There is a continuous need to explore how consumers engage with healthy and sustainable eating behaviors. “Guilt” is a complicated belief that impacts consumers' eating behavior. Consumer‐based characteristics of food that might aid in identifying the perceptions of “guilt‐free,” “less guilt,” or “guilt” were investigated using focus groups. A sorting task was applied to identify product‐grouping patterns by consumers based on different levels of guilt perceptions they had with 18 food and beverage products. Four categories of 45 factors were identified that could elicit guilt perceptions, including (a) intrinsic and (b) extrinsic product characteristics, (c) situational factors, and (d) social‐cultural factors, indicating the complexity and multidimensionality of the “guilt” concept. Moreover, guilt perceptions were found to have a potential impact on leading consumers to seek healthier and sustainable food solutions by positively impacting their food choice, eating and drinking behavior. Practical applications This study showed the importance of understanding the role of guilt in eating behavior, and how guilt is related to product, situational, and social‐cultural factors. The findings set up the theoretical foundation for next step, building up new scales to measure quantitatively food‐related guilt.

A globalized world requires research to transcend geographical boundaries; this includes training students in international collaborative research. The purpose of this project was to identify the benefits, opportunities, and challenges of students from two universities (Kansas State Univ. and Tallin Univ. of Technology) working on an international research project together. For this purpose, six graduate students from the Center for Sensory Analysis and Consumer Behavior, Kansas State Univ., partnered with 20 Food Science major students from a Product Development class at Tallinn Univ. of Technology. Students worked together by distance in a partnership developing a rye bread sensory lexicon for systematically understanding the sensory properties of this product category, conducting Landscape analysis by using sensory mapping techniques on rye bread products from Northeast Europe for capturing the market complexity and to identify opportunity for new product development and new products concepts. Students from Kansas then went to Estonia for further meetings. After the trip, students and professors were asked for their feedback. Results showed that students identify learning food trends from another country as the main benefit of their international collaboration, followed by intercultural skills and knowledge transfer. Language and difference in time zones, as well as educational backgrounds, were identified by students as the main challenges of the collaboration. When US students were asked to rate the learning outcomes stated in the syllabus, understanding the cultural characteristics of Estonia was the one scored highest. Professors mentioned this opportunity is unique because it gives a cultural component programs usually not only an offer and a chance to develop time management skills by working across divergent time zones, but also to practice options for managing language barriers. This project shows that it is possible to setup a partnership between students across different countries and have a positive outcome that includes unique learning experiences for students; especially in terms of time and project management.