Understanding the dietary patterns and food choice reasoning of food allergic consumers
Summary
The project uses qualitative approaches to investigate the dietary patterns and food choice behaviours of food allergic consumers in order to understand the reasoning behind their food choices.
Each participant will take part in three components:
- An accompanied shopping task
- An interview
- A shopping basket task.
The accompanied shopping task will involve the researcher accompanying participants to their regular supermarket. Using a ‘think aloud’ methodology we will explore what information participants use in their decision making and what information – if any – they are attending to or searching for on product labels. This task will allow the collection of observational and think aloud data in the real-life context of the participants’ usual shopping environment.
Interviews will then be conducted to explore how food choices are exercised when the participant is not personally responsible for food preparation – for example when eating in restaurants, canteens, or at friends’. This will also include consideration of holidays and festive occasions. Additionally we will encourage participants to generate scenarios where they find it difficult to make food purchase choices confidently and explore the tools that would be helpful in these circumstances.
Following the interview the participant will take part in the shopping basket task. This will involve the participant ‘thinking aloud’ in relation to a ‘shopping basket’ of approximately ten products, each choice they face posing an allergy relevant dilemma. This task will reveal participant reasoning behind decisions about purchase and consumption and the sorts of issues and difficulties they may encounter.
Funder
Team
Researchers
Dr Julie Barnett
Researcher
Professor Monique Raats
Co-Director, Institute for Sustainability; Professor; Director of the Food, Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre; School of Psychology Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Lead
Biography
I am a founding Co-Director of the University's Institute for Sustainability, and director of the Food, Consumer Behaviour and Health (FCBH) Research Centre. Together with the university’s Department of Nutritional Sciences, FCBH was awarded the prestigious 2017/2018 Queen’s Anniversary Prize. FCBH research domains include:
- food-related behaviour and policy interventions to achieve sustainable and healthy lifestyles;
- social, policy and ethical issues relevant to the grand societal challenges such as sustainability and obesity;
- study of food systems from the perspective of significant actors and stakeholders within the system; and
- methodologically advancing food consumer science through exploring novel data sources and methods of data linking.
I previously worked at the Institute of Food Research (now Quadram Institute), Health Education Authority and University of Oxford. My expertise is in the area of public health and behavioural nutrition research, gained on a variety of projects. My research is wide ranging both in terms of topics covered (e.g. food choice, policy development, food safety) and methodologies used (e.g. qualitative, quantitative, stakeholder consultation). I have also been involved in the evaluation of health promotion programmes and developing tools for use in nutrition education. To date I have published over 145 refereed papers, numerous non-refereed publications including 20 book chapters 20 book chapters and have edited two books ("The Psychology of Food Choice" (2006) and "Food for the Ag(e)ing Population" (1st edition 2009; 2nd edition 2016).
From 2011 until June 2018 I was a member of UK's Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) and also a member of the Subgroup on Maternal and Child Nutrition (SMCN) from 2012 until June 2018.
I am one of the founding members, member of the Board of Directors (2001-2006) and was secretary (2004-2006) of the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. The society was set up to combine interests in diet and physical activity; and to stimulate, promote and advocate innovative research and policy in the area. The society now plays an important role in fostering excellence in research in this field through its annual meetings and journal called the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.
Professor Richard Shepherd
Emeritus Professor of Psychology
Biography
Richard Shepherd is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology, having retired in August 2011. He obtained degrees in Natural Sciences from Cambridge and in Psychology from Cardiff and Southampton. He was a Research Fellow at the University of Surrey and then worked at the Institute of Food Research from 1982 to 1998, initially in Norwich and then in Reading, before joining the University of Surrey as a Reader.
He has carried out research on a range of issues related to the factors influencing food choice. In particular this has involved the development and application of social cognition models to food choice issues and the exploration of the factors influencing dietary change. He has also conducted research on the perception of risk and risk communication particularly in relation to food issues. He has published widely in all of these areas of research, including editing two books.
He has directed research funded by BBSRC, ESRC, MAFF, FSA, Wellcome Trust and industry, in addition to several collaborative European projects funded by the EU. He is a Chartered Psychologist and a Fellow of the British Psychological Society. In the past Richard has been a member of the UK Food Standards Agency Social Science Research Committee, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) Social Science Expert Advisory Group and the ESRC Grant Assessment Panel.
Dr Jo Leftwich
Researcher
Kate Muncer
Researcher
Outputs
Publications
Barnett J, Leftwich J, Muncer K, Grimshaw K, Shepherd R, Raats M, Gowland H, Lucas J; How Do Peanut and Nut Allergic Consumers Use the Packet Information to Avoid Allergens?, Allergy.
Leftwich J, Barnett J, Muncer K, Shepherd R, Raats M; Food in Later Life Team (2010); The Challenges for Nut Allergic Consumers of Eating Out. Clinical and Experimental Allergy 41, 243-249.
Research groups and centres
Our research is supported by research groups and centres of excellence.