Value of Play with the Food

Value of Play with the Food
Play is an end in itself and implies the consumer having fun. Play allows for experimentation and the discovery of novelty. Children enjoy playing with their food, but adults may order them not to.

Some commercial snack foods currently targeted for inclusion in children’s lunch boxes encourage play e.g., by allowing biscuits and shaped slices of cheese and ham to be assembled in different ways.

As stringy cheese stick is also available that a child can pull at, shredding the cheese while eating it.

Eating shellfish, especially crustaceans such as crabs and lobsters which have not been dressed provides a socially acceptable opportunity for adults to play with their food.

The same might be said about eating spaghetti and cheese fondue; after all these do not represent the most efficient way of eating pasts and melted cheese, respectively.

Playing means improvising, and improvisation encourages learning.

Such learning can lead to increased involvement of a consumer with a particular product.

Consumers may pursue playful value by challenging the rules of the food marketer; on the other hand, marketers can sanction and encourage play, e.g., by suggesting that consumers customize dishes, such as adding fresh herbs to ready made soups.
Value of Play with the Food

Food, Quality, Value and Consumer

Food, Quality, Value and Consumer
Conceptually, “quality” and “value” lie at the interface between the consumers mind processes and the object of the external world. Both are concerned with a consumer and an object and with interaction taking place between them.

Food value is slanted more towards the consumer and food quality towards the food, but there is an overlap. This interface, although critical is only one of several that are relevant to an understanding of consumer behavior in the area of food quality.

“Value” and the associated concept of “value”, and “consumer behavior” draw on several academic disciplines, both in the social and the natural sciences, for their theoretical underpinnings; yet there is no unified view of food quality and the consumer.

In fact, there is often a distinct lack of understanding, which tends to prevent effective communication between food professionals raised in the different academic traditions, and which can lead to difficulties in the business environment.

Food companies must understand the mental process that will cause consumers to develop perception of the finished products. Such perceptions engage with consumers’ motivational systems and therefore directly affect choices and other food related behavior.

As for marketing and communication strategies for novel foods and technologies, it is crucial that proper account is taken of the beliefs and attitudes of both consumers and the wider community.

Consumers are the final link of food supply chains, i.e., they are the end users. This does not mean that, in each case, the food shopper is the person who will consumes the food in the sense of eating it. For example, foods may be bought for other family or household members and as gifts.
Food, Quality, Value and Consumer

What is the Meaning of Fresh Foods?

What is the Meaning of Fresh Foods?
The word fresh in the marketing of foodstuff has become something of a mantra in the past decade. However what the manufacturer and retailer mean by fresh and what the consumer understands are sometimes very different. We understand that the fresh bread has been baked within the last 48 hrs and fresh milk came from the cow within a similar period of time. So can fruit juice (the raw material could be weeks old), just because it has been pasteurized and required chill chain distribution be justifiable called ‘fresh’? Also, ‘fresh’ fruit juice could have 30 day best before life: is it still ‘fresh’ after 30 days? ‘Fresh’ fruit and vegetables could be several days old at the point of sale.

‘Fresh’ has three connotations to the consumer: the first is a about how recently it was derived from its source, the second is about minimal processing and the third about its eating quality. Pasteurized milk could be less than 24 hrs from the cow when place on sale. UHT milk when processed is no older than pasteurized milk but no one would describe UHT milk, even on the day of processing, as fresh. In a supermarket, fresh fish means raw fish: it was probably caught several days ago and has been frozen.

The consumer does not experience age of product or type of process: the consumer will buy fresh foods on the basis of a superior eating quality, often expect to pay a premium and accept a short shelf life. For the industry to offer both better value and greater convenience in the fresh foods market, we need to better understand that the consumer experiences as fresh food and how they discriminate ‘fresh’ from ‘processed’ foods. It is better be able to offer the fresh foods eating experience that is both good value and convenient.
What is the Meaning of Fresh Foods?

Nutritive Value of Fruits and Vegetables: Minerals and Vitamins

Nutritive Value of Fruits and Vegetables: Minerals and Vitamins
The nutritional advantage of fruits and vegetables is that they offer high concentration of micronutrients for a low expenditure of calories and fat. Virtually every national report of diet and health recommendations, recommend an increase in fruit and vegetable consumption to replace foods higher in calories and fat.

Fruits and vegetables are rich sources of vitamins, particularly A and C. It has been estimated that these crops provide 91% of the vitamin C and 62% of the vitamin A consumed in US alone. It should be noted that the importance if a fruit and vegetable as a source of a nutrient is a function of both the concentration of that nutrient and the amount of that item is consumed. Thus carrots, leafy greens vegetables, and sweet potatoes are good sources of vitamin A by virtue of their high concentration of the nutrient. Likewise, citrus fruits, pepper and tomatoes are good sources of vitamin C because of high concentrations. Potatoes while lower in vitamin C concentration are also good source of the nutrient because of the large amount of potatoes consumed. In addition, certain crops are good sources of folic acid, niacin, thiamin, and vitamin B6.

Fruits and vegetables are relatively high in mineral content, particularly potassium, magnesium, iron and calcium. Unfortunate, the amount of these minerals in plant products is not good indication of their nutritive value. The bioavailability of these micronutrients is more important that the actual concentration and the bioavailability of minerals in fruits and vegetables tend to be low, primarily because of the presence of interfering substance. Bioavailability of nutrients depends on the chemical form of the nutrients and the presence of interfering substance.
Nutritive Value of Fruits and Vegetables: Minerals and Vitamins