Motives for food choice of consumers in Central México

Abstract

For AuthorsIf you would like t o writ e f or t his, or any ot her Emerald publicat ion, t hen please use our Emerald f or Aut hors service inf ormat ion about how t o choose which publicat ion t o writ e f or and submission guidelines are available f or all. Please visit www. emeraldinsight . com/ aut hors f or more inf ormat ion. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and pract ice t o t he benef it of societ y. The company manages a port f olio of more t han 290 j ournals and over 2, 350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an ext ensive range of online product s and addit ional cust omer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. *Relat ed cont ent and download inf ormat ion correct at t ime of download. In contemporary Western societies, the distance between the consumers and the preparation of their own food makes the global agri1food industry and its distribution system as a symbol of void (Díaz and Gómez, 2005; Álvarez, 2008), increased suspicion on the manipulation of food by these industries (Aguilar, 2007), andgenerating interest for what they call quality foods; where consumption is not ruled by economic aspects, but by values as health, quality, tradition, culture, the environment and ethics (Espeitx, 1996).This creates an eclectic gastronomic condition that is fragmented, unequal, postmodern, and strongly anomic (Alonso, 2005), which gives way to a new

The consumer of food products in organic markets of central Mexico

“…On the other hand, Espinoza-Ortega et al (2016) identify in a study on the motivations for food choice by consumers in central Mexico that there is little or nul interest in issues related to the environment, animal welfare, quality seals, health care or weight control; which warrant deeper studies with specific groups of consumers, like consumers of organic foods.…”

Exploring the perception of Mexican urban consumers toward functional foods using the Free Word Association technique

“…This is interesting, as in other works functional foods are related to new technologies, but not to the natural concept (Evans & Cox, ). In this sense, even though Mexico has one of the highest indices of obesity and diseases related to eating (Carrete & Arroyo, ; Espinoza‐Ortega et al, ), or maybe because of that, the associated words with highest frequency of mention toward functional foods are part of beliefs or attitudes (Roininen et al, ), that is, those foods recreate them an idea of healthy.…”

“…However, these are in contrast to statistics on obesity and diabetes prevalence in Mexico. In this sense, Espinoza‐Ortega et al () mentioned as a paradox that in their work Weight and Health Care was the factor with greatest importance, which may be due to government media campaigns to prevent obesity and diabetes. These may make people consider these aspects as important, but do not necessarily mean that people take action in response.…”

“…Schnettler et al () comment that Chilean consumers have good disposition to buy functional foods. However, these works cannot be extrapolated to the particular conditions of other countries, like Mexico, where the economic development, and demographic and socio‐cultural changes have promoted two phenomena, the polarization of livelihoods of the population, and changes of lifestyles in different social strata (Espinoza‐Ortega, Martínez‐García, Thomé‐Ortiz, & Vizcarra‐Bordi, ). A negative effect of these changes is reflected in the high incidence of diabetes (9.5%), which will increase in the future due to obesity of 33.3% of children, 35.3% of teenagers, and 72.5% of adults (INSP, ).…”

“…Only the work of Salgado, Camarena, and Díaz () was identified; who analyze the neo‐phobia of new foods such as the functional foods. The health situation, the growth in the market of functional foods, and the little knowledge on the perception and attitudes of Mexican consumers toward these products, state the need for studies on the effect of these changes not only in food consumption, but also on the symbolic elements that consumers consider when they choose their food (Espinoza‐Ortega et al, ).…”