Assignment

Assignment

Assignment

Part 1:

Convenience foods (sold in food shops and supermarkets)

It is evident that choices of today's consumers. A trend having begun throughout the Western world, consumer demand for convenience foods is now on the rise around the globe. The growing presence of drive-thru windows, microwave dinners, take-out meals, home delivery for groceries and internet shopping, all demonstrate the importance of convenience in determining food choices.8,9 Costa et al. have argued that convenience itself determines where, when, why, what, how, and even with whom we eat.5 Several studies have examined the role that convenience plays in determining food choices, in particular, studies looking at the role of convenience in relation to full meal preparation and/ or consumption.3, 5, 6 As an example, Jaeger and Mieselman investigated the construct of food-related convenience itself, looking over each stage of the meal preparation process, and discovered that perceptions of convenience are related to both time and effort. Convenience has an immense impact on the food choices of today's consumers (Alan 1992). This suggests that food products offering less convenience will be deemed less preferable to consumers. Therefore, adding convenience traits to certain products deemed healthy and/or beneficial, such as fresh fruits and vegetables (FF&V), could increase the consumption of these specific food products. It has been argued for many individuals that convenience is a barrier to achieving proper nutrition, using adequate servings of fruits and vegetables as an example.8 This relationship, existing between adequate health and fruit and vegetable consumption has been clearly documented,4, 17, 18, 19 and both the World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations recommend 400g of fruits and vegetables per day to prevent chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, in addition to numerous micronutrient deficiencies.21 In 2007, Canada's revised Food Guide was released with fruit and vegetables replacing grains as the primary dietary food group, recommending 7-8 and 8- 10 servings of fruit and vegetables for females and males aged 19-50 years, respectively. Despite the many health claims of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, combined with both national and international diet recommendations, the Public Health Agency of Canada reports that roughly 60 percent of Canadians consume low levels of FF&V.14 Hence, this research will investigate the role of convenience in determining FF&V purchasing and/or consumption. As convenience plays an important role in food choice behaviours, understanding its role in relation to FF&V could lead to an increased consumption of these products, and consequently, better health for Canadians of all ages. The original concept of this paper was to focus on awayfrom- home-consumption of all types of food products, however, for two reasons, it was decided to focus solely on FF&V as a particular food category. First, there is consensus that current fruit and vegetable consumption levels among Canadians are too low, thus leading to poor health and - in combination with an over-consumption of less healthy foods - an increase in diet-related diseases. Second, while there is some literature addressing the factors ...