Is the Food System prepared for 2030? Considering that Zoomers (Generation Z) will be the largest global cohort in the world at that time, the purpose of the study is to identify what can be learned now from their eating habits to diversify and create a more resilient Food System prepared for the future. Researchers have discovered that the Food System should encourage sustainable and healthier food production by empowering a resilient local production. These changes are aligned with Zoomer preferences for local and organic food, considering their moral, ethical, and economic implications. To gather data, a quantitative investigation was performed among university students from Romania using an online survey in which 343 responses were recorded. A direct logistic regression was performed, similar to the one presented by Wilson and Lorenz (2015), to assess the impact of factors on the changing eating habits of Zoomers. The results showed significant changes in the diet of Zoomers who are facing an increased internationalization of the food consumption; they seek convenience but are also more eager to consume healthy food. For a more resilient Food System, special importance should be given to these preferences, through local and organic production, improving delivery methods, and enhancing the food experience in a responsible and ethical manner in order to prepare it for the next majoritarian cohort. These findings can be further developed by adapting the current Food System to emerging food eating habits and also by addressing how Zoomers’ food choices can improve the environmental impact of the Food System.
The Covid-19 pandemic and the measures taken to reduce the virus spreading have left their mark on many sectors of activity, including the food industry. In order to better understand the main changes in eating behavior and to identify the factors that contributed to changing the eating habits in this atypical context generated by the pandemic, a secondary analysis of statistical data on food consumption in Romania was performed. The data taken into account were those available on the Euromonitor International platform as well as in other reports published on this topic. The analysis of the values registered in Romania in 2020, compared to the pre-pandemic period (2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019) and to the pandemic and post-pandemic estimation (2021-2025) highlighted the orientation of consumers towards essential foods, implicitly the increase of vegetable and meat consumption, and a decrease in the consumption of fruits, sugar and sweeteners. Moreover, the study shows a growing awareness of the importance of health and quality issues in food choice, of the increasing importance of home delivery in the purchasing decision, all in the context of a maintained price sensitivity. The possible practical implications draw our attention to agri-food businesses' need to adapt to current socioeconomic realities, in an attempt to understand the new purchasing behaviors and to meet the current food consumption requirements of the population.
The managerial responsibilities and resources required to implement the methods of nutrition labeling of foods lie with the whole food system. The use of back-of-pack (BOP) nutrition labeling in the form of the nutrition declaration is widespread in commercial practice, and in the EU it is even mandatory for most products. Detailed numerical information on the nutrient content of the product makes it difficult for consumers to understand. Through a quantitative exploratory research, this paper focuses on the descriptive analysis of different voluntary front of pack (FOP) labeling schemes, assessing their impact on consumers' perception of the nutritional quality of products and determining their usefulness in terms of understanding the declared nutritional information. We are interested in increasing the usefulness of these systems in the context of a low level of consumer understanding of nutritional information (especially BOP), as indicated by the results obtained. This will facilitate the process of selecting more nutritionally balanced products to meet the need for education and healthy lifestyles. We start from the premise that the harmonization of front of pack labeling schemes, which tend to take the form of graded indicators, could be considered a necessary and useful innovative solution in the process of selecting and comparing food products on the market according to their declared nutritional profile. A single, voluntary, interpretative traffic light system, as the EU proposes, would harmonize the nutritional labeling of foods, as a condition for putting social policy on consumer nutrition education into practice, but also for facilitating the reformulation and promotion of healthier foods, beyond the controversies over the discrimination of some of them.
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