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Strategies to promote more sustainable consumer choices have been gaining interest among tourism and hospitality scholars. In particular, behavioral economic theories of decision-making have gained popularity in the past decade, led by behavioral interventions (BIs) such as the nudge movement. This paper aims to present a critical reflection on this recent trend, with a specific focus on whether these BI approaches are an adequate tool to contribute to long-term behavioral changes, one crucial aim of the promotion of sustainable consumption.

Based on a critical review of recent significant academic works in the field, this paper reflects on how nudge principles are applied in the hospitality and tourism sectors, as well as the usual justifications given for their use. This paper then discusses the potential limitations, both theoretical and practical, of using these short-term focused approaches to decisions that intend to have long-term outcomes and aims.

BIs in hospitality and tourism have the potential to create long-term sustainable changes through a more comprehensive view of behavioral factors influencing decisions; however, such approaches would need to be strongly embedded in theoretical arguments that question “how” and “why” behavior change could be sustainable in the long term. This paper proposes a conceptual framework to address these concerns for future research.

This critical reflection proposes a comprehensive framework that will help guide stronger theoretically motivated identification, design and empirical testing of BIs and nudges. Industry can eventually benefit from theoretically stronger interventions that provide a balance between the short-term and long-term influence of BIs to attain customer loyalty and eventually greater value for business stakeholders.

This reflection paper critically reviews the basis of BIs and recommends a framework to strengthen their theoretical arguments. This reflection focuses on the theoretical critique of BIs and nudges to ensure long-term behavior changes are sustainable. The paper also proposes a comprehensive framework that incorporates well-founded theoretical models to enhance BIs and nudge literature.

This study explores the relation between workers' choices of food outlets for lunch during the workday and their time constraints.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1,132 French wage-earners in order to identify the dimensions indicative of lack of time among workers and to examine their associations with the likelihood of different food outlet choices.

Exploratory factor analysis revealed four dimensions indicative of lack of time. Binary logistic regressions revealed that each dimension was linked to at least one food outlet choice. This research suggests that the dietary practices of workers are associated with their time constraints.

Time constraints play a role in attendance of food outlets for lunch and should be taken into account when promoting healthier lunch behaviors among employees.

This is the first research investigating the links between time constraints and attendance of food outlets in the context of lunch during the workday.

Moral aspects of food are gaining increased attention from scholars due to growing complexity of the food system. The foodservice system is a complex arrangement of stakeholders, yet has not benefited from similar scholarly attention on the moral facets. This gap is of significance given that the foodservice system has increased in importance with the larger proportion of food consumed in foodservice environments. This paper aims to focus on the foodservice system with the goal of applying moral perspectives associated with the theoretical discussion on the principles of food ethics.

Food ethics is described within the theoretical framework of three principles, namely, autonomy, justice and well-being. These ethical principles are reviewed in context of the foodservice system comprised of food distribution (supply chains), preparation (foodservice establishments) and consumption (consumer demand). The review also includes international perspectives on foodservice system ethics to assess relativism (versus universalism) of moral issues.

As the foodservice system increases in complexity, greater discussion is needed on the ethics of this system. This study observes that ignoring ethical principles can negatively impact the ability of consumers, businesses and communities to make informed choices, and on their well-being. Alternatively, a focus on understanding the role of food ethics can provide an anchor for research, practice and policy development to strengthen the foodservice system. While these moral principles are universal truths, they will require relative introspection globally, based on local experiences.

This paper presents a moral principle-based description of food ethics that incorporates the various components of the expanding foodservice system.

Advances have been made in the provision of nutritional and ingredient information on packaged food, however, there is a need to translate this to eating out reflecting consumer desire for greater transparency and knowledge of menu content. The purpose of this paper is to assess consumer’s preferences for food information presentation in four European countries (UK, Greece, Denmark and France) in a workplace dining setting.

This study focusses on workplace canteens since the regularity in which they are used provides an important context and potential for behaviour change. An exploratory phase designed iteratively in collaboration with experts, end-users and researchers (qualitative) informed a survey (quantitative) conducted in four European countries. The survey was used to examine workplace diners’ preferences towards food information presentation.

Differences were found and clustered (n=5) to “heuristic processors” (33 per cent) “brand orientated” (25 per cent) “systematic processors” (17.3 per cent) “independent processors” (16.1 per cent) and “tech-savvy” (8.6 per cent). Dual-process theories were used to analyse the findings and produce new insight into how menu information can be most effectively delivered.

When eating-out consumers struggle to make choices or make the wrong choice from a health perspective, partly caused by a lack of nutrient profile information as well as other criteria of concern. Giving catering managers the understanding of preferred communication channels can enable a more competitive operator. Traffic light labelling was the optimal presentation with the opportunity for consumers to discover more detailed information if desired. For the first time this research has given operational clarity whilst allowing food providers to be considered as part of corporate health.

The purpose of this paper is to compare knowledge about dietary fats in some dairy products and other foods across consumers from France, (French‐speaking) Canada and the USA. A relation is explored between the types of information, knowledge levels and obesity predominance.

A nine‐question nutritional test was developed and administered to three samples of consumers, respectively in Grenoble (France), Quebec, Canada and Ithaca, New York. In France, Canada and the USA the number of participants was respectively 100, 107 and 120. Participants were recruited randomly outside groceries stores and the test was administered directly through one‐on‐one interviews.

Results indicate a significant gap in knowledge between consumers from the three countries studied. The level and quality of knowledge seems to be correlated with the nature of the informational background: a wider availability of information such as nutrition facts and public health recommendations on fat consumption seems to have a positive effect on the general level of knowledge. However, “technical” knowledge seems to be inversely correlated to the level of obesity.

This work is of an exploratory nature and the sample might not be representative of the countries' population. Further works that link food knowledge and food consumption patterns would be needed.

This study gives weight to the hypothesis that a “science” or nutrient approach to food might not result in appropriate food choices; consumers losing sight of the big picture. To confirm this hypothesis, further work would be needed.

This is, to the authors' knowledge, the first cross‐country study that attempts to link the type of knowledge on fat in food and predominance of obesity. This should encourage nutritionist to further investigate this link. It should also concern the dairy industry, given most often consumers' perception of dairy products' fat content is overestimated, especially for fluid milk in France.