources and preferences. For this, a descriptive cross-sectional study by means of a questionnaire, applied to a non-probabilistic sample of 6010 participants from 10 countries in different continents (Europe, Africa and America), answered after informed consent by all participants. For the analysis were used several descriptive statistics tools, crosstabs and chi square test to assess the relations between some of the variables under study. The results showed that mostly the information about DF comes from the internet, but the participants recognize that television might be a most suitable way to disseminate information about DF. The results also indicated differences between genders, levels of education, living environments and countries. The internet, the preferred source of information, got highest scores for Hungary, for urban areas, for university level of education and for female gender. The radio, the least scored source of information, was preferred in Egypt, for men and with lower education (primary school). As a conclusion, people get information through the internet due to easy access. However, it is to some extent a risk given the impossibility to control de information made public on the internet. The role of health centers and hospitals as well as schools should definitely be increased, as a responsible way to ensure correct information