Nutritional awareness and food preferences of young consumers

The need for effective nutritional education for young consumers has become increasingly apparent given their general food habits and behaviour, particularly during adolescence. Aims to analyse the interaction between young consumers’ food preferences and their nutritional awareness behaviour, within three environments (home, school and social). Preliminary findings in this study would indicate that the perceived dominance of this home, school and social interaction appears to be somewhat overshadowed by the young consumers, developing “independence” trait, particularly during adolescent years. This appears to be reflected in their food preferences within the associated three environments. Suggests that such food preferences are often of a “fast food”‐style and consequently the food habits of many young consumers may fuel the consumption of poor nutritionally balanced meals. While young consumers were aware of healthy eating, their food preference behaviour did not always appear to reflect such knowledge, particularly within the school and social environments.