The food choice kaleidoscope. A framework for structured description of product, place and person as sources of variation in food choices

Abstract Despite a wide range of research approaches already being used to study eating and drinking, this complex aspect of human activity lacks conceptualisation and methodology for structured description of food choices. This paper introduces a metaphoric framework – the food choice kaleidoscope – as an approach to such inquiry. It conceptualises individual food choice events (or eating occasions) as being shaped by three main factors – product, person and place – and provides a descriptive approach through which patterns and variability in food choice events can be observed. The factors can be studied separately or in combination to reveal the joint influence of product, place and/or person factors. The approach is ‘data hungry’ and requires information about large numbers of eating occasions obtained for a variety of foods/beverage in a variety of situations. Using information about ∼5800 eating occasions obtained from 25 New Zealand women who self-completed 24-h recall diaries, the kaleidoscopic approach is illustrated. The data are analysed in relation to 30 food/beverage categories and 37 contextual (or ‘place’) variables, and at the level of individual participants. Results are presented that document: product-to-product variability in who eats/drinks what and where/how it is consumed; place-to-place variation in what is consumed and by whom; and person-to-person variability in what is consumed and where/how it is consumed. The most significant insight to emerge is the considerable heterogeneity that is hidden beneath the average patterns, and that average values may be inappropriate/irrelevant for this type of data.