Browsing by Author "Inget, Emilia"

Objectives. The aim of this study is to find out what factors influence family food choices today and how sustainable eating is reflected in family food choices. In previous studies, food choices can be seen as a complex phenomenon with many different goals. The aim of this study is to reflect how parents experience food choices today. My research brings a new perspective to studying family food choices and answers the current question of how sustainability is reflected in family food choices. Methods. This was a qualitative study. The material was collected in semi-structured theme interviews. One parent of the family was interviewed. Eight families were selected to this study. Since this study focused on the role of sustainability in family food choices of parents of young children, the age of the children was under the Finnish school age of seven. The families had either one or two children. Results and Conclusions. The results show that family food choices were affected by many different goals that might be partly contradictory and sometimes prevent one another from achieving the other. Thus, parents may be considered to be in a type of crossfire when con-sidering food choices. Sustainable eating appeared in three different roles in the families: it was either a guiding factor for family food choices, a somewhat guiding factor, or a meaningless factor for family food choices. Sustainable eating appeared in the food choices, among other things, as favoring of certain diets or products, and the avoidance of certain ingredients or products. The parents of this study had found the eating habits that worked for them. Parents did not experience food choices challenging, although their responses showed some discrepancies when discussing about food choices. These contradictions were brought up by the use of opposites. Intrestingly the parents applied routines as strategies for overcoming the controversies, and as a result, the at times even experienced the potential problems as opportunities.