Studying the Psycho-Social Motivations Associated with Food Choices and Eating Practices–the EATMOT Project

The food act unfolds according to rules imposed by society, influencing food choice. These factors can encompass the environment, which is related to available resources and social relationships, as well as individual history. Thus, considering the values of the social group in which the individual is inserted, the construction of cultural identities and individual differentiation, the human eater selects the available natural resources and transforms them into food for consumption as a way to meet the needs of the individual. The project "EISuFood – Study about food habits and knowledge about edible insects as sustainable foods" was developed in different countries aiming to study the different psychic and social motivations that determine people’s eating patterns, either in relation to their choices or eating habits, particularly considering these areas: health motivations ; economic factors ; emotional aspects ; cultural influences ; marketing and commercials ; environmental concerns. The project was approved by the CI&DETS Research Centre and the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, and consisted of 18 countries, from which only 16 were successful in completing all the project specifications: Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Romania, United States of America. The project team was composed of 74 researchers in global, and was directed by the Portuguese partner (chief: Raquel Guiné). The methodology included several tasks: 1. Undertake a questionnaire survey - Prepare a questionnaire purposely for this research ; 2. Translate the questionnaire to the native languages of all countries ; 3. Apply the questionnaire to collect data in all countries ; 4. Build a database with data from all countries ; 5. Treatment of the data (•Treatment considering all countries involved, •Treatment considering some countries, •Treatment for one country isolated). The results of the project were disclosed through different types of outputs, namely: – Publication of PAPERS in scientific peer reviewed journals – 36 papers (30 published, 2 accepted, 4 under preparation) ; – Publication of CHAPTERS in scientific books – 15 chapters published ; – Publication of BOOKS – 3 books published (1 in Portugal, 1 in Hungary, 1 in Switzerland) ; – Participation in CONFERENCES – 21 presentations (1 Invited Keynote, 13 oral communications, 7 poster presentations - 1 Best Porter Award) ; – Academic Works – 4 Works (1 Master Thesis, 3 Graduation works) ; – 1 website: https://raquelguine.wixsite.com/eatmot. In conclusion the project showed that: •Age significantly influenced the eating motivations, especially relating with health and emotions ; •Women and men have contradictory behaviours towards economic & availability and social & cultural motivations ; •The strongest factors determining health motivations were age and country ; •Emotional motivations were determined by living environment and country ; •For economic & availability motivations, the highest influential factors were gender and living environment ; •The Social & cultural motivations were highly variable with country, living environment and professional area ; •For environmental & political motivations, country had the highest influence ; •Marketing & commercial motivations were strongly determined by country and living environment