Exploring the relative importance of “Reward” and “Reflection” in food orientations: Relevance for healthier and more sustainable diets

This paper develops a new perspective on the relevance of different food orientations for healthier and more sustainable diets. Consumers’ food orientations vary in the relative importance of sensory- and reward-related factors (hereafter called Reward) or beliefs and values that are causes for reflection on broader themes (hereafter called Reflection). To examine competing and complementary relationships of Reward and Reflection, an existing data set from the Netherlands was used. The graphical and statistical analyses of different consumer segments indicated that giving a relatively low importance to both Reward and Reflection (“routine taste”) is not favorable for healthier and more sustainable diets, that giving importance to Reward but not Reflection (“hedonic taste”) is not any better, but that giving a relatively high importance to both Reward and Reflection (“reflective taste”) can be a favorable, complementary combination. The relative importance of Reward and Reflection was also related to reported sources of meal inspiration, which showed the prominence of habits and point-of-sale information, on the one hand, and recipe-based inspiration, requiring product knowledge, meal planning and cooking skills, on the other hand. These findings are highly relevant for the development of diet change strategies.