Utility of a New Food Value Analysis Application to Evaluate Trade-offs When Making Food Selections

Abstract

Consumers face a wide variety of options when selecting foods to feed themselves and their households, and they must balance a host of factors, including cost, preparation time, nutrition, taste, cooking skills, shelf life, food waste, and food safety. Each of these factors adds or subtracts value and helps determine the true cost of a food item based on an individual's personal value system. If a single variable, such as cost, is examined, it may provide an incomplete picture of the true value of that food. A new Web-based application, Food Value Analysis, permits nutrition educators to evaluate relative costs as well as monitor adherence to dietary recommendations when consumers select one version of a food over another. This analysis demonstrates how the application can be used to compare differences among similar foods of different levels of processing. Nutrition professionals can use the application to help consumers make appropriate trade-offs and reach dietary goals, while accommodating differences in cooking skills as well as time and budgetary constraints. Nutr Today. 2014;49(4):185Y195 C onsumers face a wide variety of options when selecting foods to feed themselves and their families, and they must balance a host of factors, including cost, preparation time, nutrition, taste, cooking skills, shelf life, food waste, and food safety. The weight that each of these factors carries depends on the individual's value system, and the cumulative value of the factors helps determine the true value of a food. If a single factor, such as purchase price or preparation time, is ignored, an incomplete picture of the true value of that food or recipe may result. Little information exists to compare the overall value of home-prepared foods made from scratch with that of more processed foods. A new, Web-based application, Food Value Analysis, permits nutrition professionals to simultaneously evaluate several factors that affect whether consumers select one version of a food over another (www.foodvalueanalysis.org). For example, the application allows a comparison of several factors when purchasing a jar of spaghetti sauce versus preparing homemade spaghetti sauce. Although the application is unable to capture every factor that may affect consumers' purchasing decisions, it tracks differences related to cost, preparation and cooking time, nutrition, shelf life, and food safety considerations. The development of the database, the Web-based application, and the methodology were previously described. 1Cost, preparation and cooking time, nutrition, shelf life, and food safety can all be evaluated simultaneously for different forms of foods.Menu models were created with various levels of processing.

Spray and Aerosolised pH-Neutral Electrochemically Activated Solution Reduces Salmonella Enteritidis and Total Bacterial Load on Egg Surface

“…[42], in free range production systems is considerably higher than in conventional battery cage systems [42,43]. The problem is further aggravated by the increase in the consumption of meals consisting of raw egg products [44]. Therefore, egg producers should consider eggshell cleaning and disinfection of table eggs as a priority to produce safe eggs and maintain consumer confidence.…”

Salmonella and Eggs: From Production to Plate

“…This places a lot of pressure on the control and management of Salmonella during food handling and preparation. The importance of management of this pathogen during food handing has been further increased by the growing desire of consumers for raw food products [ 16 , 17 ]. Humphrey et al [ 56 ] demonstrated using a model kitchen and experimentally contaminated intact eggs that utensils used to mix eggs were sometimes Salmonella positive even after washing.…”

“…In recent years, there has been shift driven by consumers for more humane methods of egg production, causing a shift from conventional battery cage housing systems to free-range production [ 15 ]. There has also been a shift in consumer eating habits with increasing demand for raw and unprocessed foods [ 16 , 17 ]. The increasing popularity of unprocessed home-made foods containing raw eggs such as mayonnaise, certain sauces and raw egg based deserts like ice-cream, tiramisu and even milkshakes potentially increases the risk of salmonellosis [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ].…”

Food safety and consumption of fruits and vegetables at local markets: a means-end chain approach

“…When selecting food for themselves and their families, consumers deal with a wide variety of options and must balance many factors such as cost, preparation time, nutrition, taste, cooking skills, shelf life and food waste (Kretser et al , 2014). In recent years, due to increased consumer sensitivity regarding food production and consumption, determining factors related to food safety have also become present in food choices (Cagri-Mehmetoglu, 2018).…”