This article deals with changes in consumer behavior in the food market during a crisis. A crisis can be described as a pandemic during the COVID-19 pandemic, war conflict in Ukraine and a high inflation rate that causes increasing prices of food and other items. All of this affected consumer behaviour in terms of purchasing behaviour and preferences. Consumers changed their behaviour, and we could notice rationality and irrationality in many cases. The research involved 565 respondents in a questionnaire survey conducted in the spring of 2022. The confidence interval at the level of max determined the sample size. +-5% at the significance level α=0.95. The paper presents and examines three hypotheses directly connected with the main aim of the paper. The questionnaire survey provided a solid base for our statistical evaluation, where we used the Mann-Whitney test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Friedman test, Principal component analysis (PCA) and Divisive hierarchical cluster analysis. Research results proved that food design and packaging were among the least important factors when buying food online during a crisis, and younger consumers least avoided the Internet when buying food. Just partially accepted was proven our hypothesis that demographic characteristics (age, gender, place of residence) significantly influenced the importance of factors when buying food via the Internet in times of crisis.

The present paper deals with the issue of food waste in selected European countries, in which we have tried to analyze the socioeconomic rations. The main aim of our research was to analyze food waste quantity and compare the amount of wasted food in European Union countries (except Cyprus due to the unavailability of food waste data). The analysis was based on a dataset provided through the Food Waste Index Report 2021 by the UN environment program and complemented by socioeconomic variables obtained from EUROSTAT. For a deeper analyses of the obtained results, we formulated three assumptions, which have been tested with the use of several statistical methods—Pearson’s correlation coefficient, linear regression, the distance from a fictitious object method, and hierarchical clustering. Our results show that the amount of food wasted in different sectors (retail, food, households) is not correlated, and any of the analyzed socioeconomic variables do not influence the ranking of countries by the crucial variable.

Sustainability and innovation are key elements of the economic growth and productivity in the contemporary era. The willingness, ability, and capacity to innovate is a strategic tool for the Slovak agro-food companies that want to maintain and/or to improve their market. The aim of this paper is to discuss the selected aspects and determinants of innovative performance of the Slovak agro-food companies and point out key areas and types in innovations, problems influencing their implementation, and assessing their success. The issue of innovation and the “new” role of the agro-food sector have become crucial in the context of transition of the Slovak economy toward more sustainable approaches. Therefore they have become important topics of both scientific research and policy agendas. Using a case study method, a questionnaire survey among 99 agro-food companies in Slovakia was carried out to obtain empirical data about the way how they manage, implement and evaluate the innovations. The study outlined the selected aspects and key determinants which affect the motivation of agro-food companies to innovate as well as selected factors influencing the processes of implementation and management of innovation. The research findings also point out that substantial changes will be required in regulation and support of innovations in the agro-food sector in Slovakia. The study could contribute to help the agro-food companies' managers to improve the innovation activities and competitiveness of their companies, and it would be also helpful for public administration in the development of policies and instruments supporting innovations in the agro-food sector.

The bio-based economy is a powerfully emerging sector with huge potential and providing employment for many people across the whole Europe. There are still many European regions, including Nitra region in Slovakia, that do not take full advantage of their potential. The H2020 project POWER4BIO aims at supporting these regions in boosting the bio-based economy in their areas and analysing the transition from a realistic and competitive standpoint. Therefore, one of project goals was to ensure the critical mass beyond the consortium by involving additional stakeholders for fostering a dialogue between the consortium members and regional actors. Design/methodology/approach: This paper introduces the implementation of POWER4BIO methodology for guiding development of regional bioeconomy strategy in Nitra region. Based on the initial knowledge status of the regional situation and the regional stakeholder map, further methodological steps led to two-stage approach in selection of the group of relevant stakeholders. The workshop and questionnaire survey were realized within the POWER4BIO project in 2019-2020. All stakeholders were contacted firstly personally and then asked for their responses on an electronic survey translated in the Slovak language, and the respondents were provided with detailed explanations and instructions. The sample of stakeholders consisted of representatives of four different categoriespractitioners/companies, associations of producers, providers and legal entities, policy makers, and academic experts. Findings: Most of the responding stakeholders declared the appropriate knowledge of the state-of-art dedicated to bioeconomy issues. Responding stakeholders evaluated agriculture as existing, as well as the most promising sector from the point of view of current value chains. The survey has shown on the one hand a lack of private, local and regional financial schemes and funding mechanisms, and on the other hand a lack of knowledge of respondents about available models of public funding at the national and EU level. It has been also evident that the stakeholders mostly rely on public funds and government as a managing authority. Research limitations: The used approach and methods have limitations due to accuracy of the stakeholder groups and because of prevailing qualitative character of the obtained data and information. Thus, we did not conduct standard statistical quantitative analysis. On the other hand, the strength of this approach and method was that the project team members could ensure stakeholders from different categories were properly engaged in a meaningful way in the process of development of regional bieconomy strategy, and provided with a complex policy and field assessment framework.

European Union is striving towards sustainability and circularity due to many serious reasons such as limited natural resources, climate change, degradation of ecosystems, biodiversity and lands etc. To address these challenges, the EU created in 2012 so called "European Bioeconomy Strategy" which aims towards innovative and sustainable use of renewable resources including the concept of circular bioeconomy and bio-based economy. Biomass and Bio-based products have great potential for production and recycling the raw materials including agricultural residues. The significant potential is in lignocellulose retrieved from agriculture and forestry residues involving waste, straws or other by-products.