research on food advertising

• Research article
• Open access
• Published: 10 April 2014

The effects of food advertising and cognitive load on food choices

• Frederick J Zimmerman 1 &
• Sandhya V Shimoga 1  

BMC Public Health volume  14 , Article number:  342 ( 2014 ) Cite this article

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Advertising has been implicated in the declining quality of the American diet, but much of the research has been conducted with children rather than adults. This study tested the effects of televised food advertising on adult food choice.

Participants (N = 351) were randomized into one of 4 experimental conditions: exposure to food advertising vs. exposure to non-food advertising, and within each of these groups, exposure to a task that was either cognitively demanding or not cognitively demanding. The number of unhealthy snacks chosen was subsequently measured, along with total calories of the snacks chosen.

Those exposed to food advertising chose 28% more unhealthy snacks than those exposed to non-food-advertising (95% CI: 7% - 53%), with a total caloric value that was 65 kcal higher (95% CI: 10-121). The effect of advertising was not significant among those assigned to the low-cognitive-load group, but was large and significant among those assigned to the high-cognitive-load group: 43% more unhealthy snacks (95% CI: 11% - 85%) and 94 more total calories (95% CI: 19-169).

Conclusions

Televised food advertising has strong effects on individual food choice, and these effects are magnified when individuals are cognitively occupied by other tasks.

Peer Review reports

The quality of the typical American diet has been eroding for decades, a development that some researchers have associated with the growth in food marketing [ 1 – 3 ]. Although each of the “4 P’s” of marketing—product [ 4 ], place [ 5 ], price [ 6 , 7 ], and promotion [ 8 ]—have contributed to the erosion of the American diet, that part of promotion that comprises television advertising has certainly played a significant role [ 9 – 14 ]. Even among adults, food advertising has strong effects [ 9 , 15 – 18 ].

Recent research in psychology and behavioral economics has shown that cognitive resources are inherently limited [ 19 , 20 ]. People are able to make attentive, rational-seeming decisions some of the time, but at other times decisions seem to be irrational, relying on such cognitive shortcuts as heuristics, social referencing, and habit [ 21 – 24 ].

In the particular area of behaviors around what and how much we eat, people seem to be so sensitive to such effects that eating itself has been described as an “automatic behavior” [ 25 ]. In several recent experiments, researchers have discovered that portion size, the behavior of nearby eaters, the accessibility of food, and even dubious health claims all affect the amount and types of food consumed [ 26 – 29 ].

A separate strand of research has shown that eating behaviors are sensitive to the depletion of cognitive resources at any given time (that is, to cognitive load). One study manipulated available cognitive resources by asking participants to memorize either a 2-digit or a 7-digit number, walk down a hallway to another room, and recall the number [ 30 ]. Along the way, participants were offered the choice of a chocolate cake or a fruit salad. Among those who had been given a 7-digit number 63% chose the chocolate cake, whereas among those remembering a 2-digit number only 41% chose the cake. Another study produced similar results among restrained eaters [ 31 ]. These results were accentuated when the cognitive load represented an ego threat to the participant [ 32 ].

There accordingly appears to be strong evidence that eating behaviors are highly sensitive to external cues (including advertising), and cognitive load tends to disinhibit eating. Putting these two strands of research together suggests that the effects of food advertising may be greater among those under a heavy cognitive load than among those whose cognitive resources are not so taxed.

Recent work has shown that foods of low nutritional quality are more heavily marketed in low-income and minority neighborhoods [ 33 – 37 ]. This finding, if replicated in other studies, may explain a part of the socioeconomic disparities in eating behaviors that have been observed. Yet it also raises a question: why might it be more attractive to advertise obesigenic foods in these vulnerable neighborhoods?

This conjecture may offer important insights into the causes that underlie socioeconomic disparities in dietary behaviors. If cognitive load potentiates the effects of obesigenic food advertising, then disparities in stress and cognitive load could translate into disparities in healthy eating behaviors.

This study tests whether food advertising has a significant effect on the types and quantity of food chosen in a free-choice environment, and explores how these effects of advertising differ when cognitive load is experimentally manipulated.

A secondary analysis presents these results stratified by the socioeconomic status of the participants.

This study used a 2x2 factorial design, with both advertising and cognitive load experimentally manipulated, to test the effects of food advertising on food choice overall and among subsets of participants who received either high-cognitive-load or low-cognitive-load tasks.

Participants were students at UCLA, recruited through posters, ads in the campus newsletter, and a campus-wide student participant pool maintained by the Anderson Behavioral Lab, a part of the UCLA Anderson School of Management. All willing students aged 18 or older and without any major self-reported health problems (such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease or depression) were eligible to participate. Participants were told that they would be participating in a study of “television viewing and short-term memory”. Those who completed the study were given a $10 gift certificate to on-campus stores and restaurants.

Participants who met the above inclusion criteria were randomly assigned to one of four groups:

High cognitive load + food advertising

Low cognitive load + food advertising

High cognitive load + non-food advertising

Low cognitive load + non-food advertising

Participants were invited in groups of 20 to view prerecorded movie segments interspersed with advertising. Each session included, in this order, a brief introduction to the study, 45 minutes of viewing, a brief break for snacks (including water and soda options), and the completion of a survey of demographic and other information. The entire session typically lasted just under an hour. Eligible enrollees were asked to enroll for a particular study session via an online scheduling system. The study slots were then randomly assigned to one of the four experimental arms, ensuring only that approximately equal number of sessions were conducted in morning, noon and afternoons.

The viewing consisted of a 3 blocks of content and each block included three 30-second commercials. Each block began with an introductory or transition screen displayed for 15 seconds, an introductory announcement such as that seen in movie theaters requesting that people silence their cell phones, and one, 30-second commercial. This introductory material— 45 seconds total—was followed by a 6-to-7-minute segment excerpted from a movie or television show, a second 30-second commercial break, a second movie or TV segment, and finally one more 30-second commercials. For those participants assigned to the food-advertising arm, the 2 of the 3 commercials were for an obesigenic food product—potato chips, chocolate candy and sugary soda. The order in which food commercial was introduced within each block varied. Each participant assigned to the food-advertising arm accordingly was exposed to 6, 30-second food commercials. In the intervention arm, 1 of the 3 commercials was for irrelevant products (such as cars, sneakers or cell phones). Those assigned to the control-advertising arm saw the same irrelevant commercials as in the food-advertising arm, and in addition saw additional non-food commercial in the place of food commercial in each block. Participants in both arms saw the same number of commercials and the same TV and movie programming. The movie and TV excerpts were chosen to be entertaining, but not highly stimulating, and to avoid mention of food, eating, or obesity-related topics. The same TV and movie excerpts were used in both arms. Additional file 1 reports the full schedule of viewing in both arms.

There were two parts to the cognitive task, a task involving remembering a number and a task involving tracking information on screen.

Immediately before the introductory screen of the third block, participants were shown a number for 7 seconds and asked to memorize the number. Participants were asked not to write the number down and were told that they would be asked to record the number on their final survey. Those assigned to the high-cognitive-load condition were asked to remember a 7-digit number. Those assigned to the low-cognitive-load condition were asked to remember a 2-digit number. These cognitive tasks were chosen because of their similarity to a previous experiment involving cognitive load and food choice [ 30 ]. The specific numbers are reported in Additional file 1 . The information task demanding high cognitive load required the participants to mentally keep track of the number of times a particular word was uttered in a movie segment. (For example, in the sector showing ‘Duck Dynasty’, the participants were asked to count the number of time the word duck is uttered by any of the actors.) At the end of that segment, they were required to write down the total count on the task answer sheet given to them.

In addition to memorizing a 2-digit number, the low cognitive load task was to answer a simple question per segment. (For example, in the ‘Duck Dynasty’ segment, the question asked about the show’s location, which was mentioned multiple times during the segment.)

At the beginning of the study, participants were informed of the study purpose and protocol and provided their verbal consent to participate. The study protocol was approved by the UCLA Institutional Review Board, approval #12-000323.

A variety of snack and drink items were made freely available to the participants during a break that took place after the viewing and before the survey. Participants were told that there were snacks on the table on one side of the room, and that they were invited to help themselves. These items included water, small bags of sliced apples, small bags of trail mix, granola bars, Coca Cola, small bags of M&M’s, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Hershey’s Kisses, and Lay’s Potato Chips. Ads for Coca Cola, Hershey’s Kisses, M&M’s and Lay’s Potato Chips were included as part of the experimental manipulation in the food-advertising arm. Because no ads were presented for water, apples, trail mix or granola, these items were deemed healthy, with the candy, soda, and potato chips deemed unhealthy. These labels are intended as convenient descriptors only, as it is true that excessive consumption of, say, trail mix, would not be healthy.

Two main outcome variables were assessed: the number of snack items chosen and the total count of calories of food that was chosen. These outcomes were chosen to reflect each of the two distinct dimensions of food-related choices: the type of food chosen and the quantity chosen. Actual consumption of food was not a behavioral target of the experiment and was not observed in the study. Within each of these outcomes, the analysis separately tracks the number of calories from healthy and unhealthy items and the number of healthy and unhealthy items chosen.

The number and types of snack items (including drinks) were observed and recorded by one of the coauthors (SS). Discrete video recording of the snacks area permitted accurate assessment of the items taken by each study participant. Calorie counts were available for each of the healthy and unhealthy items.

The final questionnaire included questions on age, gender, year in school, major, exercise and sleeping habits, fast food consumption, soda consumption, and. television viewing habits. Following previous work on economic disparities in obesity, students were asked to provide the zip code of their parents’ address as a proxy for socioeconomic status [ 38 ]. Data from the 2011 American Community Survey, collected by the US Census, were used to determine the average income for each zip code. Participants were dichotomized into high vs low socioeconomic status according to whether the average income in their home zip code is above or below the within-sample median. Foreign students (N = 48) were dropped from these analyses.

Statistical analysis

The number of unhealthy snack items chosen is count data, with a Poisson distribution. A likelihood ratio test failed to reject the assumption of equidispersion (i.e., that the conditional mean and conditional variance of the outcome are equal; p-value = 0.38), suggesting that poisson is preferred to a negative-binomial regression. The Vuong test revealed no evidence of zero-inflation. Accordingly, the assumptions of Poisson regression could not be rejected and hence, it was the preferred model.

The Poisson regression was first conducted in the whole sample to test the main effects of advertising. To gain some purchase on the statistical meaning of the differences in the effects of advertising between high-cognitive-load and low-cognitive-load conditions two tests were conducted. First, an advertising-cognitive-load interaction term was added to the regressions and its significance was tested. If the coefficient on this term were significant, it would indicate that the analysis could reject the null hypothesis of no effect-modification of advertising by cognitive load.

Second, an equivalence test was conducted [ 39 ], using a two one-sided test (TOST) with a delta of 50 kcal for the total calories and 25% for the number of unhealthy snacks. The purpose of an equivalence test is to determine whether the observed point estimate, along with its entire confidence interval, is contained within a specified margin around some anchor, often either zero or some other known quantity. Unlike a statistical significance test, the purpose of an equivalence test is to test the magnitude of difference between an estimate and some other quantity. In this analysis, the question is whether the effects of advertising can be said to be of similar magnitude in a high-cognitive-load and a low-cognitive-load condition. Note that significant differences and equivalences are conceptually distinct: estimates in these two conditions could be statistically significantly different and yet equivalent; not statistically significantly different and yet not equivalent; or any other combination. The equivalence used a one-sided test of whether the interaction of cognitive load and advertising was associated with a change in either total calories or the number of unhealthy snacks of less than 50 calories or less than 25%, respectively.

The sample was then split into sub-samples of high-cognitive-load and low-cognitive-load, and the Poisson regression was conducted in each sample separately to test the effects of advertising under these distinct conditions.

Finally, as a secondary analysis, the samples were further stratified within cognitive-load arms by socioeconomic status, divided at the sample median (excluding the foreign-born participants). Again, the Poisson regression was conducted, this time in 4 distinct sub-samples of the data.

In each regression, the participant’s status in the food-advertising or non-food advertising arm is the only regressor.

The number of calories is a normally distributed variable, but truncated on the left at zero. With this distribution for the dependent variable, Tobit regression is indicated. As for the first outcome, the number of calories chosen was analyzed first in a Tobit regression of the whole sample, with tests for effect modification and equivalence (with a delta of 50 kcal), and then in a stratified regression by cognitive load and finally in a sub-analysis in which the sample was further stratified by socioeconomic status.

All analyses were carried out using Stata 10.1.

Sensitivity analyses

A small number (N = 3; <1%) of the participants were observed either to have written their number down when they were asked to remember it, or recalled a number that was substantially different than the number they had been given. The results reported here were analyzed without correcting for this protocol violation. However, an analysis in which these participants were dropped (not reported here) produced highly similar results.

Several additional analyses were conducted to test the robustness of the results to alternative specifications. These analyses included ordinary least squares regression instead of Poisson or Tobit, and analyses that were adjusted for the gender, parental SES, year in college, foreign citizenship and past food habits of the participant. All analyses produced results that were highly similar to those reported here.

Table  1 presents the descriptive statistics of the sample. Consistent with the randomization of the participants, there are few meaningful differences across the groups.

Figure  1 presents the unadjusted results graphically. The top panel reports results in terms of calories, and the bottom panel in terms of the number of snacks chosen. Results are broken down by individual food type, within the categories of healthy and unhealthy food. In the left pane is the simple comparison of food choices in the non-food-advertising arm and the food-advertising arm; in the right pane the effect modification by cognitive load is presented. In all comparisons, more food was taken in the food-advertising arm than in the non-food advertising arm. For calories, most of the increase was among the unhealthy foods, with the largest percentage increases for soda and chips. For number of items, there were large increases in the unhealthy foods, again with proportionately large increases for soda and chips. However, food advertising was also associated with an increase in the selection of apples, and with a decrease in selection of trailmix.

Calories and Number of snacks by experimental arm.

Table  2 presents a formal statistical analysis of these results. Three models are presented: the main effect of advertising, the effects of advertising controlling for the set of covariates included in Table  1 , and the effects of the advertising-cognitive-load interaction. Each model is executed for the total number of calories and the number of unhealthy snacks.

Those exposed to food advertising took a set of snacks with 65 more calories than those exposed to non-food advertising, and this difference is significant (p-value = 0.02; 95% CI: 10-121). Again, neither the effect modification by cognitive load nor the equivalence test achieved significance (p-values of 0.30 and 0.56, respectively).

Results of the Poisson estimation of the number of unhealthy snacks are reported with exponentiated coefficients, which can be interpreted as a percentage increase relative to the reference category. The exponentiated coefficient (rate ratio: RR) in the pooled regression is 1.28 (95% CI: 1.07 – 1.53). That is, those in the food-advertising group chose 28% more unhealthy snacks than those in the non-food advertising group. Neither the effect-modification of advertising by cognitive load nor the equivalence test was significant (p-values of 0.22 and 0.50, respectively). Low-income and foreign students chose more snacks and more total calories than non-foreign and high-income students. No other covariates were significant, and—as expected in a randomized experiment—the covariates collectively do not moderate the main effects.

The results of the Tobit regressions of number of calories are reported in Table  3 . In the low-cognitive-load group the effect was not significant for all calories, calories from healthy foods and calories from unhealthy foods. In the high-cognitive-load group the effect was significant for total calories and calories from unhealthy foods. Those in the food-advertising group chose a set of snacks with 94 more calories than the non-food advertising group (95% CI: 19-169); and their choice of unhealthy foods had 107 more calories than those of the non-food-advertising group (95% CI: 33-181). Accordingly, all of the additional calories associated with food advertising were from unhealthy foods.

The secondary stratified analyses using socioeconomic status revealed no statistically significant results, except that below-median-SES participants in the high-cognitive-load plus food-advertising arm chose snacks with 143 more calories than those in the high-cognitive-load plus non-food-advertising arm (95% CI: 37-249).

Stratified results of the Poisson regressions of the total number of snacks, unhealthy snacks, and healthy snacks are presented in Table  4 . In the low-cognitive-load group, the effect of food advertising is not significant for all snacks, healthy snacks and unhealthy snacks. In the high-cognitive-load group, those exposed to food advertising chose 28% more total snacks and 43% more unhealthy snacks (rate ratio 95% CIs: 1.07-1.54 and 1.11 – 1.85, respectively). The effect on healthy snacks was not significant.

The secondary analyses further stratifying these results by parent socioeconomic status revealed a significant effect among those in the high-cognitive-load group with below-sample-median income. In this group, the effect of food advertising was an 84% increase in the number of unhealthy snacks chosen (rate ratio 95% CI: 1.22 – 2.78), and this effect was significantly different than among the above-sample-median group. Those in the high-cognitive-load group with above-median SES had increases of 46% and 81%, respectively, in the number of snacks overall and the number of healthy snacks chosen (95% CIs” 1.10-1.95 and 1.20-2.71, respectively). The effect of food advertising was not significant in all other groups, and there were no other significant effect modifications by SES in any of the other regressions.

There is a clear qualitative difference between the high-cognitive-load group, for whom advertising has a large and statistically significant effect, and the low-cognitive-load group, for whom advertising has a smaller, and statistically insignificant effect. These differences appear to be magnified by the participant’s socioeconomic status, with low-SES individuals more susceptible to the effects of advertising than high-SES individuals.

These study results are similar to those found in Harris, Bargh, and Brownell (2009), which included 4 food advertisements (20 seconds each, as opposed to 3, 30-second advertisements here). Although the coding of the outcome in the two studies was too different to permit a direct comparison, the Harris et al. study found that those in the food-advertising group consumed 0.44 standard deviations more than in the control group, an effect of a broadly similar magnitude to that estimated here.

We are unaware of any study in the literature that examines whether the effect of advertising can be enhanced by cognitive load. Two studies have noted an interaction between restrained eating and either cognitive load [ 31 ] or advertising [ 9 ] on increased calorie choice in experimental settings. Another study found that emotional setbacks like a favorite sports team losing an important match can trigger overeating [ 40 ].

Our results suggest that the conjoint presence of both heavy cognitive load and food advertising might lead to significantly worse food choices. Other research has shown people often watch television while distracted in some way, for example by multi-tasking. To the extent that such multi-tasking induces cognitive load, the research here suggests that it may exacerbate the effects of advertising. In addition, evidence suggests that television viewing in childhood and adolescence has sustained effects into adulthood [ 13 , 41 ]. If low-SES children are more likely to be exposed to television advertising for obesigenic foods, the longevity of the effect may explain some of the results here. Participants’ prior exposure to food marketing was not assessed here, and this is a limitation of the present research.

Food advertising is much discussed in the public health literature, but most of the popular discussion around food advertising seems to focus on children [ 14 , 42 – 44 ], while scant attention is paid to adults. This study contributes to a very small but important body of literature that suggests that the effects of advertising are not limited to children.

The results of this study reinforce the research consensus that advertising is a potent force in food choice. Americans tend to resist calls for restrictions on marketing by invoking values around freedom. Yet it is worth closely examining the meaning of free choice [ 45 ]. In this experiment all participants were equally free to choose, and yet the study authors were able to manipulate this freedom, influencing choices through experimental conditions. In the world outside the lab, choices can also be manipulated [ 46 ]. Carefully studied experience from a ban on advertising to children in Québec shows that such a ban is effective in promoting healthier eating [ 47 ].

Previous research has found that those of low socioeconomic status may be especially likely to suffer from stress [ 48 – 50 ]. For example, one recent study in which race/ethnicity was strongly correlated with education and income, found that African-Americans had experienced an average of 1.92 stressors and American-born Latinos 1.90, against only 1.12 events for Whites [ 51 ]. It may be that the daily hassles and stressors experienced by minority and low-income communities operate in a similar way to the experimentally induced cognitive load described here. If so, that would suggest that people so exposed might be more than usually susceptible to the effects of food advertising.

Eating behavior is strongly influenced by cultural and environmental factors [ 52 ]. The results presented here raise the possibility that food marketing may be more potent in low-income neighborhoods than in high-income ones. Future research should attempt to replicate and extend this research to further examine patterns related to cognitive burden and socioeconomic factors.

Limitations

Participants in this study were all students at a top-ranked university, which may limit the external generalizability of the study. UCLA is one of the most ethnically and economically diverse universities in the country [ 53 ] and has the highest proportion of students receiving Pell Grants of any major university, an important indicator of economic diversity [ 54 ]. All the same, many of the results on food choice obtained to date have been conducted among college students, and research in the community would enhance confidence in the generalizability of the results.

Socioeconomic status in this study was measured by a proxy of parental zip code, which is clearly an imperfect measure. In the US, a zip code includes approximately 7,000-10,000 people. Because housing costs in the US tend to follow geographic patterns, zip codes tend to have some degree of economic homogeneity. Yet this homogeneity is not absolute, and there can be variations of income within zip code. In this data set the standard deviation of parental SES as measured by zip code proxy was 38% of the mean. This measure was used because the socioeconomic status of college students is hard to operationalize. An advantage of replicating these results in the community would be the ability to capture more reliable measures of socioeconomic status.

This research is motivated by the possibility that chronic cognitive load enhances the effect of chronic exposure to food advertising. Yet in the confines of this experiment neither chronic cognitive load nor chronic exposure to food advertising could be experimentally manipulated. It could be that the effects of chronic exposures are either greater or lesser than the very brief and relatively small doses manipulated in this experiment. Given how pervasive and profound both cognitive load and food advertising are in American society, other methods besides experimental manipulation will be necessary to tease out the causal roles and interactions of these two factors on eating behaviors.

“Marketing works”. These opening words of the Institute of Medicine’s report on food marketing to children [ 14 ] apply to adults as well as to children. These study results raise the possibility that food marketing may have disparate effects across different populations, disproportionately influencing the eating behaviors of some of the most vulnerable subgroups and potentially contributing to disparities in diet and in related health outcomes.

Abbreviations

Socio-economic status

Confidence interval.

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We are grateful to an endowment of Fred W. and Pamela K. Wasserman for supporting my research, including this study.

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FZ conceived the idea for the research. SS and FZ together designed the specific aspects of the study protocol. SS recruited the participants and conducted the experiments. SS prepared and cleaned the data, and FZ conducted the analyses. SS reviewed the analyses. Both FZ and SS drafted the final document. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Food advertisement influences food decision making and not nutritional status: a study among university students in Ghana

• Gabriel Libienuo Sowley Kalog 1 ,
• Faiza Kasim 1 ,
• Bernice Anyebuno 1 ,
• Sandra Tei 1 ,
• Clement Kubreziga Kubuga 1 ,
• Victor Mogre 2 &
• Paul Armah Aryee 1  

BMC Nutrition volume  8 , Article number:  72 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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Consumers are exposed to a wide range of advertisements through different channels daily, which tends to have an influence on their food decision making. The aim of this study was to evaluate the different forms of food advertisements students are exposed to on campus and how they influence their food choices and nutritional status.

This cross-sectional study was conducted to find out the influence of different forms of food advertisements on students’ food choices and nutritional status. A self-reported semi-structured questionnaire was used to elicit responses from 367 students. About 51.5% of the students were females and 48.5% males. Body Mass index (BMI) was derived from weight and height measured according to standard procedures. Data was analysed and presented as frequencies and percentages. Chi-square was used to determine association between categorical variables (socio-demographic characteristics, food choices and nutritional status).

The students reported ‘use of internet’ (58.9%) as the main source of food advertisement on campus, followed by television (21.0%). A large number of students (74.9%) were affirmative about food advertisements influencing their food decision making. Those with poor nutritional status (underweight, overweight and obese) were more likely to patronize sugar sweetened beverages (10.1%) as compared to fruits and vegetables (1.4%). There was statistical significance ( p  = 0.003) for type of food patronized due to advertisement and the source of advertisement. However, there was no statistical significance ( p  = 0.832) for type of food patronized due to advertisement and BMI of students.

Owing to the increased patronage of internet and television as channels of food advertisements by students, policy makers should prioritize the designing and implementation of intervention programmes through these channels that would influence healthy food decision making and promote consumption of nutrient rich foods. As this population has high self-reported advertisements’ influence on food choices, it is vital to investigate further the influence of contextual cues such as environment and advertisement on their eating habits and dietary patterns.

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Introduction

The choices and intake of processed foods can be induced by factors such as changes in the food environment and variations in the socio-cultural setting [ 15 ]. Changes in the food environment include food advertisements and convenience, increased availability and accessibility of processed foods, replacement of traditional diet with Western food, foods as indicators of status. Variations in the socio-cultural setting include long work hours, inactive lifestyles, globalization and urbanization, rise in income levels and decrease in household cooking [ 15 ]. Even though the health of an individual is valued as a key driver of such human behaviour, efforts aimed at informing consumers about the relationship between their choice of diets and health in order to influence their eating patterns or food choices have been very challenging [ 11 ]. Though the major determinant for eating is hunger, what an individual chooses to eat is not solely driven by physiological or nutritional needs [ 11 ].

Food purchasing decisions by consumers are dependent on several factors, therefore there is the need for deeper understanding of these determinants to enhance outcome of successful interventions [ 11 ]. Within the food environment there is an increasing spate of advertisement of food which could have varying influences on people. Consumers are exposed to a wide range of advertisement in different media every day, thereby making advertising, sales promotion and public relations essential mass-communication tools available to marketers [ 2 ]. Through advertisements, factors such as perceived quality of product, appearance, convenience and cost, greatly determine a consumer’s food decision making [ 11 ].

Advertising is a process of communication and every day, consumers are constantly being exposed to a wide range of advertisements from different sources. Thus, advertisements, which serve as a conduit for sales promotion and public relations are vibrant tools available to marketers for mass communication [ 13 ]. Advertising is often used to create basic awareness of a product or service in the mind of potential customers in addition to building up knowledge about it [ 2 ]. In 2016, almost $13.5 billion was spent on media advertising by more than 20,300 food, beverage, and restaurant companies [ 18 ]. Unhealthy food marketing targeting students could be a major contributory factor to poor diet quality and diet related diseases globally [ 26 ]. Worldwide, there is an increase in consumption of energy-dense foods that are high in fat, salt and sugars, but poor in vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients as well as dietary fibre [ 25 ]. For majority of students who mostly live away from their families/homes and have to make independent food choices during periods that the university is in session, food adverts could have a great influence on their lives [ 4 ]. Unhealthy food selection, increased cost of healthy foods and the ease of availability of fast foods at university campuses, could negatively impact on students eating behaviours [ 9 ].

There are many products and services including food products which are presented to consumers and potential consumers via advertisement [ 2 ]. Vigorous promotional practices through television advertising could have contributed significantly to the erosion of diet quality among many cultures [ 10 ]. Some studies have found out that, portion size, the behaviour of nearby eaters, the accessibility of food and even dubious health claims through advertisements all affect the amount and type of food people purchase or consume [ 6 , 23 ]. Studies in recent times have shown that foods of low nutritional value are often greatly marketed in low-income and marginalized neighbourhoods [ 16 , 19 ]. All over the world, people are routinely being exposed to advertising and marketing through radio, television, magazines, internet (which includes social media and other web-based applications), schools, product placements, cell phones, video games as well as other means [ 3 ]. These advertisements and marketing strategies are purposefully designed to increase brand recognition, loyalty and quite sadly sales of high calorie and unhealthy foods. Most of these advertised products contain excess amounts of saturated fats, added sugar, and salts and, at the same time, do not promote adequate intakes of fruits, vegetables and whole grains [ 3 ].

Food choices and intake are important factors that can influence the weight and overall nutritional and health status of an individual [ 7 ]. Thus, it becomes imperative to investigate the link between adverts that may influence such behaviours and their various outcomes. Even though there is empirical evidence to show that food advertisement has influence on food choices of people of all age groups [ 2 ], little is known about the connection between these variables among university students in Ghana. In view of this dearth in literature, this study aimed to differentiate forms of food advertisement students are exposed to on campus and how these influence their food choices and nutritional status.

Materials and methods

Study area and design.

This study was conducted on the Tamale campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS) in the Northern Region of Ghana. There are a total of seven (7) schools/faculties with several undergraduate and postgraduate programmes being ran at the Tamale campus. A cross-sectional study design was adopted in this study.

Study population and sampling

The sample size of the study was determined using the formula: n  = (X 2 NP (1-P)) ÷ (e 2 (N-1) + X 2 P (1-P)). Where n  = required sample size, X 2  = the table value of chi-square for 1 degree of freedom at the desired confidence level (3.841), N  = population size (8000), P  = population proportion (assumed to be 0.50, to provide maximum sample size), and e = degree of accuracy expressed as a proportion (0.05) [ 14 ]. Substituting the values into the formula gave a sample size of 367. Thus, 367 students were selected from total enrolled in six faculties/schools at the Tamale campus of the UDS. A sample proportionate to the student population in each faculty was drawn. Each faculty/school was visited during the period of data collection (from 6 th —17 th September, 2021) and all students present in randomly selected lecture halls, were given equal opportunity to participate in the study by writing “yes” and “no” on sheets of paper which were shuffled for students to pick. All students who picked “yes” were included for the study, this was repeated until the desired sample size was achieved for each of the school/faculty. The general student population at the Tamale campus as at the time of the study was about 8000.

Data collection methods

A questionnaire, specifically designed to evaluate the different forms of food advertisements students are exposed to on campus and how they influence their food decision making and nutritional status, consisted of 28 items. The items of the questionnaire were reviewed for content validity by a team of nutritionists, behavioural scientists and public health specialists.

In order to ensure the reliability of the study findings, pre-testing was conducted to 20 subjects previously to test the suitability of the questionnaire. The pre-testing helped to ensure that the items are meaningful to the target population and minimises subsequent measurement errors. The questionnaire was hand-delivered to each selected respondent after briefing them on how to respond to the various items and seeking their consent. The questionnaire was self-administered, with the anthropometric assessments undertaken by a team of final year nutrition students. Respondents were offered the opportunity to ask questions on any issue which they did not understand and clarifications were provided. Each student completed their questionnaire within ten (10) to fifteen (15) minutes and returned it to a team of data collectors. Non-response rate was zero percent. The questionnaire was used to collect data on socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, sources of food advertisement and the influence of food advertisement on students’ food decision making.

Anthropometric assessment

Measurements of weight and height for each student was done following World Health Organization (WHO) standard procedures [ 27 ]. The weights and heights of respondents were measured after they had submitted their completed questionnaires. Students were weighed in light clothing and without shoes, using a Seca digital flat scale, to the nearest 0.1 kg. Their heights were measured to the nearest 0.1 cm using a standardized Seca stadiometer. The weights and heights were used to determine the body mass index (BMI) of participants based on the calculation weight/height 2 (kg/m 2 ).

Data analysis

The data was analysed using IBM SPSS for Windows version 20. Categorical variables have been presented as frequencies and percentages. To examine associations between socio-demographic characteristics, food habits and the nutritional status, Chi-Square test was performed. Fischer’s exact test was used in cases where conditions for Chi-Square test were not met. P -value of < 0.05 was considered significant at 95% confidence interval.

Overall, there were 367 respondents for the study, out of which 189 (51.5%) were females. The mean age of respondents was 23.14 years with majority (52.9%) falling within the age group of 23–27 years. The least (2.2%) respondents were in the age group of 28–32 years. Most (64.0%) of the respondents who participated in the study said they were Christians, whilst a good proportion (30.2%) associated themselves with the Islamic religion. Students in level 400 (Table 1 ) constituted majority (30.0%) of the respondents. Also, a majority of the respondents (47.4%) indicated that they received a monthly income within a range of 400 to 600 (GHS). A good proportion (26.7%) of students indicated that their monthly incomes were within the range of 100 – 300 GHS. There were a few students (3.5%) who received 1000 GHS and above as monthly income. Table 1 shows the details of the socio-demographic characteristics of the study participants.

Respondents were asked whether food advertisement influenced their food selection, and majority (74.9%) of them answered in the affirmative. About 91% of students said they have seen or heard about food advertisements on campus. Among the students who had seen or heard about food advertisements on campus, majority (58.9%) said their source was through the internet (including social media). A good proportion (21.0%) of the students cited television as their source of food advertisement, whilst radio was the least indicated (3.3%). Figure  1 shows the details on respondents’ sources of food advertisement on the university campus.

Respondents source of food advertisement on university campus

Among the factors which influenced respondents’ food choices, the appearance of food was of greater influence (31.9%). Concerning the aspect of food advertisement which influenced their food choice, about 43.6% of respondents indicated that ‘taste’ of advertised foods was more likely to influence their food decision making. It is worth noting that irrespective of advertisement, ‘taste’ had much influence on the food choices of respondents. Majority (44.7%) of students were found to have patronized advertised foods monthly, followed by weekly patronage of advertised foods which was reported by about 32.4% of students. Patronage of sugar sweetened beverages due to advertisement was also reported among most (36.0%) of the study participants, whilst patronage of fruits and vegetables due to advertisement was found to be lowest (5.4%) among respondents. Regarding the level of importance of food advertisement, about 49.3% of the students reported that it was important to them, with an appreciable proportion (27.0%) indicating food advertisement as very important. The details on factors of food and aspects of food advertisement which influenced respondents’ food choices are shown in Table 2 .

The study looked at how respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics influenced patronage of advertised foods, type of food patronized due to advertisement and level of importance of food advertisement. The findings revealed that a good proportion (30.2%) of students within the age group of 23–27 years, were more likely to patronize advertised foods weekly followed by about 20.7% of students in the age group of 18–22 years. Daily patronage of advertised foods was reported among 13.1% of students in the age group of 23–27 years. It is important to note that daily, weekly and monthly patronage of advertised foods was noticed among respondents in the age group of 23–27 years. However, these relationships were not statistically significant ( p  = 0.986).

Furthermore, students in the age group of 23–27 years were most likely to patronise advertised sugar sweetened beverages (19.6%), high fat pastries (16.3%) and local meals/dishes (14.2%). About 13.9% of students in the age group of 18–22 years also reported they patronized sugar sweetened beverages due to advertisement. Patronage of fruits and vegetables was found to be low among students of all age groups. These relationships were also not statistically significant ( p  = 0.056).

Considering the level of importance of food adverts, about 27.8% and 18.0% of students in the age groups of 23–27 and 18–22 years respectively, considered them to be important. Whilst about 14.4% of students also within the age group of 23–27 years reported that food advertisement was very important to them in their food decision making.

In terms of gender, the findings from this study showed that daily patronage of advertised foods was more likely to occur among females (14.0%) than males (11.2%). Also, patronage of sugar sweetened beverages (20.4%) and high fat pastries (15.3%) due to advertisement was found to be high among female students than male students. However, more male students (15.8%) patronized local meals/dishes due to advertisement compared to their female counterparts (13.9%). Even though patronage of fruits and vegetables was generally low among both gender, more females (3.5%) patronized fruits and vegetables due to advertisement compared to males (1.9%). There were more female students (26.4%) who indicated that food advertisement was important in their food decision making than male students (22.9%).

It was further revealed that majority (26.4%) of students whose monthly income ranged between 400 – 600 GHS, were more likely to patronize advertised foods weekly. A good proportion (14.0%) whose monthly income was within a range of 100 – 300 GHS also patronized advertised foods weekly. About 12.3% of the students whose monthly income ranged between 400 – 600 GHS indicated that they patronized advertised foods daily. It is important to note that, students with income levels within the range of 400 – 600 GHS were more likely to patronized advertised foods daily, weekly and monthly. There was no statistical significance ( p  = 0.317) for monthly income of respondents and frequency of patronage of advertised foods.

Majority (20.0%) of students whose monthly income was within a range of 400 – 600 GHS spent their monies on sugar sweetened beverages. About 14.2% of students whose monthly income was in same range spent their monies on meals/dishes (i.e. banku/kenkey with soup or stew, waakye/ rice with stew or soup, fufu/kokonte with soup, tuo zaafi with soup etc.). There was usually meat, fish or egg included in all local meals/dishes served. Patronage of fruits and vegetables was low across all monthly income levels among respondents. There was statistical significance ( p  = 0.001) for students’ monthly income and the type of food patronized as a result of advertisement.

A greater percentage (25.9%) of students whose monthly income was within the range of 400 – 600 GHS said food advertisement was important in their food decision making. A significant proportion (13.0%) with monthly income in the range of 100 – 300 GHS also reported that food advertisement was important in their food decision making. A good proportion (12.0%) with monthly income in the range of 400 – 600 GHS reported food advertisement as very important in their food decision making. There was no statistical significance ( p  = 0.053) for monthly income of students and level of importance of food advertisement.

Students of level 400 at the university were more likely to patronize advertised foods daily (7.6%), weekly (15.8%) and monthly (6.5%). Patronage of sugar sweetened beverages was found to be more (10.9%) among level 200 students, followed by students of level 400 (10.4%). Patronage of high fat pastries was found to be more among level 400 students (9.0%) and level 300 students (7.1%). Food advertisement was considered to be important (15.8%) and very important (7.6%) in the food decision making of level 400 students. There was no statistical significance ( p  = 0.316) for students’ level at the university and the level of importance of food advertisement. The details are shown in Table 3 .

In looking at how food advertisement influenced patronage of advertised foods on the university campus, it was revealed that majority (36.1%) of students whose source of food advertisement was through the internet, patronized advertised foods weekly, whilst about 17.2% patronized advertised foods daily and 11.7% monthly. This was followed by students for whom television was their source of food advertisement, about 14.5% of them patronised advertised foods weekly. There was no statistical significance ( p  = 0.248) for source of food advertisement and patronage of advertised foods among students.

For the aspect of advertised foods which influenced respondents’ food choice, most (28.0%) of the respondents indicated they patronised advertised foods monthly due to the taste of the food. There was a good percentage (16.7%) of respondents for whom the price of advertised foods influenced their patronage monthly. The brand of advertised foods also influenced patronage among 11.3% of the respondents monthly. Weekly patronage of advertised foods due to the brand was recorded as the least (5.1%) among the students on the university campus. There was no statistical significance ( p  = 0.312) for the different aspects of advertised foods and their patronage at the time of the study. Table 4 shows the details.

The study examined whether there was any association between BMI of respondents and aspects of food advertisements. The findings showed that weekly patronage of advertised foods was reported more among participants with BMI of all categories. An appreciable proportion of students (12.8%) who were found to be overweight/obese, patronized advertised food weekly. Daily, weekly and monthly patronage of advertised foods was found to be low among respondents who were underweight (2.4%) as compared to the other BMI classifications. There was no statistical significance ( p  = 0.909) for patronage of advertised foods and the BMI classification of students.

Overall, patronage of advertised sugar sweetened beverages was high (36.0%) among respondents across all BMI classifications. This was followed by patronage of local meals/dishes (29.7%) and high fat pastries (28.8%). For respondents who were overweight/obese, patronage of sugar sweetened beverages and high fat pastries was reported among 9.0% and 7.0% respectively. Patronage of fruits and vegetables among study population was low across all BMI classifications. There was no statistical significance ( p  = 0.832) for BMI classification and type of food patronized as a result of advertisement among participants.

The study also revealed that about 11.4% of students who were overweight/obese reported that food advertisement was important to them, whilst about 6.3% of respondents with same BMI classification considered food advertisement to be very important to them. There was no statistical significance ( p  = 0.756) for level of importance of food advertisement and BMI classification of respondents.

The internet was reported as the main source of food advertisement for a good proportion (15.7%) of students who were overweight/obese. Television was also found to be a source of food advertisement for about 5.7% of respondents who were also overweight/obese. The details are shown in Table 5 .

The findings from the study revealed that majority (24.7%) of students’ patronized local meals/dishes advertised through the internet. About 22.9% and 14.2% of the respondents said they patronized sugar sweetened beverages and high fat pastries respectively, which were also advertised through the internet. High fat pastries were also patronized by about 9.9% of students, due to advertisement through television. There was low patronage of fruits and vegetables (5.1%) across all sources of food advertisement on the university campus. There was statistical significance ( p  = 0.003) for the source of food advertisement and the type of food patronized as a result of advertisement. Table 6 below shows the details.

The study also sought to find out the level of importance of food advertisement and aspects of the advertisement which influenced choice of food among participants. Table 6 shows that for students who considered food advertisement to be important, majority (26.9%) of their food choices were influenced by the taste and followed by about 20.4%, whose food choices were influenced by the prices. For students who considered food advertisement to be very important, about 11.6% each of them regarded the taste and brand as aspects that would influenced their food choices. There was statistical significance ( p ˂ 0.001) for the level of importance of food advertisement and the aspect of advertisement’s influence on respondents’ food choices. Table 7 shows the details.

This study showed that internet was the source of food advertisement to a greater proportion (58.9%) of students on the university campus. This was followed by television (21.0%), billboards (7.4%) and radio (3.3%). Television viewing, convenience stores and the internet have become the most popular sites for young people to be exposed to food advertising [ 17 ]. The implication of this finding in this study is that appropriate health authorities could take advantage of the increased patronage of the internet and television as channels to design effective nutrition education programmes targeting students at the level of tertiary institutions.

Aside the cost of food products, other factors such as perceived quality, convenience and appearance influence the decision making of consumers at supermarkets and shopping centres [ 21 ]. The findings from this research are similar, preference to appearance, name/familiarity and taste of food were notably discovered in this study to be influential in determining the food choices among most of the students on the campus environment. Appearance and taste are sensory aspects of food which are thought to influence spontaneous choices of food. Additionally, the taste of advertised foods was revealed to have influenced the food decision making of majority (43.6%) of the respondents. In addition, most of the students who considered food advertisement as important, had their food choices influenced by taste (26.9%) and price (20.4%). These findings were found to be in line with other studies which presented similar findings; for example, [ 12 ] suggested that, in addition to social and cultural factors, taste preference and past food habits or familiarity with food contributed significantly to food choices among students. The implication of the findings in this current study is that food advertising practitioners would need to pay more attention to the taste and appearance when working on adverts targeting students at tertiary institutions. This study also revealed that the choice of food products by majority (74.9%) of participants was influenced by advertisement. This is slightly higher when compared to a study on “food choice behaviours among Ghanaians” in Accra, which findings showed that 44.1% of food choices among respondents’ was influenced by advertisement [ 11 ].

In this study, the prevalence of underweight (2.5%), overweight (19.9%) and obesity (3.0%) were similar to findings from a study on dietary habits and nutritional status of medical students in three state universities in Cameroon where 4.9%, 21.7% and 3.0% of the students were found to be underweight, overweight and obese respectively [ 5 ]. The findings in this study implied that using BMI as an indicator of nutritional status, about 25.4% of the students were malnourished.

The study also revealed less patronage of fruits and vegetables (5.4%) due to advertisement among students, whilst more students (36.0%) were found to patronize sugar sweetened beverages due to advertisement. Fruits and vegetables intake in this study are comparably lower than findings from other studies. Whilst about 71.0% of all respondents had eaten at least, a fruit or vegetable the previous day; there were 67.0% of students from University of Florida compared to 57.0% of students from Arkansas State University that had consumed at least a fruit or vegetable [ 22 ]. However, the low fruits and vegetables consumption among students in this study is in line with findings of another study by Freedman, which found that first year students who relocated to campus decreased their intake of fruits, vegetables and dairy as well as meal frequency [ 8 ]. Intake of fruits and vegetables is one of the important healthy behaviours to achieve an individual’s optimum physical function [ 1 ]. Frequent food and beverage patronage around campus was found to be associated with reduced frequency of breakfast consumption and high fat and added sugar intake [ 20 ]. Thus, it is important for nutrition policy makers in Ghana to develop interventions tailored at university students to promote consumption of fruits and vegetables.

The strength of this study is that, it has provided some insight into the nature of food advertisement on the university campus and how students’ food choices are being influenced by advertisement. One of the limitations of the study is that, it was conducted at the Tamale campus of the University for Development Studies. Future studies could be extended beyond the University for Development Studies to include more universities in the country. Also, the study relied on the report from respondents, which could be subjected to recall bias and social desirability. Again, being a cross-sectional study, it was not possible to establish causality.

The food decision making among students at the university campus was found to be influenced by factors such as advertisement, taste, price, familiarity and appearance. The dominant source of food advertisement on the campus of the University for Development Studies was found to be through the internet. Television was also revealed as an important source of food advertisement to students on campus. Nutritional status, using BMI as an indicator, was not influenced by food advertisement. Also, patronage of advertised fruits and vegetables among students on the university campus was found to be low. However, there was increased patronage of sugar sweetened beverages, meals/dishes and high fat pastries among students.

Therefore, appropriate health authorities should take advantage of the increased patronage of internet and television as key sources of food advertisement on the university campus to effectively plan and design nutritional intervention programmes with the aim to improve food decision making and promote consumption of nutritious foods for good health among students. Additionally, as this population has high self-reported advertisements’ influence on food choices, it is vital to investigate further the influence of contextual cues such as environment and advertisement on their eating habits and dietary patterns.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets which was generated and analysed during the current study and used for the preparation of the manuscript are included in the article submitted for publication.

Abbreviations

Body Mass Index

University for Development Studies

Statistical Package for Social Sciences

World Health Organization

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Gabriel Libienuo Sowley Kalog, Faiza Kasim, Bernice Anyebuno, Sandra Tei, Clement Kubreziga Kubuga & Paul Armah Aryee

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Kalog, G.L.S., Kasim, F., Anyebuno, B. et al. Food advertisement influences food decision making and not nutritional status: a study among university students in Ghana. BMC Nutr 8 , 72 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40795-022-00571-2

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The effects of food advertising on food-related behaviours and perceptions in adults: A review

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The purpose of this research is to gain an understanding of how exposure to food advertising affects food related behaviours and perceptions in adults. This review assessed other reviews, commentaries as well as experimental studies. The results varied; however, the majority of the literature reported a significant positive association between food advertising and food choices. Additional significant findings include: gender differences in regard to the tendency to become immersed in what one is viewing and how that impacts food choice; the role of image type on taste perception; and the influence of healthy food advertising on consumer behaviour. The goal of this research is to increase public awareness in regard to the behavioural and perceptual impacts of food advertising, and to inform and influence the decisions of health professionals and policy makers.

Keywords: Advertising; Behavior; Food; Media; Obesity; Perceptions.

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Food, beverage and restaurant companies spend almost $14 billion per year on food advertisements in the United States [1] . More than 80% of this food advertising promotes fast food, sugary drinks, candy, and unhealthy snacks, dwarfing the entire $1 billion budget for all chronic disease prevention and health promotion at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [2] . Furthermore, these food companies often engage in "targeted marketing" to reach children, teens and communities of color with marketing for their least healthy products.

Food marketing negatively affects children’s and teens’ diets and health. It increases calories consumed, preferences for unhealthy product categories, and perceptions of product healthfulness. Rudd Center research analyzes food company marketing tactics, food facts, and informs policy efforts to reduce unhealthy food marketing affecting youth and their families.

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Food and social media: a research stream analysis

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Interest in food and online communication is growing fast among marketing and business scholars. Nevertheless, this interest has been not exclusive to these areas. Researchers from different disciplines have focused their research on different concepts, target populations, approaches, methodologies, and theoretical backgrounds, making this growing body of knowledge richer, but at the same time difficult to analyze. In order to have a broader overview of this topic, this study analyzes the existent literature regarding food and social media in social sciences in order to identify the main research streams and themes explored. With this purpose, the present paper uses bibliometric methods to analyze 1356 journal articles by means of factor and social network analysis. The study contributes by revealing 4 clusters containing 11 dominant research streams within the social sciences, determining the linkages among the main research discourses, and recommending new future topics of research.

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1 Introduction

Food and social media is highly a controversial topic. While some studies point out that the use of social media can be associated with an increase of unhealthy food intake and Body Mass Index (BMI) (Coates et al. 2019a ; Khajeheian et al. 2018 ), other studies, as well as the OECD and the American Heart Association suggest that the use of social media could be used to sensitize the population regarding obesity and to promote public health regarding food (Chau et al. 2018 ; Li et al. 2013 ; OECD 2017 ).

People use the World Wide Web and social media to seek and share information, for social interaction, and to be part of a social network (Kavanaugh et al. 2005 ; Whiting and Williams 2013 ). Billions of opinions are shared on social networks every day (Mostafa 2019 ), breaking barriers across geographical distance and bringing people closer (Rimjhim et al. 2020 ). Social networks and online communities facilitate consumer-to-consumer communication (Sloan et al. 2015 ), and influence consumers’ opinions, attitudes, consumption experiences, brand perceptions, purchasing decisions, as well as post-purchase communication and evaluation, among others (Jansen et al. 2009 ; Mangold and Faulds 2009 ; Teichert et al. 2020 ).

The rapid growth of online communication among consumers has increased academic interest in electronic word of mouth (e-WOM). Zinko et al. ( 2021 ) define e-WOM as the “web-mediated exchange of information which occurs when one person tells another about their experience with a service or product” (p. 526). E-WOM includes blogs, online reviews, ratings, messages posted on online groups, and social media posts (Hennig-Thurau and Walsh 2003 ). Either as a topic of consumer health, sustainability, or as an opportunity for management development, studies regarding food and social media are gaining importance. Scholars from different disciplines have used different approaches, methodologies, theoretical backgrounds, and populations targets to address this topic. Additionally, due to the novelty of some internet-based communication tools, and the rapid emergence of additional ones, new concepts, definitions, and approaches are emerging too, making this growing body of knowledge difficult to explore.

Although the scope of food and social media research has partly been disclosed in literature reviews, these focus on a particular sub-segment of food consumption, a specific target population, area of research, research method, or a specific new technology or social media. For example, Chau et al. ( 2018 ) centered their research on the role of social media in nutrition interventions for adolescents and young adults. Rounsefell et al. ( 2020 ) explored the impact of social media exposure to image-content on body image and food choices in young adults. Chapman et al. ( 2014 ) analyzed literature regarding the use of social media for public health communication in order to explore the potential of social media as a tool to combat foodborne illness. De Veirman et al. ( 2019 ) studied the persuasive power of social media influencers over young children. Dute et al. ( 2016 ) examined literature regarding the promotion of physical activity, healthy nutrition, and overweight prevention among adolescents and students, through mobile apps. Allman-Farinelli and Gemming ( 2017 ) explored the state of the art in dietary assessment, using smartphone and digital technology regarding technology mediated interventions for dietary change. Tao et al. ( 2020 ) studied the use of text mining as a big data analysis tool for food science and nutrition. And Ventura et al. ( 2021 ) analyzed the topic of food in social media from a consumer-oriented point of view. However, there are no studies offering a general overview of a broad sample of articles within the social sciences regarding food and the use of social media.

Given this, the aim of this paper is to provide a broad bibliometric review for marketing and business scholars, companies, and organizations on past and current research regarding food and social media within the social sciences, in order to reveal the main addressed topics, as well as for suggesting future topics of research in this field of knowledge. To achieve the results, this research uses the co-word analysis of Keywords. Co-word analysis (Callon et al. 1983 ) is a type of bibliometric method which seeks to find connections among concepts that co-occurs in document abstracts, titles, or keywords as assessed by the authors (Zupic and Čater 2015 ). By conducting a co-word analysis of keywords, the present study aims to reveal the main research streams regarding food and social media studied in the social sciences. First, statistical analyses are applied to identify research streams as well as their interconnections in an objective manner. Single research streams are then analyzed in detail by a manual inspection of their key publications. Focal issues of past and current research are highlighted and opportunities for future research are identified.

2 Methodology

2.1 co-word analysis.

One of the most used bibliometric methods is co-citation analysis. Nevertheless, while co-citation analysis connects documents, authors, or journals in order to find the intellectual structure, the knowledge base, or influences on a research field (Small 1977 ; Zupic and Čater 2015 ) the co-word analysis uses the actual words contained in documents to determine relationships among concepts that represent a conceptual space of a field (Zupic and Čater 2015 ). In co-citation analysis, it is assumed that the more two items are cited together, the more likely is that their content is related, and since it takes time to accumulate citations, the analysis reflects the state of the field in the past and not how it could look now or tomorrow (Zupic and Čater 2015 ). In this regard, the co-word analysis offers a more actual state of the field since authors choose the words, concepts, titles, and keywords that best represent their studies. In their articles, authors construct different realities linking scientific and technical concepts that are shared by a specific research community (Callon et al. 1983 ). Therefore, the co-word analysis is more content-driven than the co-citation analysis.

The main target of this analysis is the keywords contained in the articles since keywords are chosen by the authors because they represent in a few words, the main content of the study. Web of Science database (WoS) is frequently used for bibliometric studies in management and organization, and it contains different valuable bibliographical data for indexed documents that include title, article type, authors, keywords, keywords plus, abstract and subject categories or areas, among others (Zupic and Čater 2015 ). Besides the Author Keywords, WoS provides Keywords Plus. They are index terms automatically generated from the titles of cited articles in an article that augment traditional keyword retrieval (Clarivate 2020 ). Therefore, this research analyzes the Author Keywords and the Keywords Plus provided by WoS.

2.2 Identification of literature

The search of documents was made on WoS by using a Keywords string containing the main concepts related to the objective of the research (see Fig.  1 for the overall design, search string, and interim steps taken). Although most of the well-known social media such as Youtube or Twitter appeared in the 2000s, some authors consider that the development of social media started during the 80 s with the introduction of USENET, a type of internet discussion system, real-time online chat services such as Compu Serve’s CB Simulator (1980), the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) (1988), or AOL’s chat rooms (1989) (Edosomwan et al. 2011 ; Lake 2009 ; Sajithra and Patil 2013 ). Others establish this development in the 90 s when the World Wide Web became public and web blogs, list-servers, and e-mail services allowed users to form online communities exploding networked communication (Simonova et al. 2021 ; van Dijck 2013 ). Therefore, in order to have a broader number of articles and consequently a broader scope regarding food and social media research in Social Sciences, the timespan 1990 to 2021 and the citation indexes Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) were used as limiters. The ESCI extends the scope of publications of WoS by including around 3,000 peer-reviewed publications that although they are not yet recognized internationally, meet the WoS high-quality criteria (Francis 2021 ). Besides, Articles, Reviews, or Early Access articles were included in order to capture the most recent published works. Early Access articles in WoS Core Collection are fully indexed articles that the publisher makes available online in a nearly final state (e.g. Articles in Press, Published Ahead of Print, Online First, etc.), they lack publication date, volume, issue, and page number (Clarivate 2021 ).

Sample generation process by steps

With this information, an initial database of 1400 records was created on July, 20 of 2021. Nevertheless, only articles containing Author Keywords and/or Keywords Plus were included; therefore, 29 articles without author Keywords and Keywords Plus were removed. In the end, just 1371 were included in the next analysis.

A first analysis of Keywords contained in the 1371 articles was made by using the KHCoder, a text-mining and text-analysis application ( https://khcoder.net/en/ ). To avoid the analysis of joined words separately, a total of 31 words strings, also called Force Pick Up Words, were chosen to extract different words as one concept (e.g. qualitative_research, corporate_social_responsibility) (see Table S1 in Supplementary material). The word frequency list revealed a total of 3,716 keywords and a total of 21,027 mentions. In order to include just the most representative concepts in the analysis, just concepts mentioned more than 5 times were included. Hence, just 655 Keywords representing 75.81% of all mentions were included in the second analysis.

The second step was an analysis of concepts, conducted by both researchers, in order to find similarities among words due to meaning, writing differences, use of abbreviations, or use of signs to unite words.

After this analysis, a list of 413 Keywords or “code words” containing the initial 655 Keywords was generated (the complete list of words and code words (*) could be seen in Table S2 in Supplementary material). This list of code words was introduced to KHCoder in order to generate a crosstab containing the concepts included in every article. As a result, 15 articles containing none of the 413 Keywords were discarded for further analysis.

2.3 Data analysis

The data were analyzed by using the package UCINET 6 (Borgatti et al. 2002 ), one of the most used software for network visualization (Zupic and Čater 2015 ), in order to generate an overall concept co-occurrence matrix. By executing a core-periphery analysis the core keywords contained in the food and social media literature were separated from the periphery keywords. The stable solution was found in 50 iterations (fitness = 0.609).

Then, a factor analysis was conducted using SPSS in order to group keywords based on their co-occurrences. Factor analysis can determine which indicators, in this case, keywords, may be grouped together. Factor analysis is known as a data reduction technique (Sallis et al. 2021 ). In order to identify groups of bibliometric data, researchers have used different statistical techniques such as factor analysis, cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling, or multivariate analysis (Chen et al. 2016 ; Leydesdorff and Welbers 2011 ; Ravikumar et al. 2015 ; Wang et al. 2012 ; Yang et al. 2012 ), although, for practical use, some authors have not found a difference between cluster analysis and factor analysis (Lee and Jeong 2008 ).

The use of factor analysis has a long tradition in co-word analysis. Considered a quantitative form of content analysis, it can substitute commonly practiced techniques for content analysis, providing precision and validity in the resulting categories while investing less time and resources (Leydesdorff and Welbers 2011 ; Simon and Xenos 2004 ). Many studies have used factor analysis in co-word analysis as a reliable method to discover linkages among scientific documents. For example, by using the words contained in the titles and abstracts of research articles, Leydesdroff ( 1989 ) used factor analysis and cluster analysis to find linkages among biochemistry documents. Leydesdorff and Hellsten ( 2005 ) studied words related to stem-cell by using factor analysis. Leydesdorff and Zhou ( 2008 ) used factor analysis to analyze words of journal titles using Chinese characters. Wang et al. ( 2014 ) analyzed keywords from core journals in the field of domestic knowledge discovery by using factor and cluster analysis. Yan et al. ( 2015 ) analyzed the intellectual structure of the field of the Internet of Things by means of factor and cluster analysis of keywords. Gan and Wang ( 2015 ) used factor analysis to map the intellectual structure of social media research in china by using keywords, and Sun and Teichert ( 2022 ) used factor analysis to study the research landscape of ‘scarcity’ by using author keywords.

In the specific application field of bibliometrics, the method identifies different research streams (Kuntner and Teichert 2016 ). By reducing the number of variables in a dataset, the factor analysis finds patterns and therefore, the underlying structure of the data (Wendler and Gröttrup 2016 ). There are different methods to extract factors. This study applied a principal component analysis (PCA) with an orthogonal factor rotation Varimax with Kaiser Normalization of 15 iterations. Varimax is a very popular rotation method in which each factor represents a small number of variables and each variable tends to be associated with one or a small number of factors (Abdi 2003 ). It enhances clarity, interpretability, and efficiency when distinguishing among the extracted factors (Simon and Xenos 2004 ). PCA finds the linear combination between indicators that extract the most variance in the data and uses both common and specific variance to extract a solution (Sallis et al. 2021 ). Therefore, in order to find the main research streams regarding food and social media, the number of variables (i.e. Keywords) was reduced to identify the underlying structure based on the overall variance. By performing factor analysis, determined keywords are assigned to determined factors based on their factor loadings. Factor loads (FL) inform about the representativeness of a determined keyword for a determined factor, and the usage of a keyword in a research stream (Kuntner and Teichert 2016 ; Sun and Teichert 2022 ). That means that the keywords assigned to one factor are more likely to co-occur than the keywords of other factors. Therefore, by using this method, factors were interpreted as single research streams.

As a result of the analysis, 12 factors emerged, which explain 51.175% of the total variance (see Table S3 in Supplementary material for the complete concepts per factor). Factor 11 was found to address issues related to the pharmaceutical industry and the Food and Drug Administration of United States (FDA) guidance documents. This factor was omitted in the further analysis, as it primarily addresses the pharmaceutical industry does not have a direct relationship with food and social media.

In order to further identify group similarities across research streams, a cluster analysis in SPSS was conducted. Cluster analysis finds natural groups present in the data, but hidden, by identifying important and defining properties (Sallis et al. 2021 ). This analysis revealed four main research clusters that the researchers named: Psychological Research Realm, Action-Oriented Research, Broader Communication Issues, and Service Industry Discourse (see Table 12 for a summary of research clusters and their characteristics).

3 Results and discussion

In the following, the four different clusters of research are explained in detail considering the most representative publications of every factor or research stream.

3.1 Psychological research realm

The Psychological Research Realm contains four research streams; therefore, it is the biggest of the four clusters. These research clusters address mainly, the impact of social media use on consumers. It includes the streams “online tools for healthy diet intervention programs,” “food and use of apps,” “online food advertising exposure,” and “social media and mental disorders.”

3.1.1 Research stream on “online tools for healthy diet intervention programs” (Factor 1)

The first research stream explains 18.94% of the variance of keyword relationships, indicating a research stream of first-highest distinction. While obesity and diet were the most often listed keywords (130 and 123 mentions), the research stream was best represented (in terms of factor loadings) by the keywords diet (FL = 0.922) , followed by intervention. Program, related to (physical) activity, nutrition, prevention, adult, overweight, and association constitute the remainders of the top ten keywords. An inspection of the remaining 103 keywords confirms this focus on application-oriented topics from the perspective of healthy diet interventions. Thus, this research stream clearly addresses the topic “use of online tools for healthy diet intervention programs.”

Representative publications of this research stream (see Table 1 ) reference each more than 14 keywords of factor 1. Regarding theories and conceptualizations, most of the articles refer to healthy diets and the use of online tools. Thus, an inclusive and shared research discourse can be diagnosed.

A closer look at these articles (selected by maximum number of referenced keywords) provides insights about the methods used, the online tools evaluated, as well as the types of insights gained from this research discourse (Table 1 right columns). These articles address the use of online tools for healthy diet intervention programs by using randomized and controlled trial groups, among others. The studies analyze the development of novel online tools as well as the efficacy of other healthy diet intervention tools.

The consumption of junk foods, fast foods, sugar-sweetened beverages, and carbonated drinks and beverages is associated with higher body mass index in children and adolescents due to their high content of free sugar and energy (Gupta et al. 2019 ). In order to promote public health sensitizing the population regarding obesity, the use of social media and new technologies has been recommended by the OECD and the American Heart Association (Li et al. 2013 ; OECD 2017 ).

In this regard, this research stream contains protocols of novel internet-based intervention tools to promote healthy diets (Helle et al. 2017 ; Røed et al. 2019 ), as well evaluations about the effectivity of online tools for intervention programs, and for the delivery of healthy eating information and recipes, among others. Ahmad et al. ( 2020 ) evaluated the effect of the family-based intervention program (REDUCE) on children’s eating behaviors and dietary intake via face-to-face and social media by using Facebook and a WhatsApp group to deliver information about the intervention and as platforms of interaction and problem solving. The authors found small changes in consumption of unhealthy snacks, as well as fruits and vegetables, without clinical impact. Dumas et al. ( 2020 ) explored the effects of an evidence-informed healthy eating blog written by a registered dietitian, finding no effects on dietary intakes, food-related behaviors, and body weight.

While these former studies did not reveal a strong positive impact, there are other studies showing positive results. For example, with the aim of evaluating the value of social media for delivering healthy diet interventions, Chau et al. ( 2018 ) found that the majority of the studies associated with this topic, from 2006 to 2016, showed positive outcomes regarding the use of only basic social media features. Tobey et al. ( 2019 ) evaluated the success of the Food Hero marketing campaign and suggest that in order to disseminate recipes to low-income audiences through social marketing campaigns, is recommended to understand the target audience, to add healthy/customizable recipes to family “go-to” recipe rotations considering the generational influences on family meals, and to create websites that meet the target audience criteria (e.g. simple and visually interesting).

By delivering healthy diet interventions through social media or online tools, studies in this research stream targeted mainly parents. Future research might evaluate the efficacy of social media or novel online tools by targeting parents and children separately, and by delivering strategies designed for each group.

3.1.2 Research stream on “online food advertising exposure” (Factor 5)

Explaining 2.78% of the variance of keyword relationships, the fifth research stream indicates a research stream of fifth-highest distinction. Here, the most often mentioned keywords were marketing and advertising (82 and 63 mentions). However, in terms of factor loadings, the research stream was best represented by the keywords advertising (FL = 0.915) , followed by marketing. Exposure related to (unhealthy) food, television, advergame, beverage, celebrity, youtube, and endorsement constitute the remainders of the top ten keywords. The inspection of the remaining 14 keywords confirms the online advertising exposure approach. Thus, this research stream clearly addresses the topic “online food advertising exposure.”

Representative publications (see Table 2 ), selected by the highest number of reference keywords, reference each more than 6 keywords of factor 5, and address the concept of influencer marketing , and among other social media, they analyze mainly YouTube videos, sharing an inclusive research discourse.

A closer look at these articles reveals that four of six articles of this research stream were led by the same author. In general, the articles of this research stream address the exposure to food advertising online by means of content analysis, questionnaires, and multivariate analysis, among others.

Regarding food and beverage marketing content on social media, Kent et al. ( 2019 ) found that although children and adolescents are exposed to unhealthy food and beverage marketing on social media, adolescents were more highly exposed to food marketing than children through user‐generated, celebrity‐generated content, and other entertainment content. Regarding food and beverage products featured on YouTube videos of influencers who are popular with children, it was found that less healthy products were the most frequently featured, branded, presented in the context of eating out, described positively, not consumed, and featured as part of an explicit marketing campaign, than healthy products (Coates et al. 2019b ).

Studies in this research stream have proved the persuasive power of social media influencer promotion of food, and their impact on children’s food intake, even when including a protective disclosure, due to their credibility and familiarity with children. Some authors situate social media influencers as a new type of advertising source that combines the merits of e-WOM and celebrity endorsement (De Veirman et al. 2019 ). YouTubers featuring videos of food and beverages high in fat, sugar, and/or salt (HFSS) are valued highly by children because they are viewed to fulfill their needs. Children develop sympathetic attitudes towards YouTubers because they are not strangers to them (Coates et al. 2020 ). Children look up to popular influencers who have certain celebrity status and are willing to identify with them while taking on their lifestyles, attitudes, and beliefs. Therefore, (marketing) messages spread by them are perceived as highly credible WOM, rather than as advertising, due to their perceived authenticity (i.e., they have no commercial interests) (De Veirman et al. 2019 ).

It has been discovered that children exposed to influencer marketing in a YouTube video of a branded unhealthy snack (with and without an advertising disclosure) consumed more of the marketed snack and significantly increased intake of unhealthy snacks specifically whereas the equivalent marketing of healthy foods had no effect. Therefore, it has been concluded that influencer marketing increases children's immediate intake of the promoted snack, even when including a “protective” advertising disclosure, which does not reduce the effect of influencer marketing (Coates et al. 2019a , 2019c ). Results reveal that increasing the promotion of healthy foods on social media could not be an effective strategy to encourage healthy dietary behaviors in children (Coates et al. 2019c ).

In sum, most of the articles in this research stream address children and adolescents’ exposure to unhealthy food influencer marketing contained in YouTube videos. Further research could evaluate the use of influencer marketing on children for healthy food intake, not just in YouTube, but also in other video content social media like TikTok, or Instagram. Other studies could compare different target groups (e.g. adults, adolescents, and children) in different countries.

3.1.3 Research stream on “social media and mental disorders” (Factor 8)

The eights research stream explains 1.93% of the variance of keyword relationships, indicating a research stream of eight-highest distinction. The research stream was best represented (in terms of factor loadings) by the keywords depression (FL = 0.793) , followed by anxiety. The same words were, as well the most listed keywords (18 and 17 mentions) . Addiction, disorder, symptom, distress, psychological, stress, well-being, and personality constitute the remainders of the top ten keywords. An inspection of the remaining 6 keywords confirms this focus on application-oriented topics from the perspective of mental disorders. Thus, this research stream clearly addresses the topic “social media and mental disorders.”

Representative publications of this research stream (see Table 3 ) reference each more than 4 keywords of factor 8. Regarding theories and conceptualizations, although this research stream has not a leading theory, they analyze different mental disorders and their relationship with social media. Thus, an inclusive and shared research discourse can be diagnosed.

A closer look at these articles (selected by maximum number referenced keywords) provides insights about the methods applied and types of insights gained from this research discourse (Table 3 right columns). These articles address social media use and mental disorders by using questionnaires, addiction scales, and personality inventories, among others. Hence, antecedents and consequences of social media use and mental disorders are analyzed.

Regarding the antecedents of addictive behaviors, it was found that personality traits and gender, as well as certain mental disorders, are associated with different behavioral addictions. For example, the profiles “elevated levels of gaming and pornography addictions” as well as “highest levels of all addictions” are predominantly male, while the profile “elevated levels of study, Facebook, shopping, and food addictions” are almost exclusively female (Charzynska et al. 2021 ). Besides, it was concluded that “individuals higher in anxiety sensitivity/hopelessness used food or alcohol to cope which, in turn, significantly predicted unhealthy snacking, and hazardous drinking, respectively” (Reaves et al. 2019 , p. 921).

Regarding the use of social media and its impact on mental disorders, Kicali et al. ( 2021 ) found that although food addiction is associated with some personality traits, personal habits, and psychiatric symptoms, more than five hours a day of social media consumption hat a direct relationship with internet and eating addiction. Kircaburun et al. ( 2021 ) found that a Problematic YouTube Use (PYU), which refers to different activities like watching specific YouTube channels or viewing online video games, is associated with loneliness and depression. Other works in this research stream explored images shared on social media and their relationship with mental disorders. E.g., Bogolyubova et al. ( 2018 ) concluded that while in Russian language people shared more images of food with hashtags for stress, images of alcohol were associated with stress hashtags, and hashtags for fear were related to the “scary” in popular culture and not to psychological distress.

Other works in this research stream addressed the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on mental health. Bountress et al. ( 2021 ) determined that instead of a single overarching COVID-19 impact, there are discrete impacts of various COVID-related factors. Therefore, they suggest a five-factor COVID model (i.e. exposure, worry, housing/food instability, social media, substance use) which is able to predict the risk of mental health symptomology, as well as other adverse sequelae of the COVID-19 pandemic at large. On the other hand, Panno et al. ( 2020 ) confirmed that COVID-19 related distress is associated with alcohol problems, social media, and food addiction symptoms. Following this line of research, future research might explore further the use of social media for mental health.

3.1.4 Research stream on “food and the use of apps” (Factor 12)

The twelfth research stream explains 1.32% of the variance of keyword relationships, and is the research stream of twelfth-highest distinction. Mobile and adoption, were the most often listed keywords (24 mentions each). Nevertheless, the research stream was best represented (in terms of factor loadings) by the keywords application (FL = 0.621) , followed by mobile. The remainders of the top five words were (Smart)phone and app. A closer look at the main keywords confirms its orientation to application-oriented topics from the perspective of the use of apps, focusing clearly on the topic “food and the use of apps.”

Representative publications reference each more than 2 keywords of factor 12 (see Table 4 ). Although this research stream has not a leading theory, most of the articles investigate the topic of food and the use of apps, sharing an inclusive research discourse. The representative publications chosen by the highest number of referenced keywords (Table 4 right columns), address the use of apps in relation to food by means of literature review, questionnaires, and interviews, mainly. Among others, social media content, as well as antecedents, and contingencies regarding food tourism are analyzed.

Information Communication Technology (ICT) (e.g. internet; mobile technology; and social media platforms among others) influence the daily living activities of persons, specifically Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) (e.g. activities requiring complex problem solving, cognitive function, coordination, and scheduling) (Quamar et al. 2020 ). In this regard, children interact with and consume visual advertising when visiting sites or applications related to online gaming (23%), food and distribution (18%), entertainment (8%) and fashion (8%), and when using smartphones with Internet access, Chilean children receive 14 min per hour of use of visual advertising more than from other media, such as television (Feijoo-Fernandez et al. 2020 ).

Regarding the antecedents of the use of mobile phones and apps for service purposes, it was found that the adoption of services and apps is driven by individual’s mobile phone technology maturity and business development (Paas et al. 2021 ). An analysis of user’s feedback on Twitter of four prominent food delivery apps and app store reviews of these apps revealed that the main concerns of users are related to issues regarding customer service, orders, food, delivery, time, app, money, drivers, and restaurants (Williams et al. 2020 ). Regarding mobile dining (e.g. use smartphone apps, to find restaurants, to read food menus, to select food, and to order it) it was found that consumers’ purchase intention is shaped by perceived values (i.e. navigation system, review valence, credibility, as well as service, and food quality) (Shah et al. 2020 ).

Other studies explored the use of smartphone apps for healthy lifestyles and dietary change. While Allman-Farinelli and Gemming ( 2017 ) concluded that apps have proven to be effective for glycemic control but not yet regarding weight loss and food intake, other studies found that monitoring apps enable users to set targets and monitor themselves. Besides, it is possible to acquire tailored feedback, and subsequently to raise awareness and increase motivation regarding dietary intake and physical activity. Moreover, apps with incorporated social features, characterized as social media, facilitate social interaction and support, can provide social comparison and social support (Dute et al. 2016 ). Concerning the development of smartphone apps to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among disadvantaged young adults in nonurban settings or indigenous communities, Tonkin et al. ( 2017 ) identified the importance of design to facilitate comprehension, and that in order to increase satisfaction the use of social features such as audio, leader boards, games, and team challenges could be helpful.

Studies in this research stream explored the use of specific apps for service purposes or dietary change, in just one region or sample. Further research could conduct comparative studies among apps, with different target groups in different geographical areas or regions.

3.2 Action-oriented research

This research cluster analyzes the content of social media and its impact on consumers' food risk information seeking and perception, behavioral intention and buying of green products online, as well as food tourism for destination image and its promotion. It includes the research streams “online food risk communication,” “behavioral intention and buying online,” and “social media and food tourism.”

3.2.1 Research stream on “online food risk communication” (Factor 3)

This research stream of third-highest distinction explains 3.79% of the variance of keyword relationships. Communication and risk were the most often listed keywords accounting 151 and 102 mentions respectively. However, in terms of factor loading, it was best represented by the keywords ( food) safety (FL = 0.827) , followed by ( risk) communication. The remainders of the top ten keywords were the keywords public and (risk) perception related to safety, (food) risk, crisis, and amplification . The remaining 35 keywords indicate its focus on themes from the perspective of online communication, addressing clearly the topic “online food risk communication.”

Table 5 displays the representative publications of this research stream, which reference each more than 8 keywords of factor 3. Most of them address the risk communication concept, sharing therefore an inclusive research discourse. These articles address the topics of online media consumption and food risk by means of surveys and quantitative content analysis, among others. They focus mainly on the coverage of topics related to health risk, consumers´ food risk information seeking, and consumers´ risk perception.

Some studies in this research stream explore how online information sources cover different healthy risk themes. For example, during the 2008 Irish dioxin contamination of food, Shan et al. ( 2014 ) found that social media responded faster than traditional media, using offline and online media news messages as primary sources, in reporting limited topics. Related to the coverage of biological, chemical, nutritional food risks, and related safety issues, Tiozzo et al. ( 2020 ) discovered that the most widely covered topics were nutritional risks and news about outbreaks, controls, and alerts. Moreover, national sources covered food risks, especially during food emergencies whereas thematic sources devoted major attention to nutritional topics.

In regard to the antecedents of consumers’ online information seeking behavior, concerning food safety issues, Wu ( 2015 ) concluded that Facebook use intention is determined by risk perception, emotion, social trust, and support. Regarding Genetic Modification (GM) issues, (Hanssen et al. 2018 ) discovered that the frequency with which people seek information is low, and it is driven by a positive attitude toward science and technology, trust in organizations, negative trust in regulations, as well as by gender and educational level. As a tool for food safety risk, specifically, to combat foodborne illness, Chapman et al. ( 2014 ) identified that the use of social media could be helpful for public health and food safety risk, since social media provide access to real people´s discussions and feedback, allow communicators to reach people where they are, create communities, and can be used to build credibility by providing decision-making evidence.

Regarding risk perception, some studies in this research stream found that risk perception depends on the topics and the online source used by consumers. For example, mixed media have a stronger positive relationship regarding public risk perception (PRP), than traditional media or internet social media (Niu et al. 2022 ). And, in the case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), individuals exposed to more internet news had higher risk perceptions in terms of how BSE could affect themselves, while respondents exposed to social networking sites were concerned about how the disease could affect others (Moon and Shim 2019 ).

With most of the articles of this research stream addressing risk perception, or consumers’ food risk information seeking, further research could explore how social media could be used effectively for public health and food safety risk by using quantitative and qualitative methods of research.

3.2.2 Research stream on “behavioral intention and buying online” (Factor 4)

The fourth research stream explains 3.02% of the variance of keyword relationships, indicating a research stream of fourth-highest distinction. The research stream was best represented (in terms of factor loadings) by the keywords organic (FL = 0.765) , followed by purchase, although attitude and intention were the most often listed keywords (79 and 66 mentions) . Theory and (planed) behavior related to buying, food-intake , belief, and acceptance, were the remainders of the top ten keywords. As it can be confirmed by analyzing the remaining 20 keywords, the focus of this research stream relies on the perspective of behavioral intention, addressing thus the topic of “behavioral intention and buying online.”

Representative publications of this research stream (see Table 6 ), selected by the highest number of referenced keywords, contain each more than 7 keywords of factor 4. Addressing the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and/or the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) (Ajzen and Fishbein 1980 ), most of the articles address the concept of “behavioral intention” regarding green, or organic products, showing an inclusive and shared research discourse.

With six of seven articles using TPB or TRA, this research stream addresses the topic of behavioral intention regarding green products by means of structural equation modeling.

The TPB is an improved version or extension of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) (Ajzen 1991 ; Hofmeister-Tóth et al. 2011 ). The TPB differs from the TRA, “in that it takes into account perceived as well as actual control over the behavior under consideration” (Ajzen 1985 , p. 12). Ajzen ( 1985 ) explains that actions are controlled by intentions. Therefore, the TPB is a model that predicts behavior based on the intention to perform the behavior and the perceived behavioral control where the attitude towards the behavior , the subjective norm, and the perceived behavioral control influence intention (Aertsens et al. 2009 ).

Studies of this research stream concluded that the information contained in social media tools can influence the intention to perform a behavior regarding green or organic products. Considering green cosmetics purchase intentions, Pop et al. ( 2020 ) point out that social media can increase consumers’ environmental concerns, consumers’ attitudes, subjective norms, altruistic and egoistic motivations, and therefore consumers’ green cosmetics purchase intentions. By using the value-belief-norm theory and the elaboration likelihood model, Jaini et al. ( 2019 ) discovered that e-WOM communications influences consumers’ green cosmetics purchase decisions, with personal norm affecting this choice, especially when they are actively involved in obtaining positive feedback via e-WOM communication. In addition, pro-environmental beliefs, which eventually affect consumers’ personal norms, are affected positively by hedonic, and altruistic value.

Regarding organic food, it was confirmed that consumers’ attitudes towards organic food can be shaped by social media forums and informative webpages featuring product quality and certification. They have a great moderating effect on purchase ratings and reviews that positively influence consumers’ online impulse buying behavior (Tariq et al. 2019 ). Background factors like information (i.e., social media information and labeling), individual (i.e., health consciousness and purchase attitude), and social (i.e., self-perceived vegetarian and environmentalism), impact consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food (Li and Jaharuddin 2021 ). Lim and Lee-Won ( 2017 ) discovered that dialogic retweets (i.e. retweeting user mentions addressed to an organization), are more persuasive than monologic tweets because dialogic retweets lead to a higher level of subjective norms, more favorable attitudes toward behavior, and greater intention to adopt the behavior advocated by an organic food organization in the messages. On the other hand, a lifestyle of health and sustainability influences the attitude of customers toward sustainable consumption and therefore, consumers’ sustainable consumption behavior (Matharu et al. 2021 ). Furthermore, regarding western imported food products in a Muslim country, Bukhari et al. ( 2020 ) found that product attributes, price, self-concept, brand trust, personality, and religiosity are positively correlated with consumers’ purchase intention in Pakistan.

This research stream concluded that the information contained in social media can influence the intention to consume green or organic products. Nevertheless, it is known that there is an intention-behavior gap, identified between positive attitudes toward organic products and actual purchase behavior (Padel and Foster 2005 ; Pearson et al. 2011 ). Thus, further research could explore, by means of mixed methods, how social media could reduce the intention-behavior gap.

3.2.3 Research stream on “social media and food tourism” (Factor 10)

The tenth research stream explains 1.54% of the variance of keyword relationships, indicating a research stream of tenth-highest distinction. While image (58 mentions) and destination, (content) analysis and instagram (30 mentions each) were the most often listed keywords, the research stream was best represented (in terms of factor loadings) by the keywords destination (FL = 0.645) , followed by authenticity. Place, related to travel, culinary, image, wine, and gastronomy constitute the remainders of the top ten keywords. These 10 keywords in this research stream confirm the application-oriented topics from the perspective of food tourism. Therefore, this research stream clearly addresses the topic “social media and food tourism.”

Representative publications of this research stream (see Table 7 ) reference each more than 2 keywords of factor 10. Regarding theories and conceptualizations, although this research stream has not a leading theory, they analyze food tourism and its relationship with social media. Thus, an inclusive and shared research discourse can be determined.

A closer look at these articles (selected by maximum number of referenced keywords) provides insights about the methods applied and types of insights gained from this research discourse (Table 7 right columns). These articles address food tourism related to social media use by means of content analysis, semi-structured interviews, and literature review, among others. The articles analyzed social media content, as well as antecedents and contingencies regarding social media and food tourism.

The use of social media to increase destination image or to promote a food destination is the main focus of this research stream. Over the past two decades, the key themes regarding food tourism were authenticity through food experiences, the offer of unique food experiences, food tourism and sustainability, as well as the use of food destination in marketing; nevertheless, Okumus ( 2021 ) suggests that future studies should focus on the role of social media in promoting food tourism experiences, among others. In this regard, Filieri et al. ( 2021 ) found that on Instagram, users communicate their destination brand love through photographs of some destination attributes (e.g. people, food, weather, etc.) accompanied by specific positive emotions (e.g. attractiveness, pleasure, amazement, etc.) or providing emotional support during a destination crisis. Besides, Ramirez-Gutierrez et al. ( 2021 ) concluded that in TripAdvisor, tourists’ communications of gastronomic experiences contain both aesthetic and personal values.

Other studies in this research stream reveal social media strategies and how specific online tools can help to promote food destinations. While memories influence positively the loyalty for a food destination (Bachman et al. 2021 ), the description of food on TikTok brings an effect of intention to travel and to obtain information, impacting the affective image of a destination and increasing potential tourists’ attention (Li et al. 2020 ). As a tool to advertise food-based cities, Yu and Sun ( 2019 ) recommend the use of Instagram to attract the attention of consumers including hashtags to reach more users and to generate interactivity. Moreover, the endorsement of celebrity chefs on social media can help to promote cities as culinary destinations by giving provocativeness (i.e. attractiveness and customer engagement), credibility (i.e. trustworthiness, leading, and reliability), and supportiveness (i.e. localism and match-up) (Demirkol and Cifci 2020 ). Besides, Vrontis et al. ( 2021 ) suggest that the support interactions between destination managers and stakeholders by using online technology; can be transformed into a word-of-mouth source that could affect perceptions and sustainable development of the territory producing the place brand.

Finally, by conducting a content analysis of 600 Instagram images containing the hashtag #fitspiration, Tiggemann and Zaccardo ( 2018 ) found that most images of women contained objectifying elements, and only one body type: thin and toned. Authors point out that although ‘fitspiration’ images may be inspirational for viewers, they contain elements that could affect negatively the viewer’s body image.

This research stream analyzed the role of social media in food tourism on Instagram, TikTok, and Tripadvisor. Further research might explore the use of further social media tools in order to enrich this research stream with comparisons among tools and countries.

3.3 Broader communication issues

This research cluster analyses online communications regarding Alternative Food Networks (AFN), online communication, and eating disorders, as well as the analysis of online food related data by means of novel tools. This cluster includes the research streams “sustainable food communication online,” “analysis of online food related data,” and “online communication and eating disorders.”

3.3.1 Research stream on “sustainable food communication online” (Factor 6)

Explaining the 2.66% of the variance of keyword relationships, this research stream of sixth-highest distinction was best represented (in terms of factor loadings) by the keyword sustainability (FL = 0.727) , followed by agriculture, although network and sustainability were the most often listed keywords (68 and 60 mentions) . The remainders of the top ten keywords, were the words innovation , system, economy, chain, alternative, supply, and farmer . The remaining 24 keywords confirm the focus on sustainable food communication. Thus, this research stream clearly addresses the topic “sustainable food communication online.”

The most representative articles of this research stream (see Table 8 ) were selected by the highest number of keywords referenced, in this case, each more than 6 keywords of factor 5. Without a leading theory, most of the articles rely on the concept of AFN, and local food networks or systems. They address the topic of sustainable food and online communication, linked both by means of content analysis, data mining, semi-structured interviews, surveys, and participant observation, among others. Media content is investigated, as well as antecedents and contingencies regarding sustainable food communication online.

Regarding the antecedents of the use of internet communications, in this research stream, it was found that initiators and participants of AFN are individual shoppers and nascent activists that organize strategies, build networks, and use internet communications to extend their reach, and expand linkages to emancipatory spaces of global and social justice movements (Schumilas and Scott 2016 ). Online spaces (e.g. websites and social media platforms) supplement the socio-material connections in AFNs’ offline spaces providing a ‘virtual reconnection’ or an additional real for reconnection (Bos and Owen 2016 ). By using social media, participants in citizen-drive initiatives (e.g. for waste-prevention) create collaborative local networks to develop green/sustainable consumption practices (Campos and Zapata 2017 ). Exploring communications with the hashtag #sustainability on Twitter, Pilar et al. ( 2019 ) discovered six communities (i.e. Environmental Sustainability, Sustainability Awareness, Renewable Energy and Climate Change, Innovative Technology, Green Architecture, and Food Sustainability), and 6 hashtags related to sustainability (i.e. innovation, environment, climate change, corporate social responsibility, technology, and energy).

Regarding the use of online communications by producers and intermediaries, it was found that producers establish consumers’ trust by satisfying the consumer´s desire for safe food, and that they use social media to construct food materiality and the perception of this materiality in order to fit the consumer´s ideal of freshness (Martindale 2021 ). Besides, Kummer and Milestad ( 2020 ) discovered that social media is used as an advertising tool in the growing practice of box schemes (i.e. a type of locally oriented distribution system used by community supported agriculture (CSA) farms or enterprises) in Europe. Other works in this research stream studied the motivations for buying sustainable agricultural products (e.g. Ashtab and Campbell 2021 ).

Further research could explore not just the use of social media for communication, but also how these communications influence behavior-change and sustainable food consumption among their participants.

3.3.2 Research stream on “analysis of online food related data” (Factor 7)

The seventh-highest distinction research stream explains 2.14% of the variance of keyword relationships. In terms of factor loadings, the keywords (sentiment) analysis (FL = 0.74) , and tweet are the main keyword representing this research stream . The top ten keywords were led by twitter with 102 mentions, followed by (sentiment) analysis and datum with 35 mentions each. Halal, detection, topic , mining, classification, and sentiment are the remainders of the top ten keywords. Analyzing all keywords, it can be confirmed the use of words related to methods for the analysis of online data. Therefore, this research stream addresses the topic of “analysis of online food related data.”

Although the representative publications (see Table 9 ), with more than 5 keywords of factor 7, do not share a leading theory, they share a research discourse by analyzing Twitter communications. With three articles led by the same author, articles in this research stream address the analysis of online data related to food by means of social network analysis, data mining, and sentiment analysis. Media content, antecedents, and contingencies regarding the analysis of online food related data are analyzed.

Many studies in this research stream emphasize the use of different methods and tools to analyze online communication data. By using opinion mining techniques, Mostafa ( 2019 ) analyzed food sentiments regarding halal food expressed on Twitter detecting a generally positive sentiment toward halal food, as well as a heterogeneous group of halal food consumers divisible by concern for food authenticity, self-identity, animal welfare attitudes, and level of religiosity. By using social network analysis Mostafa ( 2021 ) examined the structure, dynamics, and influencers in halal food networks, founding that few social mediators or “influencers” control the diffusion of information through a small world preferential attachment network that links digital halal food consumers. The same author analyzed Wikipedia’s clickstream data in order to study users’ halal food navigation strategies on Wikipedia servers discovering that only a few articles or “influencers” within close-knot communities control the flow of halal food information (Mostafa 2022 ).

As well the use of geocoding has an important place in this research stream. By using geocoding, Rimjhim et al. ( 2020 ) analyzed data from Twitter and Wikipedia, to know how the conversational discourse on online social networks vary semantically and geographically over time finding that although there is a significant homogenization in online discussion topics, despite geographical distance, it is not similar across all topics of discussion and location. Zhang et al. ( 2020 ) explored individuals’ emotions and cognition of cultural food differences among people from South and North China by using the machine learning method of natural language processing (NLP) by posting on the Zhihu Q&A platform the question “What are the differences between South and North China that you ever know?” They found that food culture is the most popular difference among people from North and South China and that individuals tend to have a negative attitude toward food cultures that differ from their own. Analyzing geo-located and reciprocal user mention and reply tweets over the course of the 2016 primary and presidential elections in the United States, Koylu ( 2019 ) found that the discourse was divided between election-related discussions of the political campaigns and candidates, and civil rights, being the last the more dominant. Ullah et al. ( 2021 ) propose an architecture to store data to accelerate the development process of the machine learning classifiers using rule-based and logistic regression.

The contribution of this research stream to the social sciences lies, without doubt, in the novel approaches to analyzing online data. Further research could extend the use of these tools in their research or propose new ones. And, since most studies analyze text, it is recommended the development of tools to analyze images.

3.3.3 Research stream on “online communication and eating disorders” (Factor 9)

The ninth research stream explains 1.76% of the variance of keyword relationships. Blog and site were the most often listed keywords (62 and 38 mentions), but in terms of factor loadings, the stream was best represented by the keywords discourse (FL = 0.557) , followed by blog. An inspection of the remaining seventeen keywords, confirms the eating disorders approach. Hence, this research stream studies the topic of “online communication and eating disorders.”

Without a leading theory, representative publications of this research stream (see Table 10 ) analyze online communication related to eating disorders, sharing the same discourse. Articles address online communication related to eating disorders by means of virtual ethnography, netnography, and interpretative phenomenological analysis, among others. They analyze web and social media content as well as antecedents and contingencies regarding online communication and eating disorders.

Some studies in this research stream explore online narratives, experiences, and discussions regarding eating disorders (ED) online. By using content analysis of ‘food porn’ websites and blogs, as well as participant observation and interviews regarding ‘pro-anorexia’ websites, Lavis ( 2017 ) found that participants “eat” in, and through cyberspace, beyond and among bodies. Cinquegrani and Brown ( 2018 ) explored narratives of experiences and conceptualizations through online social media forums regarding the eating disorder Orthorexia Nervosa (ON), a fixation on eating proper food accompanied by excessive exercise. The authors found three main narratives: pursuit (i.e. the individuals are on a quest to ‘better’ themselves), resistance to the illness narrative, and the recovery (i.e. after accepting the ‘illness narrative’). The authors suggest considering ON a lifestyle syndrome embodied in social and cultural processes. By analyzing TikTok posts containing the hashtag (#) EDrecovery, Herrick et al. ( 2021 ) concluded that creators share their personal experiences with recovery by using popular (or viral) video formats, succinct storytelling, and the production of educational content.

Other studies explored online conversations in order to understand how individuals confer value and meaning to ‘healthy’ eating behaviors. Consumers are active co-producers of value and meaning regarding the impact of green products on their health and the environment, and their understanding of health and sustainability is affected by cultural meanings and pleasure, which lead them to attribute additional unsubstantiated traits to certain products ascribed as virtuous (Yeo 2014 ). Examining the visual and textual framings of ‘superfoods’ on social media, it was found that superfoods are a marker of idealized identity mobilized by using postfeminist, neoliberal, and food justice discourses (Sikka 2019 ), the healing potential of veganism is derived from a passionate investment of the self that redefines young women’s ways of being in the world (Costa et al. 2019 ).

In sum, this research contributes to the understanding of the complexity of eating disorders by uncovering the processes and meanings of eating disorders and how they are portraited online. Some studies in this research stream also discloses how individuals confer meaning to healthy eating behaviors and how an idealized identity ascribes virtuous attributes to some foods. Further research could explore if this initially idealized identity of healthy foods leads to future eating disorders.

3.4 Service industry discourse on “food online reviews in the service industry” (Factor 2)

One research stream was found in this cluster, which possesses an integrative discourse: “food online reviews in the service industry.” This research stream explains 9.87% of the variance of keyword relationships, indicating a research stream of second-highest distinction. While word-of-mouth and satisfaction were the most often listed keywords (77 and 60 mentions), the research stream was best represented (in terms of factor loadings) by the keywords hotel (FL = 0.868) , followed by ( online) reviews. Performance and (consumer) satisfaction related to restaurant, service, hospitality constitute the remainders of the top ten keywords. An inspection of the remaining 49 keywords confirms this focus on application-oriented topics from the perspective of the service industry. Thus, this research stream addresses the topic “food online reviews in the service industry.”

Representative publications of this research stream (see Table 11 ) reference each more than 10 keywords of factor 2. Regarding theories and conceptualizations, most of the articles refer to electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) and online review. Thus, an inclusive and shared research discourse can be diagnosed.

A closer look at these articles (selected by maximum number of referenced keywords) provides insights about the methods applied and types of insights gained from this research discourse (Table 11 right columns). These articles address online food reviews as an indicator of service quality, linking both by means of regression analysis or structural equation modeling. Antecedents, consequences as well as contingencies of online food reviews are analyzed.

In a narrow effects perspective, Kim et al. ( 2016 ) found that the number of online reviews correlates with restaurant performance. By analyzing online customer comments on Yelp.com, Bilgihan et al. ( 2018 ) found that a focus on selected menu offerings, food, ambiance, and service can create buzz in social media. Addressing the broader scope of tourism industry, Abrudan et al. ( 2020 ) studied customer review scores on booking.com to analyze the impact of different hotel facilities on customers’ overall ratings, confirming the special relevance of food service for hotel ratings. Another analysis of online reviews from 68 online platforms however did not confirm such a special relevance of food services, with hotel attributes, including quality of rooms, Internet provision, and building to impact hotel performance most (Phillips et al. 2017 ). Altogether, these works highlight the importance of food reviews as drivers of positive consumer feedback primarily in the restaurant industry but less so in the broader hospitality industry.

Other works critically reflect on the antecedents of consumers’ online food reviews. Investigating consumers´ personal drivers to write food reviews, Liu et al. ( 2020 ) found that personal motivation, and especially altruism, influences the posting of negative consumer online reviews. Cambra-Fierro et al. ( 2020 ) discovered that a company’s corporate social responsibility can steer consumers to identify and link themselves to brands generating buy-back and recommendation behaviors. These works thus reveal behavioral drivers on the creation of food reviews both at the consumer and company level. Finally, several works investigate contingencies regarding the effects of food reviews: Zinko et al. ( 2021 ) found that reviewer-submitted (food) images influence consumers’ attitudes only when they are consistent with the review text. This contingency perspective on the effects of food reviews in social media seems the more needed given that previous research, as outlined above, came to divergent conclusions about the impact of online food reviews on consumers’ service ratings.

With most articles in this research stream addressing written food reviews online on different social media, further research might analyze not just the use of written messages, but as well the use of images in online reviews.

3.5 Patterns of the overall research system

The previous analyses were restricted to the level of single research streams. To complement this perspective, the relationship between research streams is analyzed by means of a network analysis. Hereto, a multidimensional scaling of the linkages of the top-ten keywords per factor is calculated and visualized in Fig.  2 . While the size of nodes displays the relative mentioning frequency of each keyword, their positioning within the figure informs about their overall centrality and connectedness. Although the largest nodes or most often mentioned keywords are communication, diet, risk, and obesity , this chart indicates a clear focality on the keyword communication .

Network Visualization of Factors´ Top-10-Keywords Relations

The closeness of single keywords indicates their relationship with each other, and with other research streams. To ease interpretation, each factors’ keywords are marked in different colors. Thus, the distance between keywords stemming from different research streams reveals not only their closeness but as well interconnections between their respective research streams. For example, obesity and diet are closely linked to advertising . This implies close connections between the discourses on “Online Tools for Healthy Diet Intervention Programs” (factor 1, marked in red) and “Online Food Advertising Exposure” (factor 5, marked in dark green). While these two discourses assume a different actor perspective, zooming into consumers’ or marketers’ interest, they nonetheless discuss related topics from a complementary perspective.

In contrast, a large distance among words or factors shows a weak relationship or missing links between research streams; for example, a large distance can be observed among keywords related to “Sustainable Food Communication Online” (factor 6) and to “Social Media and Food Tourism” (factor 10). This shows that these two research streams are not yet strongly related. Future research might contribute by linking those different perspectives together.

Furthermore, the location of keywords related to “Social Media and Mental Disorders” (factor 8) at the outer skirt of the figure reveals that this research stream is a truly peripheral discourse. Finally, the method-driven discourse on “Food Online Reviews in the Service Industry” (factor 2) is clearly more related to the core discourse, to twitter and the different methods of analysis.

4 Conclusions and implications

This study presents a bibliometric analysis of the research conducted regarding food and social media within the social sciences. By using co-word analysis, this study evaluated 413 main Keywords contained in 1356 articles by means of factor and social network analysis. The study shows that the number of studies conducted on this topic has increased rapidly, indicating a growing interest in food and social media. Besides, the results reveal four main research clusters (i.e. Psychological Research Realm, Action-Oriented Research, Broader Communication Issues, and Service Industry Discourse) containing the main topics of research.

The Psychological Research Cluster analyzes online tools for healthy diet intervention programs, the use of apps for service purposes or dietary change, the exposure of children and adolescents to influencer marketing in YouTube videos, as well as the antecedents and consequences of social media use and mental disorders. The Action-Oriented Research cluster analyzes online food risk communication, behavioral intention and buying online, as well as the use of social media for food tourism. The Broader Communication Issues cluster studies sustainable food communication online, online food related data, and the relationship between online communication and eating disorders. Finally, the Service Industry Discourse cluster explores online reviews in the service industry.

Future research could transfer topics in order to have a broad scope of research. For example, the insights gained on the discourse “food and the use of apps” (factor 12), could be transferred to studies regarding “online food risk communication” (factor 3). A further alternative is to transfer the potential of the sophisticated text-mining as method of analysis used in the discourse “analysis of online food related data” (factor 7) enriched by picture mining, in order to address research questions related to how food is perceived and marketed (e.g. factor 6). Another possibility is to intersect, for example, the topic of factor 1, which addresses more positive psychological constructs in detail, and factor 8, which addresses topics more related to clinical psychology. Further integration of theoretical models stemming from psychology (e.g. factor 1 and factor 2) into the practically oriented joint discourse on service industry setting (Factor 2). More theoretical foundations might help to generate broader insights. Other studies could compare target groups (e.g. comparing adults, adolescents, and children), in different countries, regarding the same topics (e.g. fast-food intake while consuming social media). Additionally, the analysis of texts or reviews could be enriched through the analysis images, or by developing tools to analyze images. Other ideas are summarized in Table 12 , and elaborated in the discussion of the single research streams above.

By suggesting future research directions, this study help scholars to find relevant future topics of research in this area of study. The findings presented in this study can be beneficial for marketing and business scholars, as well as companies, and organizations interested in understanding the relationships between food and social media.

Data availability

On request.

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Food Marketing as a Special Ingredient in Consumer Choices: The Main Insights from Existing Literature

The choices and preferences of food consumers are influenced by several factors, from those related to the socioeconomic, cultural, and health dimensions to marketing strategies. In fact, marketing is a determinant ingredient in the choices related to food consumption. Nonetheless, for an effective implementation of any marketing approach, the brands play a crucial role. Creating new brands in the food sector is not always easy, considering the relevant amount of these goods produced within the agricultural sector and in small food industries. The small dimension of the production units in these sectors hinders both brand creation and respective branding. In this context, it would seem important to analyse the relationships between food marketing and consumer choice, highlighting the role of brands in these frameworks. For this purpose, a literature review was carried out considering 147 documents from Scopus database for the topics of search “food marketing” and “choices” (search performed on 16 October 2020). As main insights, it is worth highlighting that the main issues addressed by the literature, concerning food marketing and consumer choices, are the following: economic theory; label and packaging; marketing strategies; agriculture and food industry; market segments; social dimensions; brand and branding. In turn, food marketing heavily conditions consumer choices; however, these related instruments are better manipulated by larger companies. In addition, this review highlights that bigger companies have dominant positions in these markets which are not always beneficial to the consumers’ objectives.

1. Introduction

The food choices by consumers are influenced by several factors, where the prices traditionally have great importance, as highlighted by the economic theory. However, there are new tendencies, and some segments currently privilege healthy [ 1 ] and sustainable characteristics [ 2 ]. Food consumption has several dimensions, including that of a social and cultural magnitude, and this sometimes compromises policies to change unadjusted behaviours [ 3 ] and influence food perceptions [ 4 ]. The sociodemographic and behavioural factors also have their implications [ 5 ] on consumer behaviour. On the other hand, labelling and packaging have a significant impact on consumer choices and preferences [ 6 ].

In these contexts, marketing strategies are useful and powerful approaches in order to create and maintain a market in any economic sector and, specifically, in the food industry [ 7 ]. However, in the food market, it is important to distinguish two production sectors, agriculture and industry. These two distinct sectors with different dynamics have implications on the respective markets. This is important to highlight, because this makes the food sector different from other economic sectors.

Agriculture has several particularities that constrain the design of effective marketing plans. In fact, the structural context of farms, often, in small dimensions, in great numbers and the producing commodities are limited in the ability to create a custom positioning, a crucial ingredient for any marketing approach. The main problem of this atomised structure is associated with the reduced individual level of production, focused on parts of the year that prove difficult to maintain a regular presence in the market and the respective branding. These weaknesses of the sector limit the market choices of farmers [ 8 ]. Of course, the brand and the agricultural sector are only a part of the food marketing framework.

In turn, the food industry is often conditioned to be more competitive and to generate value added through the creation of brands. In fact, this is a sector with the dynamics and the competitiveness predicted by the economic theory for the industry, i.e., as having activities with increasing returns to scale. The performance in terms of productivity and efficiency allows for another presence in the markets and possibilities to further develop marketing plans and strategies for a more sustainable development [ 9 ].

Considering that marketing approaches influence consumer food choices, the literature survey highlights the relevance of a systematic review concerning two dimensions: food marketing and consumer choices, taking into account the specificities of the two sectors related to food production.

From this perspective, the research carried out intends to highlight the main insights from the scientific literature into the relationships between food marketing and the choices of consumption performed by consumers. To achieve this objective, 147 documents (only articles and reviews) from the Scopus database [ 10 ] were obtained, considering as topics for searches carried out on 16 October 2020 “food marketing” and “choices”. These documents were analysed through a literature survey. To better perform the literature analysis, a previous bibliographic analysis and literature survey were considered, and this approach allowed for organisation of the literature review with the following structure: economic theory; label and packaging; marketing strategies; agriculture and food industry; market segments; social dimensions; brand and branding. This approach was complemented using the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) methodology [ 11 ]. For the PRISMA approach, 137 documents (only articles and reviews) were also considered from the Web of Science Core Collection [ 12 ] for the same topics. When the documents from Scopus and Web of Science were considered together, through the Zotero software [ 13 ], a great majority were duplicated (around 100). From this perspective, considering the relevant number of documents duplicated across the two scientific databases and the Scopus platform having more documents, the decision was made to opt only for the documents from this database. The topics of search “food marketing” and “choices” were selected to find documents in the scientific databases related to the interrelationships between food marketing and consumer choices. The search topics “food”, “marketing”, and “choices” could be considered, for instance, but this search option would greatly increase the number of documents found, taking the level to an infeasible amount for a literature review; furthermore, the studies obtained were outside the intended scope (“food marketing”).

2. Bibliographic Sample Characterisation

The information presented in this section is relative to a sample obtained from the Scopus database for a search carried out with the following topics/keywords: “food marketing” and “choices”. In addition, it is important to highlight that the identification of the sample and its analysis considered other scientific contributions concerning systematic reviews [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ].

The number of documents related to the topics considered has increased from 1970 until today, with relevant breaks in 2013 and 2016, with a total of 16 documents in 2020 ( Figure 1 ). This context shows that there are opportunities to increase the number of documents published with regard to these fields, considering the annual average number of studies published and the relevance of the topics.

Distribution of the documents across years.

A large part of the documents focused on subject areas such as the following ( Figure 2 ): medicine; nursing; agricultural and biological sciences; business, management and accounting; psychology; social sciences; economic, econometrics, and finance; and environmental science. This framework reveals the multidisciplinary dimension of the issues related with the topics addressed here.

Distribution of the documents across subject areas.

The majority of the studies were carried out by authors affiliated to institutions from the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, New Zealand, Belgium, China, and Germany ( Figure 3 ). The several dimensions associated with these topics are relevant to several countries around the world. In this way and considering the values presented in Figure 3 , there are opportunities to be further explored regarding these topics by affiliated authors in institutions from important countries, such as, China, India, Brazil, and the European Union member-states.

Distribution of the documents across countries.

Source titles having two or more documents are those presented in Figure 4 . The following journals were noted: Appetite (13); Public Health Nutrition (8); Food Quality and Preference (5); Nutrients (5); British Food Journal (4); Childhood Obesity (3); Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (3); Obesity Reviews (3).

Source titles with two or more documents.

Figure 5 was obtained using VOSviewer software [ 18 , 19 ] with the 147 documents obtained from the Scopus database. This figure was obtained using bibliographic data for co-occurrence links and all keyword items. In this figure, the circle/label size represents the number of keyword occurrences, and relatedness (proximity of circles/labels) is determined on the basis of the number of documents in which the keywords occur together [ 19 ]. Figure 5 highlights the relevance of keywords, for example, obesity, child, advertising, review, interview, adolescents, market, policy, labelling, perception, willingness to pay, health, choice experiment, index method, case study, apps, and television. These keywords reveal some relevant dimensions related to food and marketing and consumer choices (obesity, health, children and youths, labelling, perceptions, taste, willingness to pay, policies, and media) and some methodological approaches (review, interview, choice experiment, index method, and case study). On the other hand, there is a great amount of relatedness (number of documents in which the keywords occur together) between food marketing and human obesity, especially in men and children.

Co-occurrences of all keywords (one as a minimum number of occurrences of a keyword).

3. Literature Survey

Considering the bibliographic analysis and a preliminary literature survey, this section is divided into the following subsections: economic theory; labelling and packaging; marketing strategies; agriculture and food industry; market segments; social dimensions; brand and branding.

3.1. Economic Theory

As predicted by the theory of demand, the consumption of goods and services by consumers to satisfy their daily needs is dependent on market prices. In addition, the theory of utility explains that, when consumers intend to satisfy their needs, they also expect to maximise utility, depending on their income. This is true in every market, including in the food markets from low-income countries [ 20 ]. Consumer demand is dependent on several factors, but the prices (own product, substitute product, and complementary product prices) are amongst the most important variables. Of course, other variables, such as product quality and the economic conjuncture of each country, have their influences on consumption. In these frameworks, consumers combine quantities of goods and services so as to obtain the maximum satisfaction from their consumption. The level of satisfaction achieved is dependent on the available revenue to consume. The economic theory assumes that the economic agents are rational, and this means that consumers want to consume more when prices are lower with the exception of luxury products or goods and services of basic needs [ 21 ]. The marketing plans, in general, bear these contexts in mind, because the consideration of these fields is determinant for a successful strategy in the food sector.

On the other hand, some dimensions are multidisciplinary and networked, such as those, for example, related to welfare [ 22 ]. Welfare is, in fact, the focus of research for several disciplines such as biology, economy, psychology, and sociology. This transversal perspective could prove interesting as a means for cross-approaches, including insights from economic theory, to promote more adjusted patterns of food consumption, mainly those more compatible with health requirements [ 23 ]. The impact on health from food consumption is a concern for several stakeholders; however, it is not an easy challenge to mitigate these implications, due to the market power of certain stronger brands.

Economic options and the respective economic dynamics, with consequences on prices and on consumer incomes, have direct and indirect impacts on food choices and, consequently, on the health of the respective population [ 24 ]. In turn, the economic theory may provide interesting insights for more effective health policies and programmes that incentivise, in a greater way, food choices which are more compatible with a balanced human life environment [ 25 ]. The economic theory may also be a relevant ally towards supporting better knowledge about company frameworks for a more effective market and marketing approaches [ 26 ].

The price elasticities, for example, may provide relevant support in these strategies and enable us to predict future patterns of food consumption [ 27 ]. The prices do indeed have a determinant impact on food markets [ 28 ], despite their particular price and income elasticities. In general, the food markets, specifically, those more linked with the production sector (agriculture), have lower, inelastic price elasticities. This means that the consumers are not sensitive in their consumption to price changes, mainly due to the fact that food products are often essential goods and services of basic needs and where the prices are lower. The same happens for income elasticities, meaning that, when consumers have more revenue, they have a tendency to increase their consumption of products other than food goods. In other words, when consumer income increases, they are willing to increase industrial and service consumption rather than consume more food [ 21 ]. This is a great task for the food industry, where the brand and respective branding are called upon here to play their contribution, whilst sometimes having implications on consumer health.

3.2. Label and Packaging

Food labelling and packaging are used to inform consumers about the product’s characteristics, in accordance with legislation, and for marketing purposes [ 29 ], but they may also provide support for healthier choices [ 30 ]. The legislation regulates the information which may be considered for labelling, and this can sometimes be too bureaucratic and may bring about additional difficulties to market strategies. For example, in some food/beverage sectors, prior to any change in the label, there needs to be previous approval from the competent institutions, and this limits the strategic tasks of the respective companies, mainly when the intention is to provide something more personalised for the consumers.

Despite this regulation, the objectives of labelling to protect human health are, sometimes, compromised. The labelling text and design condition the perceptions of the consumers about food goods and services and influence their choices [ 31 ], especially when questions related to health are implicit [ 32 ]. The influence of the label design also has relevance in the perceptions and choices among children [ 33 ], where cartoon characters and nutritional statements have their importance [ 34 ].

The regional and Mediterranean labels are, in general, designed to promote marketing strategies and highlight product attributes [ 35 ]. The regional brands and respective labels are ways to highlight local food characteristics and to create value added in endogenous resources. In fact, the big challenge in some food sectors is to create value added for stakeholders, and these regional brands support the objectives to bring more value added to several operators. In general, these regional brands are umbrella products that promote other endogenous goods and services.

The type of packaging has an influence on consumer perceptions about the healthfulness of the respective food. For example, milk in glass packaging is perceived as being healthier than milk packaged in a carton [ 36 ]. Packaging influences children and adults in different ways. For example, for adults, the package size and shape are important attributes, more than the information present on the labels [ 37 ]. Different generations have distinct patterns of consumption, and millennials, having a different educational environment, where social media has a great impact, have other preferences and vulnerabilities.

Nonetheless, the labelling and packaging are, in some cases, more useful in aiding consumers to identify healthier food rather than trying to influence them to buy these products [ 38 ]. In addition, the presence of cartoons on packages positively influences children to choose fruit and vegetables, but this is unfortunately used more for choices of energy-dense and poor nutritional foods [ 39 ]. Cartoon characters on packaging do in fact have a great impact on children’s food choices [ 40 ]. The taste perceptions are determinant for children’s choices, and the packaging design influences these assessments. Children identify the product name, prices, and images as being the most relevant packaging characteristics for their choices [ 41 ]. The information that stimulates human sensations, such as images and songs, is powerful in influencing consumers.

Sometimes, some information on the packaging may mislead consumers about the real properties of the food chosen [ 42 ] or does not conveniently inform consumers about the nutritional characteristics [ 43 ]. This is particularly disturbing in some nutritional and health claims [ 44 ]. The messages on the packaging must be clear [ 45 ] and appropriate for what the products really are [ 46 ].

In general, researchers seem to agree on the need for some control by legislation of the information present on packaging [ 47 ], primarily that which promotes unhealthy food choices [ 48 ] in children [ 49 ]. These concerns are transversal around the world, including, for example, studies carried out in Brazil [ 50 ], Australia [ 51 , 52 , 53 ], United States (US) [ 54 , 55 ], since the 1970s [ 56 ], India [ 57 , 58 ], Philippines [ 59 ], Malaysia [ 60 ], and Ireland [ 61 ]. In any case, the decisions related to regulation towards preventing health issues should bear in mind the international commitments and consequent constraints [ 62 ].

From another perspective, health standards are sometimes not uniform across organizations and countries [ 63 ]. This may create additional difficulties for the producers and retailers who operate in international markets. It could be important, for example, in the context of the World Trade Organization or the World Health Organization, to find transversal standards for the domains relative to healthy food attributes.

3.3. Marketing Strategies

Food marketing is an important tool [ 64 ] to build and maintain markets through the creation of ties of confidence and loyalty between the producers/sellers and the consumers. Food marketing is dependent on several different dimensions, especially those related to the particularities of the sectors associated with food goods and services; in this way, the marketing plans are no easy task [ 65 ].

In any circumstance, the marketing of food as an external factor which influences consumer choices [ 66 ] is a powerful instrument that may be used to promote public campaigns, such as those related to healthy eating [ 67 ] across the several points of food sale, including restaurant kids’ menus [ 68 ] and supermarkets [ 69 ]. However, for companies, the trade-off between health and profit is not easy to solve and this is visible in many of the strategies adopted.

For example, supermarket checkout areas are especially strategic for marketing plans and deserve special attention in terms of their impact upon human health [ 70 ]. From another perspective, the tie-in offers in fast food menus for children could be restricted to healthy promotions [ 71 ]. The same concern could be present when sport celebrities are associated with the marketing plans [ 72 ] for children and parents [ 73 ] or in the criteria used to choose sport sponsors [ 74 ]. In turn, in the definition of marketing approaches, the message for healthy food promotions should be clear, well designed, and well oriented [ 75 ] to avoid misunderstandings [ 76 ], principally by children [ 77 ], as well as to obtain the intended objectives [ 78 ].

The media is a determinant way to communicate with consumers [ 79 ], which calls for adjusted advertising when it comes to promoting healthy consumption. However, often times, the consumers, especially youths, are not prepared to deal with these aggressive forms of publicity [ 80 ] and are not able to decide on the most important information [ 81 ], explicitly that which is related to nutritional characteristics [ 82 ]. In fact, the youth and children who are more engaged with, for example, social media are more vulnerable to being influenced into buying unhealthy food [ 83 ].

The marketing strategies designed by food operators are very persuasive, and this implies that the consumers who are exposed to food marketing campaigns seem to be more prone to agreeing with their strategies, including those for unhealthy food choices [ 84 ]. The television and internet seem to be the most powerful ways to influence exposed consumers [ 85 ], specifically through neuromarketing approaches which encourage children to favour taste when making food choices [ 86 ]. Television cooking shows are particularly influential on the consumption patterns of children and the youth [ 87 ]. The same happens on children’s websites [ 88 ] and social media [ 89 ]. The taste is, indeed, a decisive ingredient in food marketing strategies [ 90 ] and, usually, food marketing uses contexts related to this attribute to design its plans and influence customers.

Neuromarketing is an emergent technique that applies approaches to measure spontaneous reactions [ 91 ], with relevant impacts on the consumers’ choices [ 92 ], especially on young people [ 93 ]. The songs, image sequence, and colour are tools usually considered to support neuromarketing policies [ 94 ]. The evolution of these approaches allows for current expressions such as “musical flavour” to be normal and accepted by the several stakeholders [ 95 ]. Usually, consumers are influenced in their consumption without any perception of this factor. The stimuli for human senses have a strong impact on the consumers’ perceptions, and these tools are used to intentionally encourage consumers by marketing professionals in a subconscious way.

Magazines, as well as television and the internet, are powerful ways to advertise to consumers [ 96 ], sometimes in a more persuasive way [ 97 ]. This is because, in some cases, the control approaches are more focused on television and the internet, whilst the written forms of advertisement are forgotten about although they do have similar tools to influence consumers.

The several strategies related to food marketing have an impact on dietary choices, consumption preferences, and cultural values [ 98 ]. These changes in the pattern of consumption, as a consequence of food marketing, are particularly visible in countries that became more vulnerable to external advertisements, due to political, social, or a conjuncture of changes. In any event, a familiar environment and parents’ behaviour have a determinant impact on the several food choices [ 99 ].

An emerging area in the marketing of food is the guilt-free approach [ 100 ]; however, this a multidisciplinary field where several disciplines are called upon to add their contributions. It is important to find food marketing strategies that combine the profit aims of the companies with the health of consumers [ 101 ].

3.4. Agriculture and Food Industry

The food industry is interlinked with the agricultural sector, making this sector and its marketing strategy dependent on the options made by the farmers [ 102 ], specifically, in terms of farming practices compatible with the environment and animal welfare [ 103 ], as well as with the safety of the products themselves [ 104 ]. For example, organic farming products may have for the food markets a set of virtues and advantages, relative to conventional agriculture, but may also bring about a set of barriers and difficulties (because of the higher prices, for example) [ 105 ]. In any case, farming practices which are compatible with the environment will be the future in many countries around the world, especially in the European Union member-states. In fact, the several measures of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), mainly since 1992, have gone in this very direction. Due to structural and environmental problems, the CAP since 1992 has become more directed towards promoting sustainable development in an integrated rural approach, where the agri-environmental (organic farming, integrated production, etc.) measures have gained more relevance. The recent instruments created in the CAP framework, such as Greening, are examples of an agricultural policy which is more concerned about the environment within the European context [ 106 , 107 ].

Nonetheless, the food industry is an interesting way to bring about value added to agriculture, because, in farms, due to their characteristics, marketing strategies have, in certain circumstances, less importance in the market than other factors [ 108 ]. Agriculture as a sector of food commodities has additional difficulties in order to be presented into the market in a differentiated way, and this compromises marketing strategies.

The Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) products and the associated producers’ organizations are examples that may support some market differentiation and provide more structured and effective marketing strategies [ 109 ]. These PDO and the respective certification brands allow for the protection of local and regional food attributes and are interesting tools to create marketing strategies common to the respective stakeholders. Of course, the PDO brands are not the same as individual trademarks, but may bring interesting contributions, primarily for smaller farmers, for example, with more budgetary difficulties to implement strategies complementary to production techniques, to create value added in the markets, and to increase their income.

The broad diversity of farms, in terms of size, characteristics, and organization, makes the agricultural sector specific, with particular dynamics that influence the strategies adopted for food marketing [ 110 ]. The different programmes and policies designed for the agricultural sector have relevant impacts on the agriculture industry’s dynamics [ 111 ] and implicitly on the respective markets [ 112 ]. This has been a concern for the several policymakers and policy design in the European Union context bearing in mind these agricultural market characteristics, but it continues to require some further adjustments for some local particularities.

Local markets appear, in general, as great opportunities for farmers who have achieved consumer preference or loyalty, principally in terms of quality [ 113 ]. These local markets are relevant ways to shorten the agricultural chain. In certain circumstances, consumers are willing to pay more for local food [ 114 ]. Usually, the greater margin of value added in agricultural markets remains with the intermediaries and the retailers. Local markets and short agri-food chains (farm events, farm tourism, farm shops, etc.) may support farmers to maintain a large part of the total amount of value added generated in the markets. Nonetheless, the channels used in the markets depend, in some cases, on their structural characteristics, mainly those linked with their experience in the sector [ 115 ].

In the agricultural food industry market, questions sometimes appear such as those related to patriotism, where dimensions associated with food safety may contribute to adjusted marketing strategies that provide support to overcome these aspects [ 116 ]. Consumers are concerned with the health impacts of food consumption and, in this way, are sensitive to claims associated with food safety.

For an effective marketing plan in the agricultural sector, considering their specificities, the associations and cooperatives are fundamental, when well managed and organised. However, sometimes, the management structure of these organizations is not the best adjusted, and this has consequences on the sector’s performance [ 117 ]. The associations and cooperatives are crucial for technical support to the farmers and to concentrate the agricultural supply of the farmers who have worse conditions and dimensions in terms of storing production. On the other hand, the output concentration allows further capacity to negotiate contracts and prices with retailers.

The new technologies of information and communication may be useful tools to support marketing strategies in farms, and some farmers are indeed willing to pay for electronic platforms [ 118 ]. Social media is one of the cheaper and easier ways to promote food products, and this may be used without relevant difficulties by the several stakeholders. Some years ago, publicity and advertising were expensive and restricted to the traditional means of communication, such as television, radio, newspapers, and magazines.

3.5. Market Segments

Food markets are characterised by heterogeneous segments of consumers [ 119 ], involving a great diversity of realities [ 120 ], some more sensitized to health statements and others more influenced by nutritional information [ 121 ]. These contexts bring about interesting challenges for the marketing professional and for researchers, due to the great number of brands that operate in these markets. This diversity implies that food markets could be segmented considering food features, sales structure, and consumer characteristics [ 122 ].

Insufficient nutritional information seems to be one of the main factors that, in some segments, hinders the prevention of unhealthy food consumption [ 123 ]. This is particularly alarming in countries with a lower income [ 124 ]. Children and low-income consumers are vulnerable segments to persuasive and targeted marketing campaigns: children because of their lower skills to deal with marketing strategies to sell more and low-income consumers because of their vulnerability to lower-priced products.

As a result of these frameworks, the terms used to describe the nutritional dimensions, targeted at specific segments, need proper regulation, since the personal perceptions of consumers concerning the real definition of these expressions are not consensual [ 125 ] and this, therefore, opens up an element of free will for the marketing designers/strategists.

In some segments, the perceptions about food safety are more important for consumer choices than their socioeconomic characteristics [ 126 ]. In a similar pattern, consumers are, in some cases, prepared to pay more for beneficial health claims than for nutritional claims [ 127 ]. Nonetheless, the consumer’s choices of food with heath claims are, in general, interrelated with several factors, such as those related with the socioeconomic domains [ 128 ]. Depending on the segments considered, the food choices may be influenced by personality, health, sensory attributes, price, and convenience [ 129 ], as well as, by environmental, ethnic, and cultural contexts [ 130 ].

More adjusted regulations may support the promotion of more healthy advertising to more vulnerable segments [ 131 ]. However, there are areas that need to be worked on, across several segments, concerning regulations, recommendations, and policies. Some of these dimensions that deserve special attention are the accuracy [ 132 ] and the perception [ 133 ] of consumers relative to these fields associated with healthier food. The main fields to be considered by regulations to promote a healthier choice by children are the usual persuasive techniques such as promotional offers, nutrition and health claims, and appeals towards taste and fun [ 134 ].

Tourism is an important market segment that may bring significant contributions to food marketing strategies, considering the several interrelationships between the associated sectors in these interlinkages [ 135 ]. The relationships between food and tourism are well known and strong, and they should be considered in joint strategies to promote the two sectors in an integrated way. Nonetheless, the externalities that may be created in this common strategy could also spread positive effects to other sectors (transport, support services, etc.).

3.6. Social Dimensions

The interlinkages between the social responsibility of firms and the market response to the respective consumers are positive [ 136 ]; however, the traditional consumer determinants, such as the price, continue to be relevant [ 137 ]. The strong impacts from the level of prices on consumer choices are particularly problematic in lower-income countries and consumer segments [ 138 ]. Knowledge about price relevance in consumer choice may be further considered so as to promote heathy strategies and be complemented with nutritional education [ 139 ]. Adjusted educational campaigns are fundamental for a healthier food choice [ 140 ] and lifestyles [ 141 ], mainly for young people [ 142 ] to obtain critical skills [ 143 ] in making more informed decisions [ 144 ]. Educational campaigns to inform and create skills in consumers to deal with the abundance in daily advertisements are crucial in preventing health problems related to ill-informed consumption, mostly those related to obesity and diabetes. Another question concerns lifestyles that need to be adjusted in order to be healthier and prevent other diseases associated with an unbalanced diet. Cancers and cardiovascular diseases are examples of civilizational diseases related to population lifestyles and social contexts. The media could better support these healthier campaigns [ 145 ], considering its influence on adolescents [ 146 ], for example, in terms of food choices [ 147 ].

On the other hand, it is important to increase the social conscientiousness of the companies which support self-regulatory approaches. Public health policies may play an important role here to influence companies to voluntarily improve their social responsibility concerning the negative implications of marketing practices that promote the consumption of unhealthy foods [ 148 ]. Sugar and salt are among the main nefarious ingredients in unhealthy products [ 149 ], having several impacts on society’s dynamics, and they are sometimes presented on packaging along with other information in a misleading way [ 150 ]. The design of adjusted healthy food policies needs multidisciplinary approaches [ 151 ] that consider the several human dimensions [ 152 ], in which, of course, health professionals should be included [ 153 ]. Scientific research may also bring about significant insight and support here [ 154 ]. Children’s health, changing industry practices, intervention from public institutions, and consumer support are all consensual dimensions for the several stakeholders to promote healthier food production and choice [ 155 ].

Social condition has a great impact on food choices [ 156 ]. Indeed, the social and economic contexts have direct implications on the amount of income available to consume and on the level of prices afforded. However, in some cases, retailers are not clearly informed about the impacts of the price changes on their sales [ 157 ]. Food may also be used as an expression of social identity and a way to make a difference from the mainstream [ 158 ].

In general, food choice patterns followed by consumers are similar to those considered in other decisions of their lives [ 159 ]. In fact, consumers concerned with sustainability tend to consume foods of a higher quality and are less vulnerable to promotional advertisements [ 160 ]. The consumption patterns of these more sustainable consumers may be considered by, for example, policymakers as benchmarks and practices to be spread over other social segments. It is important to know the several dimensions related to food choices and consumption in order to promote more balanced lifestyles. For example, Chinese teenagers are influenced, in their food choices, by personal, family, peer, and retailer frameworks and the following features were highlighted as influencing their options: nutrition, safety, taste, image, price, convenience, and fun [ 161 ]. The social dimensions around the world are very different, and any adjusted approach needs to consider and be aware of the local particularities.

3.7. Brand and Branding

Brands and branding are fundamental instruments for an effective marketing plan in each step of the food chain [ 162 ]. From production to retailers’ markets, brands are crucial to create value added and to differentiate products from their competition. Only with brands is it possible to carry out a marketing strategy across all dimensions.

Commercial brands are more important for the brand-schematic consumers than for brand-aschematic consumers. The brand-aschematic consumers, in wine markets, for example, give greater importance to the Protected Designation of Origin label and the associated categories [ 163 ]. The wine market is a very complex context, due to its great number of individual and certified brands. Markets with a great diversity of brands may confuse consumers when they want to make a choice. In these cases, the main challenge is to have a brand that may be easily identified, amongst many others, and be positioned in the mind of the customers. Consumers, in general, maintain two brands by category in their minds, and the great task is to be included as one of these two brands. Here, positioning approaches are crucial for an efficient branding [ 164 ].

Credence features are decisive for the marketing of food, and the brand itself is among these characteristics jointly with organic foods, health, and ingredients [ 165 ]. The branding processes usually create ties of confidence and loyalty with consumers to maintain the market and the respective sales. These dimensions distinguish the concerns and objectives of sales technicians from marketing professionals. In addition, the scientific literature highlights that consumer satisfaction is interrelated with their behaviour and loyalty [ 166 ], showing that consumer loyalty is, indeed, a central dimension in marketing strategies and that brands are crucial in creating ties of confidence [ 167 ]. However, loyalty and satisfaction of consumers are, also, influenced by their lifestyle and personality [ 168 ].

Iconic and old brands, such as Coca-Cola, are examples of market drivers [ 169 ] and may bring important contributions for strategic plans to lead consumers towards a more adjusted and healthy consumption, principally among children and youths. On the other hand, the display of brand characters has an important impact on consumer choice, and this deserves special attention from the several stakeholders for healthier food consumption [ 170 ].

4. Discussion and Conclusions

The study presented here aimed to highlight the main contributions from the literature concerning the dimensions related to the interrelationships between food marketing and consumer choice. For this purpose, 147 documents from the Scopus database were considered in a search carried out on 16 October 2020 for the topics “food marketing” and “choices”. These documents were first analysed through bibliographic characterisation and after surveyed by literature review.

The bibliographic data reveals that there are opportunities to explore regarding these topics, considering the annual average number of documents published, the subject areas addressed, and the countries of the authors’ affiliation. On the other hand, there is great relatedness between food marketing and human obesity, especially in young people. In fact, the literature review highlighted that there is a great concern from several stakeholders about the impact of marketing strategies on the health of children and adolescents.

The literature review may be summarised in a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis approach, to better highlight the main insights, principally considering food marketing and consumer choice when building the matrix (see Figure 6 ).

SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis to summarise the literature review.

Figure 6 shows that adjusted food image and name approaches, interrelated with the label, packaging, and brand, are crucial for a successful marketing strategy [ 6 ]. However, these powerful marketing instruments are often used by companies, through the media, to promote unhealthy food, especially for children and adolescents [ 49 ]. In parallel, new technologies and social media offer new and attractive opportunities for smaller operators, opening up new channels for them to communicate with consumers [ 118 ]. Nonetheless, these smaller stakeholders may be those most affected by restrictive policies to mitigate negative food marketing impacts on consumer health [ 47 ].

Traditionally, prices are amongst the most influential factors that condition consumption, including food choices, and the economic theory confirms this influence. Nonetheless, there are specific segments and new tendencies where quality, healthy attributes, and sustainability aspects are emergent dimensions. The sociodemographic, cultural, and behavioural domains also play their part in food consumption and preferences. This explains, in part, the emerging importance of neurosciences in marketing plans. In the universe of food marketing and consumer choice, it is important to highlight the relevance of the agricultural sector and its particularities, in the production of commodities, which condition the definition of effective marketing plans for the entire sector.

In terms of practical implications, it seems to be consensual that food marketing strategies have relevant implications on human health, and this framework deserves special attention from several stakeholders, particularly in the design of more adjusted policies in a standard way across countries, through World Trade Organization and World Health Organization negotiations. However, these regulations should be designed in order to have the right desired effect and avoid worsening the fragile context of smaller producers.

For future studies, it would be advisable to survey several stakeholders with regard to suggestions for designing new and efficient policies and regulations, so as to obtain a more adjusted regulatory framework and increase the operators’ compliance.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the CERNAS Research Centre and the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu for their support.

This work is funded by National Funds through the FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., within the scope of the project Refª UIDB/00681/2020.

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.

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