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Aims to investigate the effect of communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives to young consumers in the UK on their fast‐food purchasing with reference to McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).

Focus groups were conducted to clarify themes and inform a questionnaire on fast‐food purchasing behaviours and motives. Attitude statements were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis.

Most respondents (82 per cent) regularly purchased fast food from one of the companies; purchases were mostly impulsive (57 per cent) or routine (26 per cent), suggesting relatively low‐level involvement in each case. While there was scepticism regarding the CSR activity being promoted, expectations about socially responsible behaviour by the companies were nevertheless high. Four factors were isolated, together explaining 52 per cent of the variance in fast‐food purchasing behaviour. They were brand value, nutritional value, ethical value and food quality.

The research was conducted with students, and while these represent a key‐target market, any further research should target a more diverse public.

There are important implications for global fast‐food companies in terms of protecting and developing their brand value; they need to respond to the wider food‐related debates in society, in particular, those concerning healthy eating and food ethics. They also need to ensure that their business practices are fully consistent with the values expressed in their CSR initiatives.

The special value of the paper lies in its joining together of current perspectives on CSR and consumer value in the UK food industry as it explores both through the perceptions of young consumers of fast food.

Superior knowledge of customers’ perceptions of value is recognised as a critical success factor in today's competitive marketplace. Despite this, the voice of the consumer is often poorly integrated within the value chain, the UK fresh‐meat sector being one example. This supply chain has attempted to add value through the implementation of value‐based labelling schemes. Few studies, however, have assessed the value created for consumers. Using both in‐depth interviews and a postal survey of 1,000 fresh‐meat consumers based in Scotland, this paper offers a strategic insight into how coordinators of value‐based labelling schemes might integrate the voice of the consumer within the fresh‐meat value chain. Structural equation models are used to develop marketing recommendations. The main attitudes driving consumer purchases of fresh meat bearing a value‐based label are identified and the market potential for further differentiation of each value‐based label is examined. Future research opportunities are also explored.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of consumer information and advice issued by the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) in terms of consumer understanding.

A total of 118 female respondents in Scotland completed a questionnaire investigating their knowledge about the role of dietary salt and testing their understanding of educational material supplied by the FSA.

A significant proportion (p<0.01) of the respondents considered themselves to be health conscious and nutritionally aware, but they were less aware of their salt intake and specific “salt in the diet” details prior to FSA information.

The study is limited to a convenience sample of relatively advantaged consumers, so that further work is required with more vulnerable consumers.

A survey tool was employed that may be adapted to evaluate consumer information campaigns in any area of food policy.

A highly‐fragmented UK beef industry today faces large, powerful retailers, potentially giving rise to mistrust and lack of common purpose. Consumer confidence in beef has been undermined by BSE and similar crises. The beef supply chain has responded with a number of initiatives designed to improve the quality and marketing of the product, and Government has put in place risk management controls. This paper uses ISO 9001:2000 as an audit frame to assess quality assurance for beef in Scotland, focusing specifically on supply chain integration and integrity of product specification. Identification of responsibilities for quality within the chain, standard setting and audit are also highlighted.

Discusses the factors shaping Scottish children’s perceptions of vegetables as a means of explaining their low vegetable consumption. Examines the impact that sensory factors, the child’s family and eating experiences, and environmental factors (i.e. socio‐economic factors/income, culture, eating patterns and advertising) have on children’s vegetable consumption. Additionally, makes suggestions for strategies to overcome some of these factors which affect children’s low consumption of vegetables.

This paper aims to explore ethical purchasing behaviours and attitudes, relating to the Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and their brand‐extension “Freedom Food”.

A mixed methodology was adopted. This involved both in‐depth interviews with 30 consumers and a postal survey of 1,000 consumers. Beliefs, attitudes, normative and control issues were measured within the context of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Structural equation modelling was used to explore a series of dependence relationships simultaneously.

Overall, consumers' moral obligations towards food‐animals as well as consumer location are confirmed as influencing ethical brand choice. Both variables provide additional predictive capability improvements, raising the percentage of explained variance by 28 per cent to 80 per cent. The RSPCA's brand extension is clearly successful in terms of the positive, association value between the parent brand and the extended brand. However, market opportunities to increase market potential exist. These opportunities are discussed.

Despite the plethora of brand extensions amongst conventional fast‐moving consumer goods, the success of the brand extension concept remains unexplored amongst ethical products. Similarly, within the ethical consumption literature the majority of ethical research focuses either on environmental issues or Fair Trade purchasing behaviour, with much less attention given to societal concern for animal welfare. Additional originality is gained by exploring consumer purchase activities of “Freedom Food” branded meat by adopting the TPB as a theoretical framework.

Provenance and ethical standards reflect foods that traceable and are supportive of the environment, sustainability and justice in the food supply chain. The purpose of this study is to understand higher education consumers’ food choices and to examine the predictors of purchasing intention of food with provenance and ethical standards.

An online questionnaire was completed by 296 students and staff members of the University of Central Lancashire. The questionnaire collected information on socio-demographic profiles; food choices, provenance and ethical standards; ethical purchasing and sourcing requirements and purchasing intention of food products with provenance and ethical standards. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the frequency of distribution of all socio-demographic characteristics. Multiple regression was used to examine if attitude, perceived behavioural control and subjective norms of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) significantly predict the consumers’ purchasing intention (Step 1). Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the behavioural items using principal components estimation and varimax rotation. Multiple regression on the expanded TPB (Step 2) using the obtained factor scores were conducted to determine if the factors were significant predictors of purchasing intention of food with provenance and ethical standards.

Multiple regression on the expanded TPB model revealed that only attitude and perceived behavioural control were significant predictors of purchasing intention of food with provenance and ethical standards. The regression model explained about 50 per cent of the variance of the intent to purchase food with provenance and ethical standards where R² = 0.50 (Adjusted R² = 0.47). This was significantly different from zero F (5, 89) = 17.77, p < 0.001. The incorporation of “Preference for ethically sourced food” and “Perceived knowledge and status of provenance standards” did not increase the prediction of purchasing behaviour.

Two broad themes were identified from the factor analysis where the first factor prioritises “Preference for ethically sourced food” and the second factor conceptualises “Perceived knowledge and status of provenance standards”. The TPB was expanded to incorporate both factors but did not increase the prediction of purchasing intention. The authors recommend that other potential predictors, for example, moral concerns or perceived value of food with provenance and/or ethical standards to be tested using an extended TPB framework. The study is of value to higher and further education catering services to encourage more sustainable and local food consumption.

The purpose of this paper is to enhance the understanding about the determinants of consumer food leftovers in out-of-home settings by taking a decomposed perspective on attitudes.

Data on 307 guests in a university canteen composing of stated measures for 12 beliefs, general attitude and behavioral intention and of visually estimated food leftovers are analyzed using exploratory factor and path analyses.

A factor analysis for belief statements derives three distinctive and potentially conflicting attitude dimensions: “Environment,” “Self-Interest” and “Resources.” Path analyses on their interrelation with general attitude, intention and behavior indicate that the dimensions have distinctive effects. Moreover, “Self-Interest” in contrast to the other two dimensions is correlated with situational perceptions about portion size and taste when these are included as direct determinants of leftovers.

It is recommended to consider different dimensions of attitude when addressing food leftover behavior since these dimensions may not be well represented in a classical summary construct and since their relevance may differ depending on situational factors. Additional research is recommended to validate the results for more representative samples of consumers and to elaborate on the interaction of different attitude dimensions as potential source of attitude ambivalence which cannot clearly be determined from the existing data.

Past research on consumer food waste behavior models attitudes exclusively as a summary construct. This contradicts qualitative findings that individuals may hold conflicting beliefs about food leftovers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the rationale and limitations of public nudging approaches currently to be found in the UK food choice environment.

The paper uses a critical review of the literature with case studies.

Nudging has potential value to assist healthier food choices, although the current focus of proponents tends to be the individual micro‐environment for selection rather than the wider food choice context. Ethical questions are raised by nudging as a policy and limited evidence of success to date would suggest that a combination of personalised tools and public nudges – individual empowerment and attention to the choice environment – might be more effective for embedded healthier eating.

This paper contrasts the underlying assumptions of the nudge approach by reference to the behavioural toolbox.