Importance of Food Choice Influences for Working Young Adults

You are what you choose to eat: factors influencing young adults' food selection behaviour

“…These findings are consistent with earlier research available for young‐ to middle‐aged populations, in whom sensory appeal (such as taste and smell), convenience, price and health were perceived as important influences on food selection . The findings also concur with limited earlier research for young adult populations with regard to taste (palatability) being more important than health considerations on the types of foods selected for consumption .…”

In their own words: A qualitative study exploring influences on the food choices of university students

“…Several follow‐on campaigns such as Measure Up in 2008, Swap It Don't Stop It in 2011, and the Live Lighter campaign in 2014, linking increased waist measurement with risk of chronic diseases targeted 25‐50‐year olds and focused on weight reduction messages . Working emerging adults, however, appear to place little importance on the prevention of chronic disease because they believe this will not affect them until they are much older . Consequently, the consumption of healthy food is not considered a priority, as there is no sense of urgency regarding the importance of food choices for health and wellbeing .…”

Food preferences and choice among the Polish students

“…Some factors thus appear universal at food choice. In a study of a variety of different foods, STEWART and TINSLEY (1995) observed similar sequence of the choice factors among American students, aged 1824 years; for 30 different food groups the visual appearance and taste were the most important choice factors, and health and energy value did not affect the eating frequency.…”