How we buy food - the changing role of food in our lives as consumers and shoppers

This article looks at the array of factors and influences relevant to buying food, including: how we decide where to shop and how we use the shops; changing patterns in meals and how we cook; the balance between home meals and eating out; the role of convenience foods; how we choose food brands; diet, nutrition and dieting; and leading-edge movements like organic foods and nutraceuticals.

How we buy food

The changing role of food in our lives as consumers and shoppers

Roderick WhiteAdmap

Food is essential: we must eat to live. But food is also a source of experiment, a symbol of status, a weapon of seduction, and, for some, a way of life. Or, a bore and a chore. We buy food to eat at home, to snack in the street or at entertainment venues; we eat out at cafs, fast-food restaurants, palaces of gourmandise and snobbery. We buy to feed our families and to entertain our friends.  ...

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