Consumers' cognitive mechanisms and their perception of product properties are markedly affected by information. This paper focuses on consumers' information needs and interests related to fish. The objective is to explore consumers' use of internal and external information sources and their use of information cues with regard to fish. Downloaded by [North Dakota State University] at 08:44 03 December 2014with regard to fish. Although a majority of consumers use mandatory information cues on fish labels, they express doubts whether information provided on the labels can be trusted. People who are more experienced and have higher familiarity with fish, seem to be more efficient insearching and using information. Instead of providing one message for the consumers, segmentation and targeted information provision is recommended.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to studies of family decision making during food buying. In particular a theoretical framework is proposed for structuring future studies of family decision making that include children's influence and participation at specific stages of the process.Design/methodology/approachThe conceptual framework is developed on the basis of earlier theoretical work focused on family shopping as well as an ethnographic study of parents and children. The framework was refined after testing in a survey with 451 Danish families with children aged ten to 13 using questionnaires for both children and parents.FindingsFamily food decision making is often a joint activity, and children's active participation, among other things, determines the influence they gain. Parents and children do not always agree on how much influence children have in the various stages of the process, indicating the importance of listening to both parties in research into the family dynamics and processes involved in everyday food buying.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research should further extend the knowledge about the areas where children have influence, about the techniques used by children to achieve influence, and more about those factors that explain when they gain influence.Practical implicationsMarketers can benefit from the findings when promoting food products to adults as well as to children. Specifically, the findings suggest that children have most influence on decisions regarding easily prepared meals.Originality/valueThis mixed‐method approach provides interesting new results, and the main findings emphasise the importance of looking at food decision making as a joint activity where children participate actively and gain influence.

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