Essay on Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research

Both qualitative and quantitative researches are valued in the research world and are often used together under a single project. This is despite the fact that they have significant differences in terms of their theoretical, epistemological, and methodological formations. Qualitative research is usually in form of words while quantitative research takes the numerical approach. This paper discusses the similarities, differences, advantages, and disadvantages of qualitative and quantitative research and provides a personal stand.

Similarities

Both qualitative and quantitative research approaches begin with a problem on which scholars seek to find answers. Without a research problem or question, there would be no reason for carrying out the study. Once a problem is formulated, researchers at their own discretion and depending on the nature of the question choose the appropriate type of research to employ. Just like in qualitative research, data obtained from quantitative analysis need to be analyzed (Miles & Huberman, 1994). This step is crucial for helping researchers to gain a deeper understanding of the issue under investigation. The findings of any research enjoy confirmability after undergoing a thorough examination and auditing process (Miles & Huberman, 1994).

Both types of research approaches require a concise plan before they are carried out. Once researchers formulate the study question, they must come up with a plan for investigating the matter (Yilmaz, 2013). Such plans include deciding the appropriate research technique to implement, estimating budgets, and deciding on the study areas. Failure to plan before embarking on the research project may compromise the research findings. In addition, both qualitative and quantitative research are dependent on each other and can be used for a single research project (Miles & Huberman, 1994). Quantitative data helps the qualitative research in finding a representative study sample and obtaining the background data. In the same way, qualitative research provides the quantitative side with the conceptual development and instrumentation (Miles & Huberman, 1994).

Differences

Qualitative research seeks to explain why things are the way they seem to be. It provides well-grounded descriptions and explanations of processes in identifiable local contexts (Miles & Huberman, 1994). Researchers use qualitative research to dig deeper into the problem and develop a relevant hypothesis for potential quantitative research. On the other hand, Quantitative research uses numerical data to state and quantify the problem (Yilmaz, 2013). Researchers in quantitative research use measurable data in formulating facts and uncovering the research pattern.

Quantitative research approach involves a larger number of participants for the purpose of gathering as much information as possible to summarize characteristics across large groups. This makes it a very expensive research approach. On the contrary, qualitative research approach describes a phenomenon in a more comprehensive manner. A relatively small number of participants take part in this type of research. This makes the overall process cheaper and time friendly.

Data collection methods differ significantly in the two research approaches. In quantitative research, scholars use surveys, questionnaires, and systematic measurements that involve numbers (Yilmaz, 2013). Moreover, they report their findings in impersonal third person prose by using numbers. This is different from the qualitative approach where only the participants’ observation and deep document analysis is necessary for conclusions to be drawn. Findings are disseminated in the first person’s narrative with sufficient quotations from the participants.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Qualitative Research

Qualitative data is based on human observations. Respondent’s observations connect the researcher to the most basic human experiences (Rahman, 2016). It gives a detailed production of participants’ opinions and feelings and helps in efficient interpretation of their actions (Miles & Huberman, 1994). Moreover, this research approach is interdisciplinary and entails a wide range of research techniques and epistemological viewpoints. Data collection methods in qualitative approach are both detailed and subjective (Rahman, 2016). Direct observations, unstructured interviews, and participant observation are the most common techniques employed in this type of research. Researchers have the opportunity to mingle directly with the respondents and obtain first-hand information.

On the negative side, the smaller population sample used in qualitative research raises credibility concerns (Rahman, 2016). The views of a small group of respondents may not necessarily reflect those of the entire population. Moreover, conducting this type of research on certain aspects such as the performance of students may be more challenging. In such instances, researchers prefer to use the quantitative approach instead (Rahman, 2016). Data analysis and interpretation in qualitative research is a more complex process. It is long, has elusive data, and has very stringent requirements for analysis (Rahman, 2016). In addition, developing a research question in this approach is a challenging task as the refining question mostly becomes continuous throughout the research process.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Quantitative Research

The findings of a quantitative research can be generalized to a whole population as it involves larger samples that are randomly selected by researchers (Rahman, 2016). Moreover, the methods used allows for use of statistical software in test taking (Rahman, 2016). This makes the approach time effective and efficient for tackling complex research questions. Quantitative research allows for objectivity and accuracy of the study results. This approach is well designed to provide essential information that supports generalization of a phenomenon under study. It involves few variables and many cases that guarantee the validity and credibility of the study results.

This research approach, however, has some limitations. There is a limited direct connection between the researcher and respondents. Scholars who adopt this approach measure variables at specific moments in time and disregards the past experiences of the respondents (Rahman, 2016). As a result, deep information is often ignored and only the overall picture of the variables is represented. The quantitative approach uses standard questions set and administered by researchers (Rahman, 2016). This might lead to structural bias by respondents and false representation. In some instances, data may only reflect the views of the sample under study instead of revealing the real situation. Moreover, preset questions and answers limit the freedom of expression by the respondents.

Preferred Method

I would prefer quantitative research method over the qualitative approach. Data management in this technique is much familiar and more accessible to researchers’ contexts (Miles & Huberman, 1994). It is a more scientific process that involves the collection, analysis, and interpretation of large amounts of data. Researchers have more control of the manner in which data is collected. Unlike qualitative data that requires descriptions, quantitative approach majors on numerical data (Yilmaz, 2013). With this type of data, I can use the various available software for classification and analyzes. Moreover, researchers are more flexible and free to interact with respondents. This gives an opportunity for obtaining first-hand information and learning more about other behavioral aspects of the population under study.

As highlighted above, qualitative and quantitative techniques are the two research approaches. Both seek to dig deeper into a particular problem, analyze the responses of a selected sample and make viable conclusions. However, qualitative research is much concerned with the description of peoples’ opinions, motivations, and reasons for a particular phenomenon. On the other hand, Quantitative research uses numerical data to state and explain research findings. Use of numerical data allows for objectivity and accuracy of the research results. However structural biases are common in this approach. Data collection and sampling in qualitative research is more detailed and subjective. Considering the different advantages and disadvantages of the two research approaches, I would go for the quantitative over qualitative research.

Miles, M., & Huberman, A. (1994).  Qualitative data analysis  (2nd Ed.). Beverly Hills: Sage.

Rahman, M. (2016). The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches and Methods in Language “Testing and Assessment” Research: A Literature Review.  Journal of Education and Learning , 6(1), 102.

Yilmaz, K. (2013). Comparison of Quantitative and Qualitative Research Traditions: epistemological, theoretical, and methodological differences.  European Journal of Education , 48(2), 311-325.

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write an essay on qualitative and quantitative investigation of food

  • > Journals
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  • > Volume 22 Issue 13
  • > What is healthy eating? A qualitative exploration

write an essay on qualitative and quantitative investigation of food

Article contents

  • Participants:
  • Conclusions:

Supplementary material

What is healthy eating a qualitative exploration.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2019

  • Supplementary materials

The present study aimed to explore how healthy food choices are translated into everyday life by exploring definitions of healthy food choices, perceptions of own food choice, and healthy food choice drivers (facilitators) and barriers.

An exploratory qualitative study design was employed using semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Convenience sampling was used to recruit participants. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and cross-checked for consistency. Thematic analysis was used to identify patterns emerging from the data.

Canberra, Australia, October 2015–March 2016.

A total of twenty-three participants aged 25–60 years were interviewed. The mean age was 38 years and the mean BMI was 29·1 kg/m 2 . All male participants ( n 4) were within the healthy weight range compared with 58 % of female participants, with 26 % being overweight and 16 % being obese.

(i) Healthy food choices are important but are not a daily priority; (ii) healthy eating information is known but can be difficult to apply into everyday life; (iii) popular diets are used in attempts to improve healthy eating; and (iv) social media inspires and connects people with healthy eating.

Social media facilitates healthy food choices by providing access to healthy eating information. In addition to Facebook and Instagram, healthy eating blogs were highlighted as a source of nutrition information. Research should consider exploring the use of healthy eating blogs and whether these blogs can be used as a tool by dietitians to communicate procedural healthy eating information more effectively in the future.

According to the 2012 National Nutritional Survey, Australian adults are opting for diets low in fruits and vegetables, and consuming energy-dense foods high in fat, salt and sugar ( 1 ) . Long-term consumption of energy-dense foods is a major contributor to a range of chronic diseases including obesity ( Reference Pongutta, Chongwatpol and Tantayapirak 2 – Reference Flaherty, McCarthy and Collins 5 ) . The Australia’s Health 2018 report identified a range of diseases resulting from overweight and obesity, examples include various cancers, cardiovascular conditions, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, dementia, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis and asthma ( 6 ) . It is estimated that 64 % of Australian adults are currently either overweight or obese, and it is predicted that by 2025, 34 % of Australian adults will be obese ( 1 , Reference Coopers 7 ) . Optimal nutrition and regular exercise are known preventive measures against obesity ( Reference Barbosa, Vasconcelos and Correia 8 ) . Improving an individual’s knowledge of healthy eating has been a central component in many interventions aiming to improve an individual’s nutritional intake ( Reference Barbosa, Vasconcelos and Correia 8 – Reference Sobal, Bisogni and Jastran 17 ) .

While there are many closely related and intertwined factors which contribute to the aetiology and maintenance of obesity, associations have been identified of improved nutritional knowledge with increased fruit and vegetable intake and lower intake of energy-dense foods ( Reference Barbosa, Vasconcelos and Correia 8 , Reference Paquette 18 – Reference Dunn, Mohr and Wilson 20 ) . Nutrition knowledge has been identified as influencing not only food choice and consumption, but also how individuals perceive and define healthy eating ( Reference Pandit-Agrawal, Khadilkar and Chiplonkar 3 , Reference Paquette 18 , Reference Hammer, Vallianatos and Nykiforuk 19 ) . Various studies conducted during the late 1980s and 1990s explored definitions of healthy eating ( Reference Povey, Conner and Sparks 21 – Reference Landry, Lemieux and Lapointe 25 ) . Most recently, a Canadian qualitative study explored perceptions and definitions of healthy eating and eating pleasure ( Reference Landry, Lemieux and Lapointe 25 ) . Responses from twelve focus groups suggested that healthy eating was described in accordance with characteristics related to the nutritional quality of food ( Reference Landry, Lemieux and Lapointe 25 ) , thus further supporting previous definitions from studies that categorised healthy eating by factors that were perceived to be important, for example ‘freshness’, ‘natural’, ‘fruits and vegetables’ ( Reference Povey, Conner and Sparks 21 – Reference Margetts, Martinez and Saba 24 , Reference Lake, Hyland and Rugg-Gunn 26 ) . Furthermore, many reasons may influence an individual’s perception of what factors are important when defining a healthy food choice, including current popular diet trends, health promotion campaigns, social media, family, friends, advice from health professionals and general nutrition knowledge ( Reference Mela 10 , Reference Bisogni, Connors and Devine 13 , Reference Sobal, Bisogni and Jastran 17 ) .

Of these factors, nutritional knowledge is especially important, and can be classified in accordance with the ability to recall and state nutritional facts (declarative knowledge) and the ability to apply these facts into everyday life (procedural knowledge) ( Reference Worsley 27 ) . Therefore, healthy eating is influenced by an individual’s ability to not only understand what a healthy food choice is, but also his/her ability to apply that understanding practically through daily food choices. To address the current obesity problem, an understanding of how individuals define and translate healthy eating (declarative and procedural knowledge) in everyday life is needed. Through this understanding, there is an opportunity to direct and influence future dietetic communication of healthy eating to adults. The present study aimed to explore how healthy food choices are translated into everyday life by exploring definitions of healthy food choices, perceptions of own food choice, and healthy food choice drivers (facilitators) and barriers.

An exploratory qualitative study design was utilised to investigate definitions of healthy eating, and how healthy food choices are translated into everyday life by adults, using convenience sampling. Convenience sampling was used to collect data from the recruitment of willing participants who were geographically accessible to the researcher, and catered for practical constraints, including researcher availability ( Reference Etikan, Musa and Alkassim 28 ) . This method allowed for the collection of data without requiring formal access to specific population lists and relevant contact details ( Reference Etikan, Musa and Alkassim 28 ) . Additionally, considering that the aims of the study are exploratory by nature, the collection of data from a wide range of individuals was pursued, in order to broadly provide insight into food choices made by individuals. A qualitative design was chosen to gain an understanding into how an individual gives meaning to the notion of a healthy food by exploring own perception of healthy food choices as well as perceived barriers and drivers (facilitators) ( Reference Bisogni, Jastran and Seligson 29 , Reference Ritchie, Lewis and Nicholls 30 ) . The COREQ checklist was utilised to ensure transparency when reporting the study methods (see online supplementary material, Supplemental Table S1 ) ( Reference Tong, Sainsbury and Craig 31 ) .

Participants

The study took place in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Adults were recruited from health-care centres, on Facebook and via community health based-newsletters. Individuals were eligible to participate if they met the following criteria: (i) aged 25–65 years; and (ii) could speak and understand English.

A semi-structured interview guide was developed based on a review of relevant literature. Questions from previous interview and focus group studies which investigated food choice and healthy eating were reviewed and influenced the development of a provisional question guide. Adaptions were made to the question guide after a soft pilot of the questions to fellow postgraduate research students (see online supplementary material, Supplemental Table S2 ). Interviews were conducted between October 2015 and March 2016, either face-to-face or via telephone with the researcher. Telephone interviews were also included to cater for participants who were willing to participate, however, could not meet face to face with the researcher due to factors including work and family time commitments. Individuals expressed their interest to participate by contacting the researcher via email. They were then directly contacted by the researcher and asked to complete a brief questionnaire to determine eligibility for participation and gather basic demographic data. Demographic data collected included participant gender (male, female, other), age, country of birth, self-reported height (in metres), self-reported weight (in kilograms) and highest level of education attained. An appointment was made to schedule either an individual face-to-face or telephone interview. Both signed and verbal consent was required before an interview commenced. The researcher (R.M.), who has qualifications in nutrition and dietetics and previous experience in conducting individual semi-structured interviews and focus groups, conducted all face-to-face and telephone interviews.

A total of nine open-ended questions were asked to allow participants to discuss their thoughts on healthy food choices, for example ‘Can you share your thoughts on what you describe a healthy food choice to be?’ Cues and probing questions were also used to clarify information and gain additional data, where the researcher felt appropriate. Hand-written notes were made during and at the end of each interview to record the researcher’s thoughts and ideas, as proposed by Fook and Gardner ( Reference Fook and Gardner 32 ) . Each telephone interview was audio-recorded using the app TapeACall (TelTech Systems, Inc.) and a Zoom H1 Audio Recorder was used during face-to-face interviews.

Data analysis

Data were collected and analysed concurrently. Thematic analysis was used to identify major themes relating to the translation of healthy food choices. The analysis followed the guidelines developed by Braun and Clarke ( Reference Braun and Clarke 33 ) . An essentialist paradigm was adopted as the principal interest of the research was to report interpretations, perceptions and meanings from the reality of the participant ( Reference Braun and Clarke 33 , Reference Clarke and Braun 34 ) . An essentialist paradigm acknowledges the importance of how individuals differ in the way reality is conceptualised and understood, finding meaning in the way individuals describe and perceive phenomena ( Reference Braun and Clarke 33 , Reference Clarke and Braun 34 ) . Thematic analysis as a qualitative method is used for identifying, analysing and reporting patterns within the data ( Reference Braun and Clarke 33 ) . This qualitative approach was chosen to allow for the collection of insightful data through the exploration of perceptions and thoughts of participants ( Reference Braun and Clarke 33 , Reference Harris, Gleason and Sheean 35 ) .

The process of analysis began with data familiarisation, whereby the primary researcher listened and re-listened to audio recordings of each interview. Each interview was then transcribed verbatim, read and re-read to ensure word-for-word transcription. Each transcript was given full and equal attention, enabling the generation of initial codes with aid from the qualitative data analysis software NVivo version 10. Initial codes were developed inductively by the researcher (R.M.) and continuously refined while analysing each transcript. Repetitive codes were clustered into one main code and all codes were analysed and broadly placed into subsequent themes. Each theme was then reviewed and refined, ensuring each theme contained a coherent pattern, supported by coded data. Themes were then defined and described with consideration to the research question, the degree of overlap and relationships with other themes (see Table 1 ). To ensure integrity and consistency of themes, researchers (J.K., R.B. and A.S.) were randomly assigned to a transcript and were all given a common transcript. Researchers read, re-read and reviewed codes and themes. All researchers met face-to-face to discuss each other’s interpretations of codes and themes. At the conclusion of the meeting there was common agreement on emerging codes and themes. In the current study, it was believed that the point of saturation occurred by the twenty-third interview, as no new emerging themes were present and ideas became repetitive.

Table 1 Theme generation from semi-structured interviews conducted with adults aged 25–60 years from Canberra, Australia, October 2015–March 2016

* P# refer to study participants.

Semi-structured interviews provided insight into the barriers and facilitators influencing the translation of healthy food choices among this population. The major themes that arose consistently from the data were: (i) healthy food choices are important, but not a daily priority; (ii) healthy eating information is known but can be difficult to apply into everyday life; (iii) popular diets are used in attempts to improve healthy eating; and (iv) social media inspires and connects people with healthy eating. Representative examples of quotes are shown in Table 1 .

A total of twenty-three participants aged 25–60 years were interviewed (see Table 2 for demographic characteristics). The mean age of participants was 38 years and the mean BMI was 29·1 kg/m 2 . All male participants ( n 4) were within the healthy weight range compared with 58 % of female participants, with 26 % being overweight and 16 % being obese, in accordance with the WHO criteria ( Reference De Onis and Habicht 36 ) . Data showed most participants were well educated with either a postgraduate or bachelor’s degree (30 and 39 %, respectively).

Table 2 General characteristics of the study participants: adults aged 25–60 years from Canberra, Australia, October 2015–March 2016

* Healthy weight range, BMI = 18·5–24·9 kg/m 2 ; overweight, BMI = 25·0–29·9 kg/m 2 ; obese, BMI ≥ 30·0 kg/m 2 .

† Australian Technical and Further Education (TAFE).

Participants were not only able to describe their perceptions of what constitutes a healthy food choice, but also acknowledge the importance of healthy food consumption. Healthy food choices were described differently among participants (see Table 3 ). The types of words and terminology participants used to describe healthy eating included: identifying specific foods (e.g. fruits and vegetables), the presence of macro- and micronutrients (e.g. protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins and minerals), the state and preparation of the food (e.g. natural, unprocessed and homemade), the occurrence of consumption (e.g. balance and variety) and perceived value of food (e.g. good and bad).

Table 3 Example descriptions associated with healthy eating from semi-structured interviews conducted with adults aged 25–60 years from Canberra, Australia, October 2015–March 2016

Theme 1: Healthy food choices are important, but not a daily priority

While definitions of a healthy food choice varied between participants, a common acknowledgement was the importance of a healthy food choice. Reasons as to why healthy food choices were described as important were linked to improved functioning in daily activities, well-being, improved physical activity performance and family relationships, as illustrated respectively by the following quotes:

‘Yeah so it’s really just changed my approach to life and making sure that I’m really focused on eating healthy because that’s my building block for everything that I’m doing.’ (P17)

‘I do make the effort to make those healthy food choices more regularly. I, mean I have to say it does make me feel a lot better.’ (P21)

‘Yes, so I think that depending on what you eat depends on how you feel, I feel like a lot of the good food you eat you get good energy from, for example, run longer and like last longer, depends on what you eat basically and how hard you can go.’ (P10)

‘It just keeps you accountable [because] you know that someone knows and you’re feeding someone else, it’s not just you that you’re choosing to give that food to, if that makes sense?’ (P8)

Interestingly, while participants commonly agreed that healthy food choices were an integral component of health and well-being, it was not always a daily priority:

‘It’s important, obviously not as important as it should be.’ (P1)

Importance of healthy food choices seemed to be assessed and re-prioritised daily:

‘It’s important, but not, not day to day like does that make sense? Oh, I guess at the moment, not so important … Depends on the day, depends on the moment … The food choices I choose and the food choices I choose at the moment are crap. They’re not healthy.’ (P2)

It appeared various factors influenced the positioning of the priority of healthy eating. A perceived lack of time due to work and family commitments saw the emergence of prior eating habits:

‘So, I suppose I just, you know, when you go to full time work and you have kids, you just revert to the same things.’ (P1)

Daily stressors and declining energy towards the end of the day were described to lower both expectations and the priority of healthy eating:

‘I just didn’t cope with the pressure and the stress of it and because I am an emotional eater particularly at work, I did not cope with the stress. So, of an afternoon I’d wander around sculling diet soft drinks and going to the candy machine and just getting my hands on whatever, I could to really act as a distraction.’ (P21)

Overall, healthy food choices appeared to be regarded as a luxury, second to obligatory daily activities described by participants as ‘life’:

‘It’s probably really important but the reality is that, in the moment, it doesn’t feel important … I really feel like our lives are so busy that nutrition has to be, it’s a priority that you have to choose, it’s something that’s not easy to choose.’ (P3)

Participants mainly described the feeling of not having the ‘luxury’ of time to make healthy food choices due to work and family commitments.

Theme 2: Healthy eating information is known but can be difficult to apply into everyday life

While most participants could describe aspects of healthy eating, translating and applying this knowledge into everyday life was perceived as challenging:

‘So, I would say that I am well across all the theory, so for me I know what a healthy portion looks like, I know what a healthy meal involves, but it doesn’t you know, necessarily translate into my food choices … I don’t know, [because] I feel I do know all the theory, I could pass the theory exam on nutrition, so it’s something else, for me it’s not knowing, for a lot of people I know it is, they have no idea what might be low GI [glycaemic index], they don’t even know what GI means, for me I do have all that knowledge you know, I’m just not putting into practice.’ (P1)

It was expressed that most participants had a knowledge of healthy food choices; however, they were not always chosen:

‘When I’m explaining all this, these are theoretically, I’m not saying I eat all of these, not all the time.’ (P22)

Confusion, along with uncertainly and fear about choosing the ‘wrong’ foods, were described as debilitating due to perceived consequences:

‘There’s so much different information out there … you’re almost paralysed by those choices because you’re afraid of choosing the wrong one and if you make a good one and it’s all good, you’re happy but if you make a bad one…’ (P2)

Mixed information from family, friends and the media also contributed to the aura of confusion, leading to self-doubt when making a food decision:

‘A lot of people will say you know, low fat is a really good way to go, other people will say actually the research is showing that low fat isn’t that great for you because they add extra sugar, and then sugar is bad for you and as you can tell, clearly I’m still not getting on top of my weight, so I’m very confused.’ (P3)

Theme 3: Popular diets are used in attempts to improve healthy eating

It appeared participants were currently, or previously, involved with different popular diets:

‘I’ve done the Atkin’s diet before, so anything that wasn’t a carb was good pretty much, I did 5:2 intermittent fasting until about a month ago.’ (P12)

Popular diets were perceived to be the solution for improving healthy food choices, assisting with ‘getting back on track’ with healthy eating:

‘I’ve been on the Atkins diet, I’ve been on Weight Watchers, I’ve been on Easy Slim, everything and everything that has come out over the years I have tried … I mean, when I was younger, I went to Jenny Craig.’ (P23)

Common diets described by participants included Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, I Quit Sugar, Easy Slim, Atkins, local 12-week challenges and protein shake supplementation programmes:

‘[Laugh] Which diet have I not done? If you could give me a pill to lose weight you know within a month give it to me now.’ (P22)

A complicated relationship between participants and popular diets emerged. Paradoxically, on one hand, participants continuously tried different diets; however, on the other, acknowledged their lack of scientific rigour and failure to deliver on weight loss promises:

‘I’ll be honest, I recently brought another lot of supplements off the Internet, which logically I know there is no evidence that what they say is in it, is even in it, let alone that it will actually do what it says it would do … I’ve done the Atkins shakes, I’ve done the iso-whey powders, I have done what was it, Tony Ferguson shakes, god who knows?’ (P2)

Interestingly, despite acknowledging previously unsuccessful diet outcomes, this was continuously outweighed by personal testimonials or referrals:

‘Someone lost this much weight on that so I’ll, I’ll do that to see if that’s works for me [because] I’m that person, and it turns out to all be a sales pitch, but the problem is there’s so much of that in your face.’ (P9)

As participants moved from one diet to the next, they described confounding healthy eating messages and principles that they were exposed to. However, overall, the inability to maintain compliance with popular diets over time was commonly described as the factor limiting success:

‘I came across this diet, that diet, this food, that food plan, you know the paleo food, the clean eating, this eating, so I’ve you know, I’ve gone through all of that and I’ve printed all of that off and I’ve tried it, here and there you know, three or four days, I usually last about a week and it’s too difficult.’ (P22)

Theme 4: Social media inspires and connects people with healthy eating

Facebook and Instagram were commonly referred to as a source of healthy eating information. Participants described using these means to receive engaging and up-to-date information through posts:

‘I just follow a lot of fitness people on Instagram and they post meals that they’ve been eating, and I look them up. I think just, eating healthy, healthy lifestyle is big at the moment. I feel that everyone is posting, everyone is coming up with something new that’s healthy or an alternative for a bad food, and I feel like that’s becoming a trend, whatever I can see on Facebook or Instagram we look into it.’ (P10)

Interestingly, while the main social media platforms were identified as Facebook and Instagram, some participants referred to blogs as an emerging platform for accessible advice and information on healthy eating:

‘Probably more and more information has become more accessible so blogs and podcasts and that. I guess potentially maybe looking at more of those natural, gut health blogs.’ (P18)

It appears through the variety of different blogs available that niche information can be found that aligns with the interests of the participant. For example, blogs were described to be inspirational and motivating by connecting participants to other individuals’ personal journeys and experiences:

‘I guess, honestly blog reading it’s amazing, you can see other people’s journey. That may not work for you, but you may think a different way, it certainly made me think a different way.’ (P17)

The present study confirmed that definitions of health eating given by study participants are comparable to prior research ( Reference Povey, Conner and Sparks 21 , Reference Keane and Willetts 23 , Reference Lake, Hyland and Rugg-Gunn 26 , Reference Paquette 37 , Reference Buckton, Lean and Combet 38 ) . Interviews with twenty-three participants provided insight into what influences the translation of healthy eating information in daily life; and highlighted a potential new direction for the future development and improvement of healthy eating communication.

Despite the 20-year gap between prior research and the present study, healthy eating continues to be described in multiple ways ( Reference Landry, Lemieux and Lapointe 25 , Reference Lake, Hyland and Rugg-Gunn 26 , Reference Paquette 37 , Reference Buckton, Lean and Combet 38 ) . Healthy eating has been defined through foods which are perceived as being of benefit (e.g. fruits and vegetables) ( Reference Povey, Conner and Sparks 21 , Reference Margetts, Martinez and Saba 24 , Reference Lake, Hyland and Rugg-Gunn 26 ) ; through the perceived state and quality of a food (e.g. fresh, natural, unprocessed, homemade) ( Reference Margetts, Martinez and Saba 24 , Reference Lake, Hyland and Rugg-Gunn 26 ) ; through the concept of moderation (e.g. balanced) ( Reference Margetts, Martinez and Saba 24 ) ; and through macronutrient and micronutrient consumption (e.g. fat, carbohydrate, protein, vitamins and minerals) ( Reference Margetts, Martinez and Saba 24 ) . These factors were all evident in the current study, indicating that the findings are consistent with past research exploring definitions of healthy eating in the adult population.

Findings from the present study indicated that participants held a broad understanding of healthy eating, as most definitions were generally in line with nutrition recommendations from the Australian Dietary Guidelines ( 39 ) . This was similar to a previous study investigating the relationship between definitions of healthy eating and measured food intake ( Reference Lake, Hyland and Rugg-Gunn 26 ) . Results from a study based in the UK suggested participants had a broad understanding of healthy eating, generally in line with national nutritional guidelines in the UK ( Reference Lake, Hyland and Rugg-Gunn 26 ) . This declaration of knowledge may suggest that decades of healthy eating campaigns are being heard and associated with what constitutes a healthy food choice ( Reference Lake, Hyland and Rugg-Gunn 26 ) . Additionally, a large proportion of participants in the present study (69 %) reported to have obtained a tertiary qualification. This high proportion is similar to statistics from the 2016 Commonwealth Electoral Divisions which reported that 37·1 % of individuals aged 15 years and over living in the Australian Capital Territory have obtained a tertiary qualification ( 40 ) . Within the literature, it has been shown that nutrition knowledge and overall diet quality increase with level of formal education ( Reference Hendrie, Coveney and Cox 41 , Reference Backholer, Spencer and Gearon 42 ) . Considering the level of education reported by participants in the present study, this may have resulted in an overestimation of participant understanding of a healthy food choice in line with the Australian Dietary Guidelines. Despite this however, while participants had a broad understanding of healthy eating and could acknowledge the importance of healthy eating, participants reported difficulty in translating knowledge into daily practice ( Reference Pandit-Agrawal, Khadilkar and Chiplonkar 3 ) .

How individuals apply nutrition knowledge into daily practice has been a recurring challenge identified within the literature ( Reference Pandit-Agrawal, Khadilkar and Chiplonkar 3 , Reference Ares, Aschemann-Witzel and Vidal 4 , Reference Boles, Adams and Gredler 43 – Reference Raine 45 ) . A study conducted by Boles et al . evaluated a sugary drink mass media campaign in Portland, Ontario, in Canada ( Reference Boles, Adams and Gredler 43 ) . The study reported the mass media campaign was positively associated with knowledge about excessive sugar consumption, however no change in dietary behaviour was observed ( Reference Boles, Adams and Gredler 43 ) . This may shed light on the discrepancy between knowledge of the consequences of sugary drink consumption (declarative) and the application of knowledge by choosing different drinks with less sugar content (procedural) ( Reference Boles, Adams and Gredler 43 , Reference Davison, Smith and Frankel 46 ) . It is therefore argued that knowing about healthy eating does not always result in the translation (consumption) of healthy food choices ( Reference Lake, Hyland and Rugg-Gunn 26 , Reference Boles, Adams and Gredler 43 , Reference Davison, Smith and Frankel 46 ) , thus suggesting that future healthy eating education could benefit from disseminating procedural focused knowledge, to help address the described difficulty, in addition to targeting other determinants of food choice (e.g. perceived barriers and motivations to make healthy food choices) ( Reference Lake, Hyland and Rugg-Gunn 26 , Reference Bisogni, Jastran and Seligson 29 , Reference Boles, Adams and Gredler 43 , Reference Davison, Smith and Frankel 46 ) .

Traditionally, popular diets are seen to influence food choice through limiting variety of food choice ( Reference Khawandanah and Tewfik 47 ) , manipulating macronutrient ratios ( Reference Khawandanah and Tewfik 47 – Reference Dansinger, Gleason and Griffith 49 ) and liquidising foods ( Reference Khawandanah and Tewfik 47 ) . Defining popular diets remains ambiguous, as a handful of popular diets have been supported by scientific evidence, while others may not ( Reference Khawandanah and Tewfik 47 , Reference Gardner, Kim and Bersamin 48 , Reference Tsai and Wadden 50 ) . However, while popular diets can be defined in a variety of ways, they are most commonly described as any diet which promises rapid weight loss ( Reference Khawandanah and Tewfik 47 – Reference Dansinger, Gleason and Griffith 49 ) . A systematic review of several commercial and self-help weight-loss programmes was conducted to investigate the efficacy of weight-loss programmes in the USA ( Reference Tsai and Wadden 50 ) . With the exception of Weight Watchers, the review reported diminished dietary adherence and weight regain after 1- and 2-year follow-ups ( Reference Tsai and Wadden 50 ) . This finding was also supported by another randomised control trial comparing four diets (Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers and Zone Diet) ( Reference Dansinger, Gleason and Griffith 49 ) . Interestingly, while these findings support the notion that there are limited weight-loss benefits when following popular diets, individuals are still opting to participate, as highlighted by results from the present study. Therefore, despite the saturation of different diets available, there is still limited knowledge on how popular diets influence and impact long-term adult food choices ( Reference Khawandanah and Tewfik 47 , Reference Johnston, Kanters and Bandayrel 51 , Reference Gudzune, Doshi and Mehta 52 ) .

Interestingly, despite acknowledging a lack of scientific rigour and sustainability of popular diets, participants in the present study reported persevering and continuing to try different diets. Persevering through different popular diets despite limited weight-loss benefits may be influenced by the ease and promise of a ‘quick fix’ that individuals are offered through marketing ( Reference Malik and Hu 53 , Reference Alhassan, Kim and Bersamin 54 ) . The lack of sustainability of popular diets due to their restrictive nature has been discussed within the literature, highlighting regain of weight lost within the first 12 months ( Reference Malik and Hu 53 , Reference Alhassan, Kim and Bersamin 54 ) . As suggested by Malik et al. , low popular diet adherence is likely due to the difficulty experienced by individuals following specific guidelines ( Reference Malik and Hu 53 ) . A study investigating self-set dieting rules stated that only 27·6 % of participants ( n 132) reported following the same dieting rules at follow-up two months later. This suggests that there is low adherence to dieting rules set by the individual ( Reference Knäuper, Cheema and Rabiau 55 ) . The promise of quick weight loss from celebrity endorsements has also been argued to influence an individual’s participation in popular diets ( Reference Rousseau 56 ) . In addition, programmes are typically promoted through ‘success stories’ rather than scientific data ( Reference Rousseau 56 ) . However, clever marketing and celebrity endorsements often encourage individuals to try and follow popular diets that are often not compatible with the practicalities of everyday life (e.g. food intake restrictions during working hours, long food and meal preparation time, specific eating times during the week and unaccounted-for social events) ( Reference Rousseau 56 , Reference Williams and Williams 57 ) .

It is proposed that individuals turn to popular diets for procedural information about healthy food choices. When commencing a new diet programme, individuals are provided with a detailed set of guidelines that clearly specify how to eat healthily and the steps required to achieve this (e.g. weekly meal plans and shopping lists). By providing meal plans and shopping lists, nutrition information is already translated into daily tasks (procedural knowledge), allowing the individual to simply follow the instructions. It could be argued that the success of the popular diet industry is in part due to the identification of this discrepancy between an individual’s knowledge of healthy eating and the application of knowledge into daily life.

While findings from the present study highlight that participants use social media, particularly Facebook and Instagram, to gain up-to-date healthy eating information, it was also suggested by some participants that healthy eating blogs were accessed. Blogs have transformed from their origins of being used for personal online diaries, narrating an individual’s life journey, to presenting current news and acting as a platform for disseminating educational materials ( Reference Garden 58 ) . Currently, with information accessible continuously through social media, blogs are gaining popularity as a source of nutrition and health information ( Reference Dumas, Lemieux and Lapointe 59 ) . Nutrition and health-related blogs are not always written by dietetic professionals ( Reference Garden 58 ) . Rather, nutrition and health blogs may be written by the general population, celebrity personalities and companies who are describing their personal health, nutrition experiences and achievements ( Reference Garden 58 ) .

There is a growing body of research investigating the influence and nature of nutrition-related blogs ( Reference Dumas, Lemieux and Lapointe 59 – Reference Bissonnette-Maheux, Dumas and Provencher 62 ) . One study investigated the potential use of healthy eating blogs by participants who were categorised as having suboptimal dietary habits ( Reference Bissonnette-Maheux, Dumas and Provencher 62 ) . Participants were interviewed and questioned initially about their Internet and blog use, and were invited to participate in a follow-up focus group to discuss their perceptions of consulting healthy eating blogs to improve dietary habits ( Reference Bissonnette-Maheux, Dumas and Provencher 62 ) . Interestingly, participants highlighted the usefulness of blogs in receiving recipe ideas and tips to help improve diet quality ( Reference Bissonnette-Maheux, Dumas and Provencher 62 ) . Most recently, a study investigated the use of social media from the perspective of dietetic practice to investigate whether dietitians could help individuals make informed decisions about their diet to improve health ( Reference Dumas, Lapointe and Desroches 60 ) . That study highlighted the use of social media in dietetic practice already, with discussion forums being the most frequently used platform, followed by blogs and then Facebook ( Reference Dumas, Lapointe and Desroches 60 ) . This supports the growing interest in blogs within dietetic practice to improve the translation of nutrition knowledge ( Reference Dumas, Lapointe and Desroches 60 ) . However, while research is still in its infancy, there are recommendations for future research to investigate how dietitians can utilise blogs to promote healthy eating ( Reference Dumas, Lemieux and Lapointe 59 – Reference Bissonnette-Maheux, Dumas and Provencher 62 ) .

Considering the growing popularity of blogs, there is an opportunity to take advantage of what seems to be an attractive method of accessing healthy eating information ( Reference Dumas, Lemieux and Lapointe 59 ) . It is proposed that successful healthy eating blogs have formulated a method to engage their followers by providing relevant and valued nutrition information; they inspire their followers by translating healthy eating information and connect with their followers by posting frequently. Further investigation is warranted to assess if reading healthy eating blogs contributes to healthier food choices and to identify how future dietitians can better integrate evidenced-based healthy eating information into engaging blog posts. This could potentially strengthen the bridge between individuals seeking healthy eating information and dietitians.

The present study highlighted several key issues. Individuals have a broad understanding on what is a healthy food choice in line with the Australian Dietary Guidelines; healthy food choices are not always a daily priority; there are challenges with applying nutrition knowledge into everyday life; and blogs are being used to access nutrition information. The use of a reflexive diary by the main researcher during the collection and analysis of the interviews and team discussion during each stage of the study process enhanced the rigour and trustworthiness of findings ( Reference Graneheim and Lundman 63 , Reference Morrow 64 ) . A limitation of the study was the use of convenience sampling, as participant narratives are not necessarily representative of the wider community ( Reference Ritchie, Lewis and Nicholls 30 , Reference Graneheim and Lundman 63 , Reference Marshall 65 ) . Verification of results by a larger and more diverse sample size is needed ( Reference Ritchie, Lewis and Nicholls 30 , Reference Graneheim and Lundman 63 , Reference Marshall 65 ) . Data collected during the brief screening questionnaire were based on self-reported measures and may have resulted in an underestimation or overestimation of participant BMI. Additionally, the interpretation of findings must take into consideration that the quality of participants’ dietary intake was not evaluated.

It is recommended that future research continues to investigate the potential platform of blogs as an avenue to communicate healthy eating knowledge in a procedural manner. While there needs to be a larger collective knowledge on healthy eating blogs, this could potentially provide an opportunity for dietitians to communicate future healthy eating messages more effectively and to a larger population.

The present study suggested that even when individuals have a broad understanding of what constitutes a healthy food choice, there are challenges when translating this knowledge into everyday practice. Although other forms of social media were highlighted as an avenue for healthy eating information (Facebook and Instagram), healthy eating blogs could soon become a preferred source of information. Future research should consider exploring the use of healthy eating blogs and whether these blogs can be used as a tool by dietitians to communicate procedural healthy eating information more effectively in the future.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. Conflict of interest: No conflict of interest to disclose. Authorship: R.M contributed to the study design, data collection, data analysis and wrote the manuscript. J.K., R.B., A.S. and K.M. provided research supervision, refined the study design, assisted in the interpretation and validation of data, and writing of the manuscript. Ethics of human subject participation: This study was conducted according to the guidelines laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki and all procedures involving human subjects were approved by the University of Canberra Human Ethics Committee (HREC 16–192). Written and verbal informed consent was obtained from all subjects and verbal consent was witnessed and formally recorded.

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Qualitative Data Analysis: Challenges and Opportunities for Food Researchers

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Qualitative research is traditional in humanities and health sciences, and has played a significant role in marketing research, especially in consumer behavior studies. Regarding sensory science, a field where experimentation and the hypothetico-deductive scientific model predominate, qualitative methods have been relatively underutilized—and even misused—though qualitative research methods might be of choice to gain a broader understanding of a myriad of food issues such as food choices, culinary practices, sensory preferences, and consumer experience, just to mention a few. Sensory studies primarily focus on the product and how it is perceived by means of the human senses, and qualitative research, on the other hand, can be of choice when the voice of the consumer must be heard. This chapter aims to present and discuss the mainstream qualitative techniques based on individual or group interviews, including key elements for designing and conducting sound research: defining appropriate strategies to research questions; selecting participants, interviewers, and suitable interview techniques; performing content analysis; and, finally, reporting. At the end of this chapter, Internet-based studies and mixed methods (qualitative combined with quantitative methods) are addressed for they bring up a promising and exciting horizon of consumer studies.

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Behrens, J.H. (2023). Qualitative Data Analysis: Challenges and Opportunities for Food Researchers. In: Gómez-Corona, C., Rodrigues, H. (eds) Consumer Research Methods in Food Science. Methods and Protocols in Food Science . Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3000-6_13

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Qualitative vs Quantitative Research Methods & Data Analysis

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On This Page:

What is the difference between quantitative and qualitative?

The main difference between quantitative and qualitative research is the type of data they collect and analyze.

Quantitative research collects numerical data and analyzes it using statistical methods. The aim is to produce objective, empirical data that can be measured and expressed in numerical terms. Quantitative research is often used to test hypotheses, identify patterns, and make predictions.

Qualitative research , on the other hand, collects non-numerical data such as words, images, and sounds. The focus is on exploring subjective experiences, opinions, and attitudes, often through observation and interviews.

Qualitative research aims to produce rich and detailed descriptions of the phenomenon being studied, and to uncover new insights and meanings.

Quantitative data is information about quantities, and therefore numbers, and qualitative data is descriptive, and regards phenomenon which can be observed but not measured, such as language.

What Is Qualitative Research?

Qualitative research is the process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting non-numerical data, such as language. Qualitative research can be used to understand how an individual subjectively perceives and gives meaning to their social reality.

Qualitative data is non-numerical data, such as text, video, photographs, or audio recordings. This type of data can be collected using diary accounts or in-depth interviews and analyzed using grounded theory or thematic analysis.

Qualitative research is multimethod in focus, involving an interpretive, naturalistic approach to its subject matter. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them. Denzin and Lincoln (1994, p. 2)

Interest in qualitative data came about as the result of the dissatisfaction of some psychologists (e.g., Carl Rogers) with the scientific study of psychologists such as behaviorists (e.g., Skinner ).

Since psychologists study people, the traditional approach to science is not seen as an appropriate way of carrying out research since it fails to capture the totality of human experience and the essence of being human.  Exploring participants’ experiences is known as a phenomenological approach (re: Humanism ).

Qualitative research is primarily concerned with meaning, subjectivity, and lived experience. The goal is to understand the quality and texture of people’s experiences, how they make sense of them, and the implications for their lives.

Qualitative research aims to understand the social reality of individuals, groups, and cultures as nearly as possible as participants feel or live it. Thus, people and groups are studied in their natural setting.

Some examples of qualitative research questions are provided, such as what an experience feels like, how people talk about something, how they make sense of an experience, and how events unfold for people.

Research following a qualitative approach is exploratory and seeks to explain ‘how’ and ‘why’ a particular phenomenon, or behavior, operates as it does in a particular context. It can be used to generate hypotheses and theories from the data.

Qualitative Methods

There are different types of qualitative research methods, including diary accounts, in-depth interviews , documents, focus groups , case study research , and ethnography.

The results of qualitative methods provide a deep understanding of how people perceive their social realities and in consequence, how they act within the social world.

The researcher has several methods for collecting empirical materials, ranging from the interview to direct observation, to the analysis of artifacts, documents, and cultural records, to the use of visual materials or personal experience. Denzin and Lincoln (1994, p. 14)

Here are some examples of qualitative data:

Interview transcripts : Verbatim records of what participants said during an interview or focus group. They allow researchers to identify common themes and patterns, and draw conclusions based on the data. Interview transcripts can also be useful in providing direct quotes and examples to support research findings.

Observations : The researcher typically takes detailed notes on what they observe, including any contextual information, nonverbal cues, or other relevant details. The resulting observational data can be analyzed to gain insights into social phenomena, such as human behavior, social interactions, and cultural practices.

Unstructured interviews : generate qualitative data through the use of open questions.  This allows the respondent to talk in some depth, choosing their own words.  This helps the researcher develop a real sense of a person’s understanding of a situation.

Diaries or journals : Written accounts of personal experiences or reflections.

Notice that qualitative data could be much more than just words or text. Photographs, videos, sound recordings, and so on, can be considered qualitative data. Visual data can be used to understand behaviors, environments, and social interactions.

Qualitative Data Analysis

Qualitative research is endlessly creative and interpretive. The researcher does not just leave the field with mountains of empirical data and then easily write up his or her findings.

Qualitative interpretations are constructed, and various techniques can be used to make sense of the data, such as content analysis, grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006), or discourse analysis .

For example, thematic analysis is a qualitative approach that involves identifying implicit or explicit ideas within the data. Themes will often emerge once the data has been coded .

RESEARCH THEMATICANALYSISMETHOD

Key Features

  • Events can be understood adequately only if they are seen in context. Therefore, a qualitative researcher immerses her/himself in the field, in natural surroundings. The contexts of inquiry are not contrived; they are natural. Nothing is predefined or taken for granted.
  • Qualitative researchers want those who are studied to speak for themselves, to provide their perspectives in words and other actions. Therefore, qualitative research is an interactive process in which the persons studied teach the researcher about their lives.
  • The qualitative researcher is an integral part of the data; without the active participation of the researcher, no data exists.
  • The study’s design evolves during the research and can be adjusted or changed as it progresses. For the qualitative researcher, there is no single reality. It is subjective and exists only in reference to the observer.
  • The theory is data-driven and emerges as part of the research process, evolving from the data as they are collected.

Limitations of Qualitative Research

  • Because of the time and costs involved, qualitative designs do not generally draw samples from large-scale data sets.
  • The problem of adequate validity or reliability is a major criticism. Because of the subjective nature of qualitative data and its origin in single contexts, it is difficult to apply conventional standards of reliability and validity. For example, because of the central role played by the researcher in the generation of data, it is not possible to replicate qualitative studies.
  • Also, contexts, situations, events, conditions, and interactions cannot be replicated to any extent, nor can generalizations be made to a wider context than the one studied with confidence.
  • The time required for data collection, analysis, and interpretation is lengthy. Analysis of qualitative data is difficult, and expert knowledge of an area is necessary to interpret qualitative data. Great care must be taken when doing so, for example, looking for mental illness symptoms.

Advantages of Qualitative Research

  • Because of close researcher involvement, the researcher gains an insider’s view of the field. This allows the researcher to find issues that are often missed (such as subtleties and complexities) by the scientific, more positivistic inquiries.
  • Qualitative descriptions can be important in suggesting possible relationships, causes, effects, and dynamic processes.
  • Qualitative analysis allows for ambiguities/contradictions in the data, which reflect social reality (Denscombe, 2010).
  • Qualitative research uses a descriptive, narrative style; this research might be of particular benefit to the practitioner as she or he could turn to qualitative reports to examine forms of knowledge that might otherwise be unavailable, thereby gaining new insight.

What Is Quantitative Research?

Quantitative research involves the process of objectively collecting and analyzing numerical data to describe, predict, or control variables of interest.

The goals of quantitative research are to test causal relationships between variables , make predictions, and generalize results to wider populations.

Quantitative researchers aim to establish general laws of behavior and phenomenon across different settings/contexts. Research is used to test a theory and ultimately support or reject it.

Quantitative Methods

Experiments typically yield quantitative data, as they are concerned with measuring things.  However, other research methods, such as controlled observations and questionnaires , can produce both quantitative information.

For example, a rating scale or closed questions on a questionnaire would generate quantitative data as these produce either numerical data or data that can be put into categories (e.g., “yes,” “no” answers).

Experimental methods limit how research participants react to and express appropriate social behavior.

Findings are, therefore, likely to be context-bound and simply a reflection of the assumptions that the researcher brings to the investigation.

There are numerous examples of quantitative data in psychological research, including mental health. Here are a few examples:

Another example is the Experience in Close Relationships Scale (ECR), a self-report questionnaire widely used to assess adult attachment styles .

The ECR provides quantitative data that can be used to assess attachment styles and predict relationship outcomes.

Neuroimaging data : Neuroimaging techniques, such as MRI and fMRI, provide quantitative data on brain structure and function.

This data can be analyzed to identify brain regions involved in specific mental processes or disorders.

For example, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is a clinician-administered questionnaire widely used to assess the severity of depressive symptoms in individuals.

The BDI consists of 21 questions, each scored on a scale of 0 to 3, with higher scores indicating more severe depressive symptoms. 

Quantitative Data Analysis

Statistics help us turn quantitative data into useful information to help with decision-making. We can use statistics to summarize our data, describing patterns, relationships, and connections. Statistics can be descriptive or inferential.

Descriptive statistics help us to summarize our data. In contrast, inferential statistics are used to identify statistically significant differences between groups of data (such as intervention and control groups in a randomized control study).

  • Quantitative researchers try to control extraneous variables by conducting their studies in the lab.
  • The research aims for objectivity (i.e., without bias) and is separated from the data.
  • The design of the study is determined before it begins.
  • For the quantitative researcher, the reality is objective, exists separately from the researcher, and can be seen by anyone.
  • Research is used to test a theory and ultimately support or reject it.

Limitations of Quantitative Research

  • Context: Quantitative experiments do not take place in natural settings. In addition, they do not allow participants to explain their choices or the meaning of the questions they may have for those participants (Carr, 1994).
  • Researcher expertise: Poor knowledge of the application of statistical analysis may negatively affect analysis and subsequent interpretation (Black, 1999).
  • Variability of data quantity: Large sample sizes are needed for more accurate analysis. Small-scale quantitative studies may be less reliable because of the low quantity of data (Denscombe, 2010). This also affects the ability to generalize study findings to wider populations.
  • Confirmation bias: The researcher might miss observing phenomena because of focus on theory or hypothesis testing rather than on the theory of hypothesis generation.

Advantages of Quantitative Research

  • Scientific objectivity: Quantitative data can be interpreted with statistical analysis, and since statistics are based on the principles of mathematics, the quantitative approach is viewed as scientifically objective and rational (Carr, 1994; Denscombe, 2010).
  • Useful for testing and validating already constructed theories.
  • Rapid analysis: Sophisticated software removes much of the need for prolonged data analysis, especially with large volumes of data involved (Antonius, 2003).
  • Replication: Quantitative data is based on measured values and can be checked by others because numerical data is less open to ambiguities of interpretation.
  • Hypotheses can also be tested because of statistical analysis (Antonius, 2003).

Antonius, R. (2003). Interpreting quantitative data with SPSS . Sage.

Black, T. R. (1999). Doing quantitative research in the social sciences: An integrated approach to research design, measurement and statistics . Sage.

Braun, V. & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology . Qualitative Research in Psychology , 3, 77–101.

Carr, L. T. (1994). The strengths and weaknesses of quantitative and qualitative research : what method for nursing? Journal of advanced nursing, 20(4) , 716-721.

Denscombe, M. (2010). The Good Research Guide: for small-scale social research. McGraw Hill.

Denzin, N., & Lincoln. Y. (1994). Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA, US: Sage Publications Inc.

Glaser, B. G., Strauss, A. L., & Strutzel, E. (1968). The discovery of grounded theory; strategies for qualitative research. Nursing research, 17(4) , 364.

Minichiello, V. (1990). In-Depth Interviewing: Researching People. Longman Cheshire.

Punch, K. (1998). Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches. London: Sage

Further Information

  • Mixed methods research
  • Designing qualitative research
  • Methods of data collection and analysis
  • Introduction to quantitative and qualitative research
  • Checklists for improving rigour in qualitative research: a case of the tail wagging the dog?
  • Qualitative research in health care: Analysing qualitative data
  • Qualitative data analysis: the framework approach
  • Using the framework method for the analysis of
  • Qualitative data in multi-disciplinary health research
  • Content Analysis
  • Grounded Theory
  • Thematic Analysis

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An Introduction to Qualitative Research for Food and Nutrition Professionals

  • February 2009
  • Journal of the American Dietetic Association 109(1):80-90
  • 109(1):80-90

Jeffrey Harris at West Chester University

  • West Chester University

Philip M Gleason at Mathematica Policy Research

  • Mathematica Policy Research

Patricia Sheean at Loyola University Chicago

  • Loyola University Chicago

Carol J Boushey at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

  • University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

Abstract and Figures

Contrasting characteristics of quantitative and qualitative research. NOTE: Information from this figure is available online at www.adajournal.org as part of a PowerPoint presentation.

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  • What Is Ethnography? | Definition, Guide & Examples

What Is Ethnography? | Definition, Guide & Examples

Published on March 13, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on June 22, 2023.

Ethnography is a type of qualitative research that involves immersing yourself in a particular community or organization to observe their behavior and interactions up close. The word “ethnography” also refers to the written report of the research that the ethnographer produces afterwards.

Ethnography is a flexible research method that allows you to gain a deep understanding of a group’s shared culture, conventions, and social dynamics. However, it also involves some practical and ethical challenges.

Table of contents

What is ethnography used for, different approaches to ethnographic research, gaining access to a community, working with informants, observing the group and taking field notes, writing up an ethnography, other interesting articles.

Ethnographic research originated in the field of anthropology, and it often involved an anthropologist living with an isolated tribal community for an extended period of time in order to understand their culture.

This type of research could sometimes last for years. For example, Colin M. Turnbull lived with the Mbuti people for three years in order to write the classic ethnography The Forest People .

Today, ethnography is a common approach in various social science fields, not just anthropology. It is used not only to study distant or unfamiliar cultures, but also to study specific communities within the researcher’s own society.

For example, ethnographic research (sometimes called participant observation ) has been used to investigate  football fans , call center workers , and police officers .

Advantages of ethnography

The main advantage of ethnography is that it gives the researcher direct access to the culture and practices of a group. It is a useful approach for learning first-hand about the behavior and interactions of people within a particular context.

By becoming immersed in a social environment, you may have access to more authentic information and spontaneously observe dynamics that you could not have found out about simply by asking.

Ethnography is also an open and flexible method. Rather than aiming to verify a general theory or test a hypothesis , it aims to offer a rich narrative account of a specific culture, allowing you to explore many different aspects of the group and setting.

Disadvantages of ethnography

Ethnography is a time-consuming method. In order to embed yourself in the setting and gather enough observations to build up a representative picture, you can expect to spend at least a few weeks, but more likely several months. This long-term immersion can be challenging, and requires careful planning.

Ethnographic research can run the risk of observer bias . Writing an ethnography involves subjective interpretation, and it can be difficult to maintain the necessary distance to analyze a group that you are embedded in.

There are often also ethical considerations to take into account: for example, about how your role is disclosed to members of the group, or about observing and reporting sensitive information.

Should you use ethnography in your research?

If you’re a student who wants to use ethnographic research in your thesis or dissertation , it’s worth asking yourself whether it’s the right approach:

  • Could the information you need be collected in another way (e.g. a survey , interviews)?
  • How difficult will it be to gain access to the community you want to study?
  • How exactly will you conduct your research, and over what timespan?
  • What ethical issues might arise?

If you do decide to do ethnography, it’s generally best to choose a relatively small and easily accessible group, to ensure that the research is feasible within a limited timeframe.

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There are a few key distinctions in ethnography which help to inform the researcher’s approach: open vs. closed settings, overt vs. covert ethnography, and active vs. passive observation. Each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Open vs. closed settings

The setting of your ethnography—the environment in which you will observe your chosen community in action—may be open or closed.

An open or public setting is one with no formal barriers to entry. For example, you might consider a community of people living in a certain neighborhood, or the fans of a particular baseball team.

  • Gaining initial access to open groups is not too difficult…
  • …but it may be harder to become immersed in a less clearly defined group.

A closed or private setting is harder to access. This may be for example a business, a school, or a cult.

  • A closed group’s boundaries are clearly defined and the ethnographer can become fully immersed in the setting…
  • …but gaining access is tougher; the ethnographer may have to negotiate their way in or acquire some role in the organization.

Overt vs. covert ethnography

Most ethnography is overt . In an overt approach, the ethnographer openly states their intentions and acknowledges their role as a researcher to the members of the group being studied.

  • Overt ethnography is typically preferred for ethical reasons, as participants can provide informed consent…
  • …but people may behave differently with the awareness that they are being studied.

Sometimes ethnography can be covert . This means that the researcher does not tell participants about their research, and comes up with some other pretense for being there.

  • Covert ethnography allows access to environments where the group would not welcome a researcher…
  • …but hiding the researcher’s role can be considered deceptive and thus unethical.

Active vs. passive observation

Different levels of immersion in the community may be appropriate in different contexts. The ethnographer may be a more active or passive participant depending on the demands of their research and the nature of the setting.

An active role involves trying to fully integrate, carrying out tasks and participating in activities like any other member of the community.

  • Active participation may encourage the group to feel more comfortable with the ethnographer’s presence…
  • …but runs the risk of disrupting the regular functioning of the community.

A passive role is one in which the ethnographer stands back from the activities of others, behaving as a more distant observer and not involving themselves in the community’s activities.

  • Passive observation allows more space for careful observation and note-taking…
  • …but group members may behave unnaturally due to feeling they are being observed by an outsider.

While ethnographers usually have a preference, they also have to be flexible about their level of participation. For example, access to the community might depend upon engaging in certain activities, or there might be certain practices in which outsiders cannot participate.

An important consideration for ethnographers is the question of access. The difficulty of gaining access to the setting of a particular ethnography varies greatly:

  • To gain access to the fans of a particular sports team, you might start by simply attending the team’s games and speaking with the fans.
  • To access the employees of a particular business, you might contact the management and ask for permission to perform a study there.
  • Alternatively, you might perform a covert ethnography of a community or organization you are already personally involved in or employed by.

Flexibility is important here too: where it’s impossible to access the desired setting, the ethnographer must consider alternatives that could provide comparable information.

For example, if you had the idea of observing the staff within a particular finance company but could not get permission, you might look into other companies of the same kind as alternatives. Ethnography is a sensitive research method, and it may take multiple attempts to find a feasible approach.

All ethnographies involve the use of informants . These are people involved in the group in question who function as the researcher’s primary points of contact, facilitating access and assisting their understanding of the group.

This might be someone in a high position at an organization allowing you access to their employees, or a member of a community sponsoring your entry into that community and giving advice on how to fit in.

However,  i f you come to rely too much on a single informant, you may be influenced by their perspective on the community, which might be unrepresentative of the group as a whole.

In addition, an informant may not provide the kind of spontaneous information which is most useful to ethnographers, instead trying to show what they believe you want to see. For this reason, it’s good to have a variety of contacts within the group.

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The core of ethnography is observation of the group from the inside. Field notes are taken to record these observations while immersed in the setting; they form the basis of the final written ethnography. They are usually written by hand, but other solutions such as voice recordings can be useful alternatives.

Field notes record any and all important data: phenomena observed, conversations had, preliminary analysis. For example, if you’re researching how service staff interact with customers, you should write down anything you notice about these interactions—body language, phrases used repeatedly, differences and similarities between staff, customer reactions.

Don’t be afraid to also note down things you notice that fall outside the pre-formulated scope of your research; anything may prove relevant, and it’s better to have extra notes you might discard later than to end up with missing data.

Field notes should be as detailed and clear as possible. It’s important to take time to go over your notes, expand on them with further detail, and keep them organized (including information such as dates and locations).

After observations are concluded, there’s still the task of writing them up into an ethnography. This entails going through the field notes and formulating a convincing account of the behaviors and dynamics observed.

The structure of an ethnography

An ethnography can take many different forms: It may be an article, a thesis, or an entire book, for example.

Ethnographies often do not follow the standard structure of a scientific paper, though like most academic texts, they should have an introduction and conclusion. For example, this paper begins by describing the historical background of the research, then focuses on various themes in turn before concluding.

An ethnography may still use a more traditional structure, however, especially when used in combination with other research methods. For example, this paper follows the standard structure for empirical research: introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion.

The content of an ethnography

The goal of a written ethnography is to provide a rich, authoritative account of the social setting in which you were embedded—to convince the reader that your observations and interpretations are representative of reality.

Ethnography tends to take a less impersonal approach than other research methods. Due to the embedded nature of the work, an ethnography often necessarily involves discussion of your personal experiences and feelings during the research.

Ethnography is not limited to making observations; it also attempts to explain the phenomena observed in a structured, narrative way. For this, you may draw on theory, but also on your direct experience and intuitions, which may well contradict the assumptions that you brought into the research.

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

  • Normal distribution
  • Degrees of freedom
  • Null hypothesis
  • Discourse analysis
  • Control groups
  • Mixed methods research
  • Non-probability sampling
  • Quantitative research
  • Ecological validity

Research bias

  • Rosenthal effect
  • Implicit bias
  • Cognitive bias
  • Selection bias
  • Negativity bias
  • Status quo bias

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Qualitative and Quantitative Detection of Food Adulteration Using a Smart E-Nose

Associated data.

https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/5yhggs7zy7/1 (accessed on 1 July 2022).

Food adulteration is the most serious problem found in the food industry as it harms people’s healths and undermines their beliefs. The present study is focused on designing and developing a smart electronic nose (SE-Nose) for the qualitative and quantitative fast-track detection of food adulteration. The SE-Nose methodology is comprised of a dataset, sample slicing window protocol, normalization, pattern recognition, and output blocks. The dataset pork adulteration in beef is used to validate the SE-Nose methodology. The sample slicing window protocol extracts the early part of the signal. The sample slicing window protocol and pattern recognition models (classification and regression models) together achieved the high-performance and fast-track detection of pork adulteration in beef. With classification models, the qualitative analysis of adulteration is measured, and with regression models, the quantitative analysis of adulteration is measured. An accuracy of 99.996% and an RMSE of 0.02864 were achieved with the SVM classification and regression model. The recognition time in detecting pork adulteration in beef with SVM models is 40 s. With the proposed SE-Nose methodology, the recognition time is reduced by one-third. To validate the classification and regression models, a 10-fold cross-validation method was used.

1. Introduction

Growing demand for nutritious, high-quality, and safe food has made the food industry and consumers pay more attention. Food adulteration is the biggest problem in the food supply chain and is prevalent at various levels. Food adulteration, committed wittingly or unwittingly, is a major problem and can have severe consequences for people with food intolerances, lifestyles, and religious practices. The most common reasons for food adulteration entail substituting high-value food products with low-value food products for financial profits [ 1 , 2 ]. Beef is one of the most widely consumed of all meats because it is low in fat, high in protein, vitamins, amino acids, and other essential nutrients required for human beings [ 3 ]. According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) world market and trade reports, the United States is anticipated to be the world’s top producer and exporter of beef in 2022 [ 4 ]. Because of its high consumption and economic benefits, beef is the prime target for adulteration and is most frequently adulterated with pork due to its lower economic value. Consumers object to such adulterations for allergic, cultural, monetary, religious, and consumer rights reasons [ 5 , 6 ]. In an investigation conducted in China on 1553 media reports, of the total instances of adulteration, animal-based food makes up 37.78% [ 7 ]. Halal-certified meat pies served to prisoners in UK jail in 2013 were found to contain pork DNA in them [ 8 ]. With the horse meat scandal incident in 2013, the demand for beef authentication has increased significantly [ 9 ]. With these types of incidents, there is a rise in the need for an accurate and reliable method of detecting beef adulteration.

To detect beef adulteration, various techniques are employed such as molecular biology-based methods [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ], spectroscopy methods [ 3 , 6 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ], chromatographic methods [ 22 , 23 , 24 ], and enzyme-linked immunological methods [ 25 , 26 , 27 ]. However, the equipment to implement such techniques is expensive, poor in real time, time consuming, destructive, laborious, and requires technical supervision. Additionally, the equipment requires highly skilled individuals to conduct the experiment and analyze the results. This demands the development of an instrument that is simple, accurate, economical, portable, quick, highly sensitive, and requires fewer samples for measurement.

An electronic nose (E-nose) is a device that mimics a human’s sense of smell. It is simple, sensitive, reliable, low-priced, non-destructive, and highly correlated with the detection of various odor signatures. An E-nose is built up of an array of sensors, signal processing units, and a pattern recognition system to measure the testing sample. The sensors that are used for the design of a sensor array are metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) gas sensors [ 28 ], metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFET) gas sensors [ 29 ], acoustic wave gas sensors [ 30 ], quartz crystal micro balance sensors [ 31 ], infrared sensors [ 32 ], colorimetric sensors [ 33 ], fluorescence sensors [ 34 ], conducting polymer gas sensors [ 35 ], and fiber optic gas sensors [ 36 ], among others. Data from the sensor array are received by the signal processing unit and pre-processes the data as per the requirement. A pattern recognition system performs the classification or regression of the processed data to measure the sample. The development at all stages of E-nose design made it a good alternative to traditional methods. E-nose is employed in different food industries such as the meat industry [ 37 , 38 ], oil industry [ 39 ], alcohol industry [ 40 ], tea industry, [ 41 ] etc. Furthermore, the E-nose is used in various food industry applications such as adulteration detection [ 42 ], origin identification [ 43 ], authentication [ 44 , 45 ], grading [ 46 , 47 ], freshness assessment [ 40 ], and shelf-life determination [ 48 ]. In this study, we develop a smart E-Nose (SE-Nose) for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of pork adulteration in beef. The smartness of the E-Nose is achieved by introducing a sample slicing window protocol (SSWP) for fast-track detection, designing a less complex system, qualitative analysis of adulteration using artificial intelligence-based classification models, and the quantitative analysis of adulteration using regression models, and achieving higher accuracies. In other parts of this section, an extensive literature analysis of evaluating the E-nose to identify beef adulterated with pork is described.

E-nose, composed of ten semi-conductive polymer sensors with multi-discriminant analysis, is used to identify beef–pork mixtures in four compositions [ 49 ]. The cooked and uncooked samples are stored at 4 °C for 0–6 days. The sensing time for measuring each sample is of 4 min. The presented results clearly show that the designed E-nose identifies samples according to mixture composition and storage days. FOX4000 E-nose with discriminant factor analysis (DFA), principal component analysis (PCA), and partial least square analysis (PLS) techniques are used to detect pork adulteration in beef [ 50 ]. The results demonstrate that the system is capable of detecting pork adulteration in beef in various ratios. The coefficient of determination (R2) between sensor data and minced pork ratios is 0.9762. To study and find the optimal temperature required for the measurement sample to be tested using E-nose for discriminating beef–pork mixtures, a sensory array made of eight MOS sensors with temperature and humidity sensors is designed [ 45 , 51 ]. Five beef–pork mixture classes are discriminated in this study using a support vector machine (SVM), k-nearest neighbors (KNN), random forest, and naive Bayes techniques at −22 °C, room temperature, and 55 °C, respectively. According to this study, continuous gases from beef and pork can be detected at −22 °C with maximum accuracy to detect beef adulterated with pork. Using the same sensor array, another author identified seven beef–pork mixtures with an optimized E-nose system designed using a sensor array followed by noise filtering and optimized SVM blocks [ 42 ]. Each mixture sample is measured for 15 min, and 60 data points are recorded for each measurement. An accuracy of 98.10% is obtained with the designed system. To analyze the effect of gas concentration in the detection and classification of beef–pork mixture, an E-nose consisting of nine MOS sensors is used [ 52 ]. The proportion of beef–pork mixture used is the same as that used by [ 42 ]. Sample sizes of 50 mL, 150 mL, and 250 mL is used for measurement, and each sample is measured for 2 min. Statistical feature extraction, classification, and ensemble learning are implemented on the measured data to determine the system’s performance. Good classification values are obtained using the ensemble learning method with 50 mL. An E-nose designed with an array of colorimetric sensors with twelve chemical dyes was developed to detect beef adulterated with pork [ 33 ]. The twelve chemical dyes of the colorimetric sensor array are selected with chemically receptive dyes that can detect complex volatile organic compounds (VOCs) generated from meat samples. The colorimetric sensor array is placed in the sample chamber for five minutes so that the dyes on the sensor array react with the VOC from the meat sample. The classification methods Fisher linear discriminant analysis (Fisher LDA) and extreme learning machine (ELM) are used to classify the three mixture combinations of pork adulteration in beef. The ELM method yields an accuracy of 87.5% with the prediction set. Additionally, the adulteration level is calculated using a backpropagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN), and a correlation coefficient (R) and root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.85 and 0.147 are obtained, respectively.

It is clear from the literature discussed above that the E-nose can predict beef adulterated with pork. The problems identified in the literature are the longer measurement time, low classification accuracy, lesser beef–pork mixture ratios, the complex design of architecture, and the missing quantitative analysis. This study developed the SE-Nose methodology for the qualitative and quantitative fast-track detection of pork adulteration in beef. The implementation of SE-Nose is performed in four stages: data collection, pre-processing, pattern recognition, and output. The data collection stage deals with the dataset used to validate the methodology, and the pork adulterated with beef dataset available in the literature [ 53 , 54 ] was used in our study. This dataset helps to overcome the problem of a less beef–pork mixture ratio identified in the literature, as this dataset contains seven combinations of beef–pork mixture ratios. The pre-processing stage contains SSWP and normalization blocks. The SSWP extracts the early part of the signal to achieve fast-track detection, thereby overcoming the problem of a longer measurement time and complex architecture problems identified in the literature. In the pattern recognition stage, multiple classifications and regression models are implemented for the classification and identification of adulteration levels present in the sample. With the design parameters of pattern recognition models (SVM, ANN), the problems of low-classification accuracy and complex architectures are solved. The output stage publishes the qualitative and quantitative analysis of sample adulteration using the results obtained from the pattern recognition model. The performance of the SE-Nose system is evaluated using the size of input data, the count of windows, recognition time, training time, validation time, accuracy, mean square error (MSE), RMSE, R, and R2. Furthermore, the results obtained with the SE-Nose system are compared with the results present in the available literature.

The organization of the remaining sections of the paper is as follows: Section 2 discusses the SE-Nose methodology consisting of pork adulteration in the beef dataset, SSWP, normalization, classification models, regression models, and outputs. Section 3 discusses the results obtained with SSWP, classification models, and regression models for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of pork adulteration in beef. Furthermore, Section 3 compares the results obtained with the SE-Nose methodology with comparable results available in the literature. Section 4 presents the conclusion of our study.

2. Methodology

The block diagram of the proposed SE-NOSE is shown in Figure 1 . The working principle of SE-Nose is divided into four stages, namely data collection, pre-processing, pattern recognition, and output. The dataset used in this work is made available in the data collection stage. To test and validate the SE-Nose, pork adulteration in the beef dataset is used. The next stage is the pre-processing stage, and here the data are processed using SSWP and normalization. The next stage is the pattern recognition stage. In this stage, several classification and regression models are used to classify and predict the level of adulteration. The last stage of SE-Nose is the output stage. This includes the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the results obtained from the pattern recognition stage. The other part of this section explains the seven blocks of the four-stage SE-Nose.

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Block diagram of the proposed SE-Nose methodology.

2.1. Pork Adulteration in Beef Dataset

The dataset generated by R. Sarno et al. [ 53 , 54 ] for evaluating pork adulteration in beef is used to implement the proposed methodology. The dataset is available at the URL: “ https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/5yhggs7zy7/1 , accessed on 1 July 2022”. The adulteration is performed in various mixing ratios. For each measurement, the sample quantity is 100 g. The beef sample is mixed with pork in seven combination ratios as 0%, 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 90%, and 100%. The sensor array for detecting VOC from the samples contains sensors, namely MQ138, MQ137, MQ136, MQ135, MQ9, MQ6, MQ4, MQ2, and DHT22. The temperature and humidity is measured using DHT22 sensor. The selectivity of each sensor is detailed in Table 1 . At a sampling frequency of 0.5 Hz, each sample is measured for 120 s, yielding 60 records for each measurement and 60 measurements for each sample ratio. Thus, for seven beef–pork mixture ratios, 420 measurements were conducted and made available as a dataset.

Detailed description of the selectivity sensors in the sensor array.

SensorSelectivity
MQ 138Toluene, acetone, ethanol
MQ 137Ammonia (NH )
MQ 136Hydrogen sulfide (H S)
MQ 135NH , nitrogen, alcohol, benzene, smoke, CO
MQ 9Methane (CH ), propane, CO
MQ 6LPG, iso-butane, propane
MQ 4CH , natural gas
MQ 2LPG, CH , propane, i-butane, alcohol, hydrogen, smoke
DHT 22Temperature and humidity

2.2. Sample Slicing Window Protocol (SSWP)

The SSWP proposed in this paper extracts the early part of the signal and provides it as output. Here, the early part of the signal means the initial portion of the signal. The early part of the signal is framed as the window. In Figure 2 , we can observe the whole set of signals represented in Figure 2 a, and the corresponding early part of the signals is framed as windows in Figure 2 b and Figure 2 c, respectively. With the SSWP, the fast-track detection of food adulteration is possible as pattern recognition models are provided with the early part of the signal over the complete signal in traditional methods, which take a long time for detection. The size of the early part of the signal depends on the window number and step size. The mathematical representation of the SSWP is discussed below:

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Sample slicing window protocol ( a ) whole data; ( b ) first window; and ( c ) sixth window.

The SSWP’s input is sensor data from the dataset. It is represented as x [ i , j ] , and the output is represented as y [ i , j ] . Here, i represents the count of sensors present in the sensor array, and j represents the measurement duration. Equation ( 1 ) represents the early part of signal extraction.

In this equation, Δ s indicates the signal’s step size and is a smaller part of the signal. After numerous experimental simulations, the value of Δ s is chosen as 10 for detecting pork adulteration in beef using the dataset discussed in Section 2.1 . ‘ w ’ indicates the windows count for adulteration detection and is calculated using Equation ( 2 ).

Here, ‘ k ’ stands for the total count of windows employed and is determined using Equation ( 3 ).

In this Equation, ‘ n ’ stands for the count of records in a measurement. Here, ‘ n ’ is 60 for the chosen dataset. By substituting the parameter values in Equation ( 3 ), the window length ‘ k ’ is determined to be 6.

The working mechanism of the SSWP is presented using case 1 and case 2, representing the first and last windows, respectively, i.e., the first and sixth windows for pork adulteration in beef, using the parameters defined above.

Case 1: We discuss first window implementation in case 1. To quickly detect the pork adulteration in beef, the first window data (first slice of the data) are extracted from the entire dataset. Equation ( 4 ) represents the data of the first window obtained by substituting required parameters in Equation ( 1 ).

Case 2: Here, in case 2, we implement the last window, i.e., the sixth window. As this is the last window, the entire measurement data are considered for sixth window. Equation ( 5 ) represents the data of the sixth window obtained by substituting the required parameters in Equation ( 1 ).

The extraction of the signal’s early part using SSWP for the first and sixth window is shown in cases 1 and 2. Similarly, the extraction of the early part of the signal for other corresponding windows can be performed. Figure 2 illustrates the extraction of the early part of the signal using sample SSWP for windows 1 and 6, where the coloured lines represents different sensor signals.

2.3. Normalization

On the data extracted from the SSWP, data normalization is performed. Using the normalization, the data are scaled in the 0–1 range without affecting the difference in the range of values and loss of important information, thereby preserving data homogeneity. The mathematical expression to implement normalization is:

2.4. Classification Models

Classification models SVM-C and ANN-C are implemented on the normalized data generated from the pre-processing stage for the qualitative analysis of adulteration, representing whether the samples are pure or adulterated.

2.4.1. SVM-C

SVM-C indicates that the SVM model can solve the classification problem. SVM is a supervised classification model that maps the input data points to high-dimensional space using kernel functions such as a radial basis function (RBF), Gaussian, second-order polynomial, and linear. The data points are then divided into several classes using a hyperplane to determine which class has the largest margin size. The data point closest to the hyperplane is called the support vector [ 55 ]. The two key parameters that influence the performance of the SVM algorithm are gamma ( γ ) and regularization parameters ( C ). The regularization parameter trade-off between the accurate classification of the training set against maximizing decision margins. The Gamma parameter determines the impact of a single training set. The determined kernel function for our work is RBF with γ = 1 and C = 5. The data division for training and testing the SVM-C models is 70% and 30%, respectively.

2.4.2. ANN-C

ANN-C signifies the ANN model to solve the classification problem. It is a supervised classification model that processes data layer by layer, with each layer made up of a large number of neurons, and each neuron modifies data using an activation function, bias, and weights connected to it [ 56 ]. A multi-layer perceptron (MLP) with three layers, namely an input layer, hidden layer, and output layer, is used. The input layer contains 10 neurons corresponding to 10 sensor inputs, the output layer contains 3 neurons corresponding to 3 classes of adulteration levels, and finally, based on experimental the simulation results, the hidden layer is designed with 15 neurons. Data divisions of 70%, 10%, and 20% are used for the training, validation, and testing of the ANN-C models.

2.5. Regression Models

Regression models SVM-R and ANN-R are implemented on normalized data generated from the pre-processing stage for the quantitative analysis of the level of adulteration, representing how much adulteration has happened.

2.5.1. SVM-R

SVM-R indicates the SVM model to solve the regression problem. SVM-R uses the same principle as SVM to predict discrete values. It finds the best fit line and is the hyperplane with a maximum number of points. The RBF kernel function with γ = 0.5, and C = 5 is used in this work. The data division for training and testing the SVM-R models is 70% and 30%, respectively.

2.5.2. ANN-R

ANN-R signifies the ANN model for solving regression problems. ANN-R uses the same principle and generates a function with input variables to predict the output. MLP with three layers, namely the input layer (10 neurons), hidden layer (15 neurons), and output layer (3 neurons), is used. Data divisions of 70%, 10%, and 20% are used for the training, validation, and testing of the ANN-R models.

2.6. Output

The last stage of the proposed SE-Nose is the output stage. Two different analytical results are obtained using classification and regression models. Qualitative analysis is obtained using classification models, and quantitative analysis is obtained using regression models.

2.6.1. Qualitative Analysis

The classification models are used for the qualitative analysis of pork adulteration in beef. In the qualitative analysis, we predict or classify whether the beef sample is adulterated or not using three different classes labeled Class-A, Class-B, and Class-C. The description of each class is detailed in Table 2 .

Detailed description of classes labeled Class-A, Class-B, and Class-C.

LabelDescription
Class-APure beef
Class-BBeef adulterated with pork
Class-CPure pork

The seven classes mentioned in the dataset in Section 2.1 are regrouped into 3 classes, as discussed in Table 2 . Here, group labeled class 1 in the actual dataset is now labeled class-A because this group contains the pure beef sample (100% beef). The groups labeled classes 2–6 of actual datasets are now labeled as class-B, as all the data under this label come under the adulteration group. The class 7 labeled group of the actual dataset is labeled as class-C, as this group contains pure pork samples (100% pork).

2.6.2. Quantitative Analysis

The regression models are used for the quantitative analysis of pork adulteration in beef. In quantitative analysis, we predict the amount of pork adulteration in the beef present in the sample in the range of 0–1, representing 0%–100%. The seven mixture combinations of pork adulteration in beef mentioned in the dataset in Section 2.1 are 0%, 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 90% and 100% are converted into 0, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 0.9, and 1 for performing the regression to obtain quantitative analysis. This helps us predict adulteration levels more efficiently with regression.

The results section discusses the implementation of the SE-Nose methodology on pork adulteration in the beef dataset. Initially, the implementation of the SSWP is presented, followed by the performance of classification and regression models emphasizing the performance achieved at the best and last window. Additionally, the efficiency of the SE-Nose methodology is analyzed with comparable works available in the literature.

3.1. Sample Slicing Window Protocol (SSWP)

To the pork adulteration in beef dataset discussed in Section 2.1 , SSWP detailed in Section 2.2 is implemented. The whole dataset contains 420 measurements, with each measurement having 60 records. After multiple experimental simulations on step size, Δ s is assigned with a value of 10, generating six windows. Using Equation ( 1 ), the early part of the signals for the concerned window is generated, and the early part of the signals for all six windows required in this study is represented in Equation ( 7 ).

3.2. Classification Models

To perform the qualitative analysis by detecting whether beef is adulterated with pork, two classification models, SVM-C and ANN-C, were employed in our study. The input to the classification models is the normalized early portion of data generated from the SSWP.

Using the SVM-C model, a maximum accuracy of 99.996% is obtained at the second window, and an accuracy of 99.994% is obtained with the entire data, i.e., with the last window data as input. The recognition time to obtain the best results at the second and last, i.e., sixth window, is 40 s and 120 s. The same can be depicted in Table 3 . The maximum accuracy is achieved with the early portion of data recorded at an initial 40 s (second window), thereby reducing the recognition time from 120 s to 40 s.

Summary of performance of SVM-C algorithm.

ParameterBest WindowLast Window
Accuracy99.99699.994
Window No.26
Recognition time (s)40120

Using the next classification model ANN-C, a high accuracy of 99.996% was obtained at the third window with a recognition time of 60 s, and an accuracy of 99.993% is obtained at the last window, i.e., the sixth window with a recognition time of 120 s. Table 4 shows the accuracy, window number, and recognition time obtained at the best and last windows using the ANN-C classification model. From the table, it is clear that the highest accuracy is achieved with the early portion of data recorded at the initial 60 s (third window), thereby reducing the recognition time from 120 s to 60 s.

Summary of the performance of ANN-C algorithm.

ParameterBest WindowLast Window
Accuracy99.99699.993
Window No.36
Recognition time (s)60120

A comparison of the performance metrics achieved using classification models ANN-C and SVM-C is shown in Table 5 . As shown in the table, although the predicted accuracy is the same with both ANN-C and SVM-C models, with the recognition time and window number metrics, it is clear that the SVM-C model detected the adulteration in beef earlier than the ANN-C model. With the SVM-C model, the highest performance is achieved at window number 2, and with the ANN-C model, the highest performance is achieved at window number 3. Here, window number 2 means that the data were acquired from the sensor in the initial 40 s of the measurement and window number 3 means that the data were acquired from the sensor at the initial 60 s of the measurement. With this, it is clear that the SVM-C model has the lowest recognition time and the same is visible in Figure 3 . The ANN-C model took 20 s longer to recognize than the SVM-C model, and the same can be observed in the red line in Figure 3 a. Similar trends are also observed concerning the window numbers and input data size. The window number and size of the input data in the bar and line plots are presented in Figure 3 b in blue and black colors. The time required to train the classification models SVM-C and ANN-C are 1.57 s and 4.89 s, respectively, as presented in Figure 3 c.

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Graphical representation of a comparison of performance metrics ( a ) accuracy, recognition time, ( b ) window number, size of input data, and ( c ) training time of classification models SVM-C and ANN-C.

Performance comparison of classification models.

ParameterSVM-CANN-C
Accuracy (%)99.99699.996
Window No.23
Recognition time (s)4060
Training time (s)1.574.89
Validation time (s)Less than 1Less than 1
Size of input data2030

3.3. Regression Models

The performances of two regression models, SVM-R and ANN-R, were employed for the quantitative analysis of pork adulteration in beef, representing the amount of pork that is mixed into the beef sample. The input to the regression models is a normalized early portion of data generated from the SSWP.

With the implementation of the SVM-R model, a lower MSE value of 0.00082, and a higher R2 value of 0.993 is acquired at second window, whereas at the last window (sixth window), an MSE value of 0.000929 and R2 value of 0.991 are acquired. The last window represents the whole data. The recognition time to acquire output at second window is 40 s, and at sixth window is 120 s. Table 6 , shown below, presents the performance metrics (MSE, RMSE, R, R2) obtained for the best and last windows, their corresponding window numbers, and their recognition times using the SVM-R regression model. Better performance was observed with the early portion of data recorded at an initial 40 s, thereby reducing the recognition time from 120 s to 40 s.

Summary of performance of SVM-R algorithm.

ParameterBest WindowLast Window
MSE0.0008200.000929
RMSE0.028640.030479
R0.9970.995
R20.9930.991
Window No.26
Recognition time (s)40120

The next regression model used in our study is the ANN-R model. Using the ANN-R model, at the third window, the low MSE of 0.001142 and the high R2 value of 0.987 is achieved with a recognition time of 60 s and at the last window (sixth window) MSE of 0.00142, the R2 value of 0.984 is achieved with a recognition time of 120 s. The last window represents the complete data recorded in a measurement. The details of the performance metrics (MSE, RMSE, R, and R2), window numbers, and recognition times at the best and last window using the ANN-R model are shown in Table 7 . From Table 7 , it is clear that a high accuracy is achieved with the early portion of data recorded at the initial 60 s (third window) by reducing the recognition time from 120 s to 60 s.

Summary of performance of ANN-R algorithm.

ParameterBest WindowLast Window
MSE0.0011420.00142
RMSE0.0306980.036661
R0.9930.991
R20.9870.984
Window No.36
Recognition time (s)60120

Table 8 presents the comparison of performance metrics obtained using regression models SVM-R and ANN-R for the effective quantitative analysis of the level of pork adulteration in beef. The table shows that lesser MSE, RMSE values, and higher R and R2 values are achieved with the SVM-R model over the ANN-R model. The same is visible in Figure 4 a,b. With the SVM-R and ANN-R models, the input data sizes of 20 records and 30 records are observed, and the time required to train the two models is 0.51 s and 3.95 s, respectively. The recognition time and size of the input data in the bar and line plots are presented in Figure 4 c. With the comparison of performances between SVM-R and ANN-R, it is clear that the SVM-R model surpasses the ANN-R model in terms of the quantitative analysis predicting the level of pork adulteration in beef.

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Graphical representation of a comparison of performance metrics ( a ) MSE, RMSE ( b ) R, R2, window number ( c ) recognition time, size of input data of regression models SVM-R, and ANN-R.

Performance comparison of regression models.

ParameterSVM-RANN-R
MSE0.000820.001142
RMSE0.028640.030698
R0.9970.993
R20.9930.987
Window No.23
Recognition time (s)4060
Training time (s)0.513.95
Validation time (s)Less than 1Less than 1
Size of input data2030

3.4. Comparison and Discussion

In this subsection, the proposed SE-Nose methodology is compared with three similar works available in the literature, and a discussion of our study is presented. The first comparison is performed with R. Sarno et al. [ 42 ]. The basis of the comparison is that the dataset used by R. Sarno et al. [ 42 ] and our study dataset were similar. The second comparison was performed with Peng et al. [ 57 ]. The main reason for this comparison is that Peng et al. [ 57 ] used raw data for pattern recognition, similarly to in our study. For the last comparison, the results of F. Han et al. [ 33 ] were used in this study, as both F. Han et al. [ 33 ] and our study is focused on the detection of pork adulteration in beef.

The results obtained using the proposed SE-Nose methodology were compared with those obtained by R. Sarno et al. [ 42 ] and are shown in Table 9 . On the data obtained from sensors, the author implemented discrete wavelet transform for noise filtering, statistical feature extraction, PCA for dimensionality reduction, and SVM for classification. A total of seven classes are used for classifying adulteration. An accuracy of 98.10% is obtained to identify pork adulteration in beef with a recognition time of 120 s. The graphical representation of accuracy, recognition time, and input data size is shown in Figure 5 a, b, and c, respectively. Finally, from Table 9 and Figure 5 , it is clear that, over the results shown by R. Sarno et al. [ 42 ], the proposed SE-Nose methodology, there is a rise in accuracy, a decrease in the number of inputs, and a significant decrease in the recognition time, thereby achieving the fast-track detection of pork adulteration in beef with higher accuracies.

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Graphical representation of a comparison of performance metrics: ( a ) accuracy; ( b ) recognition time; ( c ) size of the input data of R. Sarno et al. [ 42 ] and the SE-Nose methodology.

Comparison of the results obtained by SE-Nose methodology with R. Sarno et al. [ 42 ].

ParameterR. Sarno et al. [ ]Proposed Work (SE-Nose)
Accuracy (%)98.1099.996
Recognition time (s)12040
Pre-processingNF+FE+DRNR
Size of input data6020
Classification algorithmSVMSVM-C
Learning methodSupervisedSupervised
Number of classes73

Note: NF: noise filtering; FE: feature extraction; NR: normalization; and DR: dimensionality reduction.

Another comparison is tabulated in Table 10 between the results obtained using the SE-Nose methodology and the results reported by Peng et al. [ 57 ]. The basis of this comparison is that both the SE-Nose methodology and Peng et al. [ 57 ] consider raw sensor data for pattern recognition. The major advantage of this study is that the author applied a deep convolutional neural network for gas classification on the raw sensor data obtained from the sensor array. The main drawback of this work is that the entire signal is used to implement gas classifications, which increases the recognition time of measurement. Additionally, it is evident that, with the SE-Nose methodology, an accuracy of 99.996% is achieved compared to 95.20% with Peng et al. [ 57 ]. Figure 6 a–c shows the graphical representation of the comparison of performance metrics such as accuracy, recognition time, and training time. With this comparison, it is evident that the SE-Nose method performs fast and accurately.

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Graphical representation of a comparison of performance metrics: ( a ) accuracy; ( b ) recognition time; and ( c ) the training time of Peng et al. [ 57 ] and the SE-Nose methodology.

Comparison of results obtained by SE-Nose methodology with Peng et al. [ 57 ].

ParameterPeng et al. [ ]Proposed Work (SE-Nose)
Accuracy (%)95.2099.996
Recognition time (s)10040
Sensor technologyMOSMOS
Training time (s)154
Learning methodSupervisedSupervised
Classification algorithmDCNNSVM-C
ApplicationGas classificationPork adulteration in beef

Two studies focused on detecting pork adulteration in beef are compared and tabulated in Table 11 . This comparison shows the results of the proposed SE-Nose method with the results of F. Han et al. [ 33 ] that studied the detection of pork adulteration in beef. The PCA method is applied in this study to the features extracted from the colorimetric sensor array, followed by Fisher LDA, ELM methods for classification analysis, and BP-ANN for regression analysis. The main disadvantage of this study is that, for each measurement, the dyes on the colorimetric sensor array are exposed for five minutes to a food sample to detect VOCs from the food sample. Figure 7 a–c show the graphical representation of performance metrics accuracy, R, RMSE, and recognition time. From Table 11 and Figure 7 it is clear that higher accuracy, R values, and lower RMSE values are obtained with the SE-Nose methodology compared to in F. Han et al. [ 33 ].

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Graphical representation of the comparison of performance metrics: ( a ) accuracy; ( b ) R, RMSE; and ( c ) recognition time of F. Han et al. [ 33 ] and the SE-Nose methodology.

Comparison between the results obtained by SE-Nose methodology and by F. Han et al. [ 33 ].

ParameterF. Han et al. [ ]Proposed Work (SE-Nose)
Accuracy (%)91.2799.996
R0.860.997
RMSE0.1150.02864
Recognition time (s)30040
Sensor technologyColorimetricMOS
Learning methodSupervisedSupervised
Classification algorithmELMSVM-C
Regression algorithmBP-ANNSVM-R

With the above study, it is clear that pork adulteration in beef can be detected using an E-nose. The problems identified, such as the longer measurement time, low classification accuracy, lesser beef–pork mixture ratios, complex architecture design, and missing quantitative analysis, were addressed using SE-Nose methodology for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of pork adulteration in beef. The SE-Nose methodology improves performance by reducing the recognition time while minimizing the aforementioned problems. For a qualitative analysis of pork adulteration in beef using the SVM-C classification model, an accuracy of 99.996% was obtained with a recognition time of 40 s. For the quantitative analysis of pork adulteration in beef using the SVM-R regression model, an MSE of 0.00082, RMSE of 0.02864, R of 0.977, and R2 of 0.993 were obtained with a recognition time of 40 s. Furthermore, the SE-Nose methodology can be applied in other food industries.

4. Conclusions

The proposed SE-Nose methodology in this study is fast, robust, and effective for detecting and identifying pork adulteration in beef. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of pork adulteration in beef is discussed in this paper. The SSWP proposed in this paper effectively decreases the recognition time of measurement. From the implemented classification and regression models, SVM-C and SVM-R achieve a stronger performance with an accuracy of 99.996%, MSE of 0.00082, RMSE of 0.02864, R of 0.997, and R2 of 0.993. The observed time to train the SVM-C and SVM-R models are 1.57 s and 0.51 s. The recognition time of pork adulteration in beef with the proposed models is 40 s. The classification and regression models are validated using a 10-fold cross-validation method. The results obtained with the SE-Nose methodology were evaluated using the same dataset work and other comparable works available in the literature. Furthermore, the proposed SE-Nose methodology can be extended to other food industry products.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank VIT for providing the ‘VIT SEED GRANT’ for carrying out this research work.

Abbreviations

The following abbreviations are used in this manuscript:

USDAUnited States Department of Agriculture
E-noseElectronic nose
SE-NoseSmart E-Nose
SSWPSample slicing window protocol
DFADiscriminant factor analysis
PCAPrincipal component analysis
PLSPartial least square analysis
R2Coefficient of determination
SVMSupport vector machine
KNNK-nearest neighbors
ELMExtreme learning machine
BP-ANNBackpropagation artificial neural network
RCorrelation coefficient
R2Coefficient of determination
RMSERoot mean square error
MSEMean square error
RBFRadial basis function
MLPMulti-layer perceptron
Fisher LDAFisher linear discriminant analysis

Funding Statement

The research work was carried out using the VIT SEED GRANT funded by Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore, India. The APC was funded by Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore, India.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, K.K.P. and V.N.K.; methodology, K.K.P. and V.N.K.; software, K.K.P.; validation, K.K.P. and V.N.K.; formal analysis, K.K.P. and V.N.K.; investigation, K.K.P. and V.N.K.; writing—original draft preparation, K.K.P. and V.N.K.; writing—review and editing, K.K.P. and V.N.K.; visualization, K.K.P.; supervision, V.N.K. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Qualitative and quantitative detection of food adulteration using a smart e-nose.

write an essay on qualitative and quantitative investigation of food

1. Introduction

2. methodology, 2.1. pork adulteration in beef dataset, 2.2. sample slicing window protocol (sswp), 2.3. normalization, 2.4. classification models, 2.4.1. svm-c, 2.4.2. ann-c, 2.5. regression models, 2.5.1. svm-r, 2.5.2. ann-r, 2.6. output, 2.6.1. qualitative analysis, 2.6.2. quantitative analysis, 3.1. sample slicing window protocol (sswp), 3.2. classification models, 3.3. regression models, 3.4. comparison and discussion, 4. conclusions, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest, abbreviations.

USDAUnited States Department of Agriculture
E-noseElectronic nose
SE-NoseSmart E-Nose
SSWPSample slicing window protocol
DFADiscriminant factor analysis
PCAPrincipal component analysis
PLSPartial least square analysis
R2Coefficient of determination
SVMSupport vector machine
KNNK-nearest neighbors
ELMExtreme learning machine
BP-ANNBackpropagation artificial neural network
RCorrelation coefficient
R2Coefficient of determination
RMSERoot mean square error
MSEMean square error
RBFRadial basis function
MLPMulti-layer perceptron
Fisher LDAFisher linear discriminant analysis
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Click here to enlarge figure

SensorSelectivity
MQ 138Toluene, acetone, ethanol
MQ 137Ammonia (NH )
MQ 136Hydrogen sulfide (H S)
MQ 135NH , nitrogen, alcohol, benzene, smoke, CO
MQ 9Methane (CH ), propane, CO
MQ 6LPG, iso-butane, propane
MQ 4CH , natural gas
MQ 2LPG, CH , propane, i-butane, alcohol, hydrogen, smoke
DHT 22Temperature and humidity
LabelDescription
Class-APure beef
Class-BBeef adulterated with pork
Class-CPure pork
ParameterBest WindowLast Window
Accuracy99.99699.994
Window No.26
Recognition time (s)40120
ParameterBest WindowLast Window
Accuracy99.99699.993
Window No.36
Recognition time (s)60120
ParameterSVM-CANN-C
Accuracy (%)99.99699.996
Window No.23
Recognition time (s)4060
Training time (s)1.574.89
Validation time (s)Less than 1Less than 1
Size of input data2030
ParameterBest WindowLast Window
MSE0.0008200.000929
RMSE0.028640.030479
R0.9970.995
R20.9930.991
Window No.26
Recognition time (s)40120
ParameterBest WindowLast Window
MSE0.0011420.00142
RMSE0.0306980.036661
R0.9930.991
R20.9870.984
Window No.36
Recognition time (s)60120
ParameterSVM-RANN-R
MSE0.000820.001142
RMSE0.028640.030698
R0.9970.993
R20.9930.987
Window No.23
Recognition time (s)4060
Training time (s)0.513.95
Validation time (s)Less than 1Less than 1
Size of input data2030
ParameterR. Sarno et al. [ ]Proposed Work (SE-Nose)
Accuracy (%)98.1099.996
Recognition time (s)12040
Pre-processingNF+FE+DRNR
Size of input data6020
Classification algorithmSVMSVM-C
Learning methodSupervisedSupervised
Number of classes73
ParameterPeng et al. [ ]Proposed Work (SE-Nose)
Accuracy (%)95.2099.996
Recognition time (s)10040
Sensor technologyMOSMOS
Training time (s)154
Learning methodSupervisedSupervised
Classification algorithmDCNNSVM-C
ApplicationGas classificationPork adulteration in beef
ParameterF. Han et al. [ ]Proposed Work (SE-Nose)
Accuracy (%)91.2799.996
R0.860.997
RMSE0.1150.02864
Recognition time (s)30040
Sensor technologyColorimetricMOS
Learning methodSupervisedSupervised
Classification algorithmELMSVM-C
Regression algorithmBP-ANNSVM-R
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Pulluri, K.K.; Kumar, V.N. Qualitative and Quantitative Detection of Food Adulteration Using a Smart E-Nose. Sensors 2022 , 22 , 7789. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22207789

Pulluri KK, Kumar VN. Qualitative and Quantitative Detection of Food Adulteration Using a Smart E-Nose. Sensors . 2022; 22(20):7789. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22207789

Pulluri, Kranthi Kumar, and Vaegae Naveen Kumar. 2022. "Qualitative and Quantitative Detection of Food Adulteration Using a Smart E-Nose" Sensors 22, no. 20: 7789. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22207789

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663 Interesting Food Essay Topics, Examples, and Ideas

Food essays are an excellent way to demonstrate your awareness of current nutrition and health issues. Obesity is a significant concern that is present in many people throughout the world and can lead to a variety of deadly conditions.

Obesity is often associated with eating junk food or food made with unhealthy ingredients and emphasizing taste or longevity over safety. Its opposite, healthy food, is a combination of many factors, which include food consumption patterns and monitoring your calorie intake.

As such, many ideas for innovative diets that circumvent some of the complexities have emerged, but most of them are flawed due to oversights. This article will provide you with topics about food and some tips for your essay writing process.

🏆 Best Food Topics & Essay Examples

👍 good essay topics about food, 🎓 popular nutrition and food topics to talk about, 🥇 most interesting food essay examples, 💡 simple topics related to food, 📌 good research food and nutrition topics, ❓ research questions about food.

Nutritionists generally agree on a single definition of healthy eating patterns, one that is supported by a vast body of research. They involve controlling your nutrient and calorie intake by adjusting your meat and plant intake balance as well as the portion size. You should also avoid preserved foods, as their preparation processes tend to ruin the nutrients present in the ingredients while introducing a variety of unhealthy substances.

For optimal effects, you should understand various fats and their influences on the human body as well as your need for each type and the foods that can supply it. The topic about food offers many different avenues of investigation.

However, not all people have the willpower and willingness to learn and use the knowledge to change their food patterns. As such, new fad diets, which try to circumvent some of the ideas and offer a more convenient way to lose weight, keep emerging every year.

These approaches may sometimes work for their intended purpose, but they do not contribute to health. While the person may lose weight because of new eating habits, they may become malnourished as a result. People will then have to take supplements and still risk developing issues before the imbalance is discovered and addressed. You may address the approaches described above when selecting argumentative essay topics about food.

He or she will then have to take supplements and still risk developing issues before the imbalance is discovered and addressed, something you can address in your food essay titles.

Here are some additional tips for the essay:

  • Discuss how not all natural food is equal, with different examples of vegetables or meat displaying varying nutrient amounts. Healthy eating involves choosing food that is good for your health and balancing it appropriately.
  • Follow general essay guidelines, which include using a proper structure, writing in an academic style, and separating topics with informative titles. Nutrition is a scholarly topic with a significant body of research contributing to its findings.
  • Make sure to cite recent scholarly research or statistics when stating facts about nutrition and eating patterns. The body of research is constantly expanding and discovering new information, which may show past facts or findings in a new light.
  • You should talk about the reasons why junk food is unhealthy, as it extends beyond poor nutritional values. Research shows that people are compelled to eat more when consuming unhealthy foods, regardless of their diet awareness.
  • Discuss the alternate ways of losing weight in detail and identify their advantages and flaws. With proper precautions, they can be as effective and safe as traditional healthy eating patterns, but they will require the same effort or more as a result.

Visit IvyPanda to get many different food essay examples and other useful samples!

  • Genetically Modified Food Essay In spite of the perceived benefits of genetic engineering technology in the agricultural sector, the production and use of genetically modified foods has triggered a number of issues pertaining to safety and consequences of consumption.
  • Junk Food in Schools: Good or Bad for Children? One of the main advantages of junk food is that it is simple to cook and it satiates hunger. As for the main advantage of availability of junk food and its simplicity to be cooked […]
  • Fast Food vs. Home Cooking: Lifestyle and Traditions The good thing with this business is that the food was from natural products hence healthy, a fact that has since changed Many people are very busy for the better part of the day and […]
  • Fast Food Industry: Arguments for and Against For instance, those who believe that fast food industry is beneficial to them and other members of the society will expect the findings of this research to be in support of their beliefs.
  • Food Habits and Culture: Factors Influence The food habits of a group of people/community can be described as the reasons for eating, the methods used while eating, the types of food eaten, and the mode of storage.
  • Food Insecurity and What We Can Do to Help Attention Material/Credibility Material: Imagine a day when you have little strength and energy – you feel weakness and soreness – the feelings are rather unpleasant. Now imagine that you feel this discomfort and lack of […]
  • Food and Beverage Management The mission of the department is to provide food and beverage that meets highest standards so that they can keep a competitive edge in the hotel industry.
  • Filipino Food Essay However, because of the Spanish and American influence, meat, especially pork and chicken, are also served. So, Philippines is a country of festivals and a diversity of traditional dishes and beverages.
  • The Future of Food The evolution and advancement of technology have influenced the methods of how people grow and consume food. The changes that people have made to nature are very traceable and their inability to predict the outcome […]
  • Fast Food in Campus: Advantages and Disadvantages On the other hand, a classmate mentions that fast foods lead to obesity among university students who eat from fast-food restaurants.
  • Was Food Healthier 100 Years Ago? The widespread organic farming in the twentieth century led to the production of healthy and highly nutritional foods. Some critics believe that modern-day food is much safer and healthier compared to the food consumed in […]
  • Food Production and The Environment So all aspects of production – the cultivation and collection of plants, the maintenance of animals, the processing of products, their packaging, and transportation, affect the environment.
  • Junk Food and Drinks: Ban on Advertising The reason youngsters are attracted to junk food is that they do not get the actual flavors at their home and then they are less attracted to original and healthy food as compared to junk […]
  • Hospitality Management: Food & Beverage Service The art of catering goes beyond providing food and beverages and extends to the ambience of the eating place and the quality of service received.
  • Globalization and Food Culture Essay The interviewee gave the examples of France, America, and China in her description of how food can affect the culture of a place and vice versa.
  • Food Culture and Obesity The marketers pass a message to the consumers that they need to eat the fast foods to experience the goodness and the refreshing memory that cannot be found in any other food.
  • Food Security Crisis Resolution To ensure the situation does not run out of hand, the global body Food and Agricultural Organization has been at the forefront since time immemorial to cater for issues related to this basic human need. […]
  • Determinants of Food Supply and Demand Due to high demand for vegetables and fruits, producers increase production and supply in order to fulfill the needs of consumers.
  • Designing a shopping centre food court outlet The design itself The food court outlet will specialize with the sale of fried potatoes, a fast food which is immensely purchased by the customers from the area.
  • Chocolate Ice-Cream: Food Product Case In the case of Chocolate ice-cream, the flavouring added is normally chocolate. Chocolate ice cream is the second most common type of ice cream in the world after vanilla.
  • Representation of Food in the Importance of Being Earnest In a large extent, food is also used as a sign of respect and hospitality to visitors and also as a form of socializing.
  • Quality and Value of Food Preparation of food of good quality means use of ingredients of good quality thus food production by farmers affects directly the quality and value of food.
  • Food Waste Recycling Benefits Through the analysis of Gupta and Gangopadhyay, it was noted that food waste was one of the leading preventable contributors towards the sheer amount of trash that winds up in many of the today’s landfills.
  • The Food and Beverage Industry Role in the Tourism The essay begins by looking at the food and beverage industry in general, and then proceeds to look at the main sectors of the industry.
  • Food Security: The Main Challenges The attainment of food security is a key challenge faced in the contemporary world; it is caused by industrialized agriculture, which affects the climate, problematic balancing between agriculture and the environment, and the inability of […]
  • The Impact of Food Habits on the Environment The topic of this research is based on the issue of human-induced pollution or another environmental impact that affect the Earth and dietary approaches that can improve the situation.
  • Small Mobile Food & Drinks Shop: Business Project Time constraints are often decisive in the world of business, which is a good point for healthy shops to switch to a mobile food service offering delivery as an option.
  • Chipotle Company’s Food Crisis After the food poisoning occurrence, the local and federal authorities tried to ascertain the reason for the outbreak, but the tests they conducted could not confirm the ingredient that caused the illness.
  • Fast Food Effects on Human Health The phenomenon results in the ideological perspectives of increased obesity and the emergence of lifestyle diseases. The popularity and consumption rate of fast-food restaurants is one of the trending issues in cities and towns.
  • The Disadvantages of Canned Food From this perspective, canned food is considered to be harmful to health as the added sugar and trans fats in it can lead to the appearance of serious medical problems.
  • Food Contamination and Adulteration: Environmental Problems, Food Habits, Way of Cultivation The purpose of this essay is to explain reasons for different kinds of food contamination and adulteration, harmful contaminants and adulterants and the diseases caused by the usage of those substances, prevention of food contamination […]
  • Food Security and Growing Population Thus, nations have to address the problem of feeding the increasing global population amid the challenges of the production of adequate food.
  • The Organizational Structure in Kraft Foods Group It is imperative to note that the organization structure is the one that influences communication within the organization. One of the secrets to the organization’s success is the depth and quality of its employees.
  • What Role Does Food Play in Cultural Identity? From the point of view of cultural studies, such a model of nutrition speaks more about the absence of global roots, the absence of deep moral guidelines, and not about the convenience of the process.
  • Food Preferences and Nutrition Culture I gave my mother the recipe and nowadays, each time I visit her, she makes me a bowl of chicken noodle soup.
  • Jamie Oliver’s TED Talk Teach Every Child About Food In his TED talk, Jamie Oliver addresses the problem of obesity and unhealthy food options offered to children at schools.
  • Dubai’s Food, Dress Code and Culture Religion is an important in aspect in Dubai because it influences the lifestyle of the people and forms the foundation of their culture.
  • Why Junk Food Should Cost More Than Healthy Food In order to persuade the audience that a solution to this problem is the change of prices to make healthy food more affordable, a problem-cause-solution approach will be used. According to Elementum, to understand the […]
  • Food Analysis and Its Methods in Practice Food analysis is the field that handles the use of diagnostic processes to characterize food substances and their components. The purpose of this experiment was to conduct a food analysis of an unknown sample and […]
  • Major Reasons for Food Prices Increase Admittedly, one of the major reasons for food prices increase is the use of corns for fuel production. The increase of fuel prices created a great temptation for farmers to produce ethanol instead of corn […]
  • Multinational Food Corporations & Eating Patterns in New Zealand In this report, the connection between eating patterns in New Zealand and the performance of multinational corporations such as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s will be investigated and disclosed.
  • Changes in Food Production Over Time The new system of farming replaces the holistic thinking and the recycling of the nutrients through the use of crop rotation and animal rotation to produce food.
  • Analysis and Significance of Food Moisture Content Fish food had the least moisture content and the lowest water activity of 0. The meat had the highest moisture content and a high level of water activity of 0.
  • Health Effects of Junk Food Intake Notably, the consumption of junk food has become one of the major health issues that destabilize the health of individuals and groups in contemporary societies.
  • Chinese New Year Foods: Chinese Culture and Traditions This piece of work will give an in depth discussion of Chinese culture with the central focus being on the Chinese New Year Foods and its relationship with the changes that have been experienced in […]
  • Food: How Technology Has Changed the Way We Eat? These foods could cause harm to the consumers, who in most cases are not sure of the ingredients used to prepare them, and that may pose a health risk.
  • Food Service System: Overview Through the system, quality control is achieved through the quality of components, menus, and recipes chosen by the director. The rationale for ready-prepared system involves mass-generation and freezing of food items which might lower labor […]
  • Impact of Food on Human Health and the Content of Diet People who are living in cities never get the chance to taste catfish so they even say that catfish is used by the people of low status.
  • Pros and Cons of Food Dyes: Experiments with Food Ramesh and Muthuraman argue that there is a certain association between the increased use of food colorants and the elevated rates of ADHD in children.
  • Geography of Food. Restaurant Review Carino’s Italian grill was located in Doral at the center of Miami making it accessible to most people. The food was of moderate quality.
  • Chemicals in Foods: Natural Components and Their Toxic Properties In order to ensure the safety and health of the consumer upon the consumption of foods, it is important to establish procedures that are in a position to assess the types of health risks that […]
  • Quality Management in Food Industry: PDCA and Six Sigma This cycle, which is widely used in food industry, represents the essence of realization – the so-called “general functions of management”.
  • New Food Product Development In most cases the food may be free of pathogens but if the environment of preparation is full of normal flora, the possibility of gross contamination of food may take place and this is the […]
  • Food Industry: Organic Restaurant The restaurant will capture the social environment and provide the necessary menu for this field. In the cultural environment, the chefs employed in this restaurant have been highly trained to produce several ethnic dishes to […]
  • Food and Nutrient Security Situation in Pakistan In this respect, Pakistan needs to deepen its understanding of the scales of the food insecurity problem, highlight future problems, and define agricultural policies and food security programs that could reduce the vulnerability of rural […]
  • The Fast Food Industry Lots of people claim that the growth of the rate of obese people correlates with the growth of fast food chains in the region.
  • Global Food Crisis: Political Economy Perspective In effect, the loss of power to international institutions, decentralization of resources and privatization of powers are political economic factors that have worsened political and economic stability of developing countries making them more vulnerable to […]
  • Food Critiques for the Three Dishes: Integral Part of French Cuisine One of the most notable things about this dish is serving the legs with a celery puree, or sauteed chestnuts or chestnut puree. This chef is regarded as one of the most notable innovators in […]
  • Food & Beverage Choices and Health Impacts This written report presents the analysis of my Meal Summary Report, Nutrients Report, and Food Groups and Calories Report to reveal the factors affecting my food and beverage choices, compare the latter with SuperTracker’s Recommended […]
  • The Governmental Role in Food Safety The government has the mandate to supervise the overall procedures that are undertaken for food to be made from the farms to the shelves.
  • Organic Food Is Not a Cure for Environmental and Health Issues For instance, the same group of scientists claims that the moderate use of pesticides in organic agriculture is particularly important to consider while purchasing food.
  • Food Safety and Its Application The realization that low temperatures slow down the growth of microbes and the process of food spoilage led to the invention of refrigeration.
  • Eco-Friendly Food Product Production and Marketing The innovation of the airfryier has not only been a benefit to the health of the people but it also helps in the conservation of the environment.
  • “Food Colombusing” and Cultural Appropriation Authenticity in cuisine defies efforts to create an all-inclusive and integrated world in which one is allowed to enjoy and feel the attributes of a culture that is not theirs.
  • Rice: Food Ingredient as a Currency Asia is considered to be the homeland of Rice: in Asia, and to be exact, in the north of modern Thailand and Vietnam, has started to cultivate rice for the first time.
  • The Consequences of Fast Food The most evident effect of fast food is obesity among others and these effects are what will be considered as the basis of discouraging the intake of fast food while encouraging other healthier options.
  • The Food Preservation Techniques Convenience food became the go-to as America got preoccupied with vehicles and the freedom to travel around their cities and neighborhoods and as postwar America worked. Processing the ingredients and sending them to the eateries […]
  • The Impact of Climate Change on Food Security Currently, the world is beginning to encounter the effects of the continuous warming of the Earth. Some of the heat must be reflected in space to ensure that there is a temperature balance in the […]
  • The Negative Consequences of Employing High School Students in Fast Food Restaurants In addition, high school students should be advised that education and their careers are more important as compared to working at fast food restaurants.
  • Brazil Food Culture and Dietary Patterns The Brazilian food culture is made up of a variety of mostly traditional dishes that have their background from the history and culture of the country.
  • Checkers and Rally’s Fast-Food Chain Analysis This paper includes a brief analysis of Checkers & Rally’s, one of the leading fast-food chains in the USA. It is necessary to note that the threat of entry is quite serious as many entrepreneurs, […]
  • Global Challenges Faced By Fast Food Companies For instance the price strategy is usually determined by a number of factors such as the number of competitors in the market, the availability and costs of raw materials and the existent product substitutes in […]
  • Investigation of a Food Poisoning Incident This paper proposes a Departmental Policy Document in a bid to detail the accountability of the department in the investigation of a Salmonella food poisoning outbreak.
  • Nutrition: Chemical Composition of the Food Energy is the product of food in the body. Vitamin C, Vitamin A and folate are the major vitamins in this type of food.
  • Food Products: Tomatoes and Juice Preservation This Unico package only states that tomatoes are from the Mediterranean, which reflects on such food consumption trends as gourmet convenience and cleaner labels.
  • Classification of Healthy Food: Healthy Eating Habits Vegetables are good for the body since they contain minerals and vitamins. They also help keep the bloodstream clear and they are very healthy foods.
  • Improvements of Supply Chain Processes in the Fast Food Industry: Subway The purposes of the research are to analyze the service delivery stage of the internal supply chain process typical of the Subway restaurants located in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates; identify drawbacks in these areas […]
  • Food Web and Impact of Environmental Degradation In the course of this paper, ‘conservation’ refers to the preservation of natural resources that are, in any way, involved in the functioning of the food web.
  • Food Hygiene Legislation in the UK For comprehension purposes, the applicable food laws and powers of authorized officers who conducted the inspection are presented briefly in the first section of the report.
  • Common Food Preparation Methods and Their Effects Speaking about the latter, it is necessary to define and provide insight into the most important types of nutrients that can be found in alimentary products that we use.
  • Food Labels and Food Security It is imperative that food companies display the real food ingredients on the back of the food package because food safety is a serious problem in today’s society.
  • Food Culture in Mexican Cuisine It is bordered on the north by the United States, on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
  • Indian Culture, Food, Temples, and Clothing Key Terms: Traditional dresses, Indian fashion, saree, headgear Claim: Despite the inevitable impact of globalization and westernization, India is a country that could preserve its culture by wearing traditional clothes. It is normal to see […]
  • Food Hygiene Inspection of a Food Premises and the Intervention Strategies The need to conduct this inspection was necessitated by the complaints that were received from the customers about the food served at this store.
  • Diabetic Diet and Food Restrictions Diabetes is a disease caused by the inability of the body to control blood sugar because of the lack or inadequate production of insulin by the B cells of the pancreas.
  • Zero Hunger and Food Production in Abu Dhabi Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Program have prepared new estimates of the additional investment needed to end hunger sustainably 2030 year.
  • Food and Culture Links Many publications have tried to convince people that the food they eat is a product of their culture and that culture defines the different tastes they have for foods.
  • Food Industry’s Quality Function Improvement The Taipei Spring Vegetarian Restaurant is the object of the research, and the intention of the investigation is to find ways of improving service quality in the vegetarian industry [2].
  • Influencing Consumer Behavior: the changing image of ‘fast food’ Some of the factors that consumers may be influenced with include the cost, what their friends and family members say, where the restaurant is located, the duration the meal takes, and by how the consumers […]
  • Rice: Thailand Native Foods Thus, rice is the staple food of the Thai people and especially the jasmine variety of rice which makes up the largest portion of the Thai cuisine.
  • Food and Taste Process Issues It is now accepted that certain areas of the tongue have a higher ability to taste those tastes, but they are also able to sense all the other flavors.
  • The Fancy Street Foods in Japan: The Major Street Dishes and Traditions It is easy to note that the outcome is an opposite of the ordinary boiled eggs that have a firm albumen and soft yolk. The centre of the food is soft and gooey while the […]
  • Nanotechnology in the Food Industry The presence of PEG in the copolymer makes the surface charge less negative, thus enhancing the interaction of the nanoparticles with food compounds in the process of coating the food or the food ingredients.
  • Molecular Gastronomy Trend: Gastronomy and Food Science The use of science and other disciplines in restaurants and home cooking is therefore having a beneficial influence in a highly public area, lending credibility to the topic as a whole. The popularity of this […]
  • Effects of Food Challenges to Health Insufficient access to nutritious and healthy food due to high-cost results in a short and long-term effect on both physical and mental health.
  • Inventory Control in the Food Industry To formulate a mathematical model to optimize cost in inventory control, it is critical to consider different aspects of inventory control that significantly contribute to the formulation of the model and the reorder policies.
  • Food, Eating Behavior, and Culture in Chinese Society The majority of the food and the cookies were not an actual part of the Chinese cuisine. The issue of the origin of the fortune cookies demonstrates the global intersections.
  • Scientists Views: Should Organic Food Be Promoted? The cycle can be presented in the following way: At the same time, production of conventional products can be described in this way: It is expected that organic sort of nutrition will have a positive […]
  • Poverty and Global Food Crisis: Food and Agriculture Model Her innovative approach to the issue was to measure food shortages in calories as opposed to the traditional method of measuring in pounds and stones.
  • Food Delivery Industry Drivers in the United Kingdom The threat of entry is one of the drivers of the food industry in the United Kingdom. Substitution is a great driver of the food industry in the United Kingdom.
  • American Food, Its History and Global Distribution The adoption of the different styles of cooking and foods and the fusion of these foods has made them American. Some of the animals they hunted included the buffalo, wild turkey, and the bear.
  • Ethos, Logos, Pathos in the Food, Inc. Documentary In the documentary, there are many instances of its makers providing viewers with the factual information, as to the discussed subject matter, which is supposed to convince the latter in the full legitimacy of people’s […]
  • Kokubu Food Company’s Trends and Information System In addition, the paper aims to provide the in-depth analysis of the organizational trends and the role of the information systems in the strategy of the Kokubu Food Company.
  • Globalization and Food in Japan We have the McDonalds in the developed countries and it has influenced food market in Japan, so continued globalization will affect cultures in all countries in the world, including developing countries.
  • The World’s Food Problems’ Solving When the population of a country increases, there are some associated problems that will automatically arise such as increase in the level of unemployment which leads to food problems in the developing countries.
  • Organic Farming for Sustainable Food Production The article is titled “Will Organic Agriculture Feed the World,” and it provides its readers with an overview of the statistics that apply to the sustainability of organic farming.
  • Optimizing Production in the Food Industry The realization that tones of food end in landfills through irresponsible habits should drive people to engage in rational behavior about consumption, and storage of food. Also, correct societal perception would help in instilling the […]
  • Local Food Production in Malaysia According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the main challenge facing the agricultural sector is the lack of self-sufficiency in the production of food crops and over-reliance on food imports.
  • Wendy’s Fast Food Restaurant The design has the potential to elaborate on the cause of failures inherent in the establishment and possess the capacity to make recommendations on combating the challenges.
  • Agricultural Geography and the Production and Consumption of Food in British Columbia The impact of the disparity in the natural environment which causes variable conditions in different geographical areas is reflected in the productivity, production cost and efficiency of production.
  • Food Diary: Nutrition Opportunities and Challenges I need to improve the amount of protein and dietary fiber I consume by adding peas, lentils, chickpeas, and beans to my diet.
  • Healthy Eating Plan by Food Pyramid When it comes to the social aspect of obesity I am well aware that it can sometimes cause low self-esteem, especially on campus, in the office, as well as in the community.
  • The Application of Arginine Pyroglutamate as a Food Additive To substantiate the claim made by Senomyx in that the compound Arginine Pyroglutamate may act as a savory flavor enhancer, it is important to note that the Pyroglutamate component delivered by this compound may be […]
  • Organic Foods: the Best Solution or Not? In this way, my choice of organic foods as a principal rule in nutrition is conditional upon their benefit for health, their taste, and the production by well-known farms and food companies.
  • Food & Drug Administration: Federal Health Agency To be healthy, people have to understand the importance of the use of radiation-emitting products, the participation in vaccination and blood control, the discussion of veterinary affairs, and the evaluation of cosmetics and tobacco products.
  • Healthy Fast Food Restaurant The project committee has ensured that this project has a number of strengths as it is introduced in this competitive market.
  • Environmental and Industrial Analysis of UK Food Manufacturing Companies Technological Analysis The technological analysis has affected the Tasty Bake Company positively in that the global transport infrastructure has greatly improved in the recent past and this has enabled it to market its products widely.
  • Fast Foods More Harm Than Good The rest of the life of such a child is upsetting as the child is ridiculed in and out of school, through his/her adolescence, and even in college.
  • The Junk Food’s Risks Junk food has high content of fat and cholesterol that leads to clogging of the heart arteries. The content of many junk foods is unhealthy and it may expose the brain to premature aging and […]
  • Food Preservation Methods and Their Classification At the same time, conditions are created for the development of microorganisms, which change the properties of the product in the course of their life activity to improve its nutritional and taste qualities.
  • Food Security: Sustainable Development While reading this part of the chapter, I realized that the majority of the land is used to produce meat products.
  • The Importance of Food Safety in Live The food control system is an internationally recognized system that details various elements that are involved in food handling and to ensure safety and fitness for human consumption.
  • Food Costs Reduction in a Food Establishment The cost of products is linked to the amount of food waste a food establishment generates. To conclude, the reduction of food costs requires a commitment to action and flexibility.
  • The Supply and Demand for Energy Foods and Beverages One should pay attention to the following issues: 1) the growing demand for energy foods and drinks; 2) willingness of people to pay attention to the health effects of such products; 3) the increasing number […]
  • Problem of Food Overconsumption Therefore, the goals of this paper are: to identify the problem of food overconsumption, to discuss the critical factors which influence the development of the given issue, to propose a solution, and to observe possible […]
  • Do-Do Online Fresh Food Supply LLC’s Business Plan The “Do-Do Online Fresh Food Supply LLC” would be registered as a limited liability company with two owners who are the student of Long Island University at post-graduation level in the same discipline and they […]
  • Eco-Friendly Packaging for Food and Beverage Industry This product was chosen because of the direct impact of the quality of food products on the health of ordinary people regardless of the region of living of country of origin.
  • Food Security and Sustainable Local Food Systems The lessons will be tailored to ensure that the community can be in a position to influence policies related to food security and sustainable food systems in the area.
  • What Are the Benefits of Organic Foods? The proponents of organic foods believe that organic foods have greater benefits as compared to conventional foods, while the opponents believe they have are unsafe.
  • Food Retailing Industry in Turkey: Self-Sufficient Economics Therefore this paper will largely investigate and evaluate how the food retail industry in Turkey specifically paying attention to the food retail structure, the transformation of Turkey’s economy that in turn has led to growth […]
  • Hunger Crisis and Food Security: Research This article is very useful and lays the basis for the research, as it determines the scope of the problem in the US and points at the most vulnerable groups. This source is very helpful […]
  • Sea Foods in the Environment Protection Context Further, the purpose of the website is to give information that seeks to reward the efforts of people who protect and safeguard the ocean and seafood supplies such as lobsters.
  • Dietary Record of Seven Days of Food Intake This paper aims to analyze the record of seven days of food intake, with regards to the quality and quantity of the intake, the time of the day, the size and distribution of the foods […]
  • Impact of Fast Food on Human Body Firstly, it is the economics of fast food fast food is the cheapest food on the market in terms of a calorie per dollar.
  • Food Truck Business Presentation The overall cost is $29, but most of the ingredients are sold in packages, so the expenses and the number of servings will be higher.
  • The Intervention Plan For a Food Poisoning Incident And, finally, a draft of the procedures that can be adopted by the officers and staff of the Council’s Environmental Health Department should such an outbreak occur is prepared.
  • The Egyptian Diet: Sociology of Food and Nutrition This paper compares and contrasts the concept of food and the culinary practices of the Indian and Egyptian cultures and their effect on the health outcomes of the people.
  • Chemicals Used for Microbial Preservation of Food Usually, this chemical is used in the preservation of meat. It is common in the form of powder and white in color.
  • Writing on Preservation and Distribution of Food To address the several different methods used in food preservation in the food essay and the effects of preservation on food appearance, taste and its quality.
  • Causes and Effects of Fast Food: Reputation for Unhealthy Eating By setting this price to a low value, fast food companies can exclude traditional restaurants from the selection, improve throughput, and increase their brand equity.
  • Livestock Food Production Issues The failure to address animal welfare, health, and environmental concerns, as well as the intensification of livestock farming, contributes to the exasperation of challenges associated with livestock food production.
  • Food Scarcity Factor in French Revolution Many writings and works devoted to the investigation of European history in the 18th century have captured the chronicles of a long-term hunger that was spread across France on the eve of the Revolution.
  • Healthy Food: Lesson Plan The first part of the lesson is to inform the students of the difference between nutritious and bad food. They will be graded based on their choice of products and answers to the questions asked […]
  • The Concept of Food as a Leisure Experience In the modern day lifestyle, the scope of leisure activity has been extended to include food with majority of the people increasingly finding it to be a new form of leisure.
  • Traditional Food Culture in the Indian Religion As demonstrated by this particular author, the traditional food culture is important in the Hindu religion because of the fact that food “speaks” a language that conjoins the gross and the subtle, body and spirit, […]
  • Large-Scale Organic Farming and Food Supply The issue of environmental sustainability comes up due to the emerging ways of farming like the great shift of the farmers to the use of organic methods of farming.
  • An Analysis of Marketing Strategies of Local vs. International Brands in the Fast Food Sector This comes as no surprise, considering that the UK is one of the world’s largest economies in the world, has one of Europe’s highest populations and is the largest consumer of fast food in the […]
  • Food Motif in Bartleby the Scrivener The food motif is also manifested in the naming of other characters in the story. The food motif is very prominent in this story.
  • HRM in the Fast Food Industry: US, Germany, and Australia It should be mentioned that the term human-resource relations refers to the programs that an organization puts in place in order to ensure that the employees receive the benefits that are guaranteed by legislation.
  • Weird Chinese Foods: Cultural Practices and Eating Culture The Chinese are also known to eat crocodile meat for a number of reasons. The other fascinating Chinese cuisine is eating of private parts that are used mostly in adding aroma to whisky and wine.
  • Food Safety Risk Assessment Poultry is a reservoir of salmonella in human being due to the ability of salmonella to proliferate in the intestines of poultry.
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  • Food Industry: The Problems Caused by the Corona Crisis The food and beverage sector has been significantly affected by the Corona crisis, and the issue should be addressed to alleviate the collapse of the industry, especially in the most affected regions.
  • Impacts of Climatic Changes on Food Insecurity Climatic changes have heightened food insecurities in many countries; the changes have attracted many scholars to the matter prompting studies that have shown that mixed cropping, as well as the use of modern technologies, is […]
  • Analysis of Push and Pull Factors in Food Travel Motivation The implementation of the pull strategy is aimed at providing a powerful and long-term information impact through the media on the end consumer of the product.
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  • Work Experience at PH Food Inc.
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  • Food Banks Board Members and Cycle of Poverty
  • Trends in Food Sources and Diet Quality Among US Children and Adults
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  • Casa Mono: A Multi-Sensory Experience as a Food Critic
  • Food Waste in American Hospitals
  • Operations to Ensure Food Safety
  • The Peking Duck Food System’s Sustainability
  • Food Safety Modernization Act and Its Importance
  • Relation Between Food Policy and Politics
  • Salmonellosis and Food-Borne Poisoning
  • Drive-Thru Dreams and Fast Food Nation by Adam Chandler
  • Impact of Food on Health of Kids and Adults
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  • If Slow Is Good for Food, Why Not Medicine?
  • The Impact of Food Security of a Country on Its Political and Cultural Aspects
  • Multicultural Food Marketing Techniques
  • Food as Ritual Video by Crittenden
  • Slow and Fast Food Values by Alice Waters
  • Immigrants’ Employment in Agriculture and Food Processing
  • The Impact of the Food Industry on the Environment
  • The Necessity of Chemical Food Additives
  • Food Scarcity During Pandemic in Montgomery County
  • Data Driven in Food Production Companies
  • Blame It on Fast-Moving Food Industries or Personal Irresponsibility
  • Importance of Accession to Healthy Fresh Food Regularly
  • Preserving Food Hygiene and Safety
  • Foodways: Cultural Norms and Attitudes Toward Food
  • Food Banks in Canada and Their Relevance
  • Overpopulation and Food Production Problem
  • The Canine Health: Food, Vaccination, and Hygiene
  • Food Advertising and Its Effects on Children
  • Food in The Book of the Dead. The Food History
  • How Fried Foods Affect Nutrition for Young Adults
  • Nutrients: Food and Nutrients in Disease Management
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  • Farm-to-Table Food: Dissemination Portfolio
  • The Community Mobile Food Truck for Children in Macomb County
  • Employee Retention & Staff Turnover in Fast Food Industry
  • Inadequate Food Choices for Americans in Low-Income Neighborhoods
  • Fritter’s Fast Food Restaurants: Overview
  • Food Manufacturing: Term Definition
  • Pasteurization: Processing Food Substances
  • Healthier School Lunches Without Processed Foods
  • E-Commerce as a Fast-Growing Trend in the Industry of Food
  • Food Insecurity in Philadelphia, PA: Literature Review
  • The Truth About Fat: Fast Foods and Obesity
  • Primary Scales for Quinoa-Based Organic Foods
  • Reducing Food Waste Problem by Creating a Platform to Sell Expiring Food
  • Food Security Under Hot Climate in Saudi Arabia
  • Food Insecurity in the US: Feeding the Richest Country
  • Food Insecurity in the US: The New Face of Hunger
  • Research and Experiments: Molecules in Food, Photosynthesis
  • Ethical Ramifications of Eating Specific Food
  • Sustainable Development in the Food Industry
  • Genetically Modified Food: Health Risks
  • American Agricultural and Food System
  • Food Insecurity in the Gulf Region
  • The Environment of Fast Food Chains
  • Whole Foods Market in 2008: Vision, Core Values and Strategy
  • Loving Organic Foods by Diligent Consulting Group
  • Customer Loyalty in Fast Food Industry Under Current Economic Crisis
  • TED Talk “Teach Every Child About Food”
  • Consumers’ Behavioral Intentions as to Organic Food Products
  • Promoting Fast Food Ingredient Awareness
  • Global Population Growth and Increased Demand for Food
  • Wildlife Conservation and Food Safety for Human
  • The Role of the Flavor Industry in Processed Food
  • Food Desert Investigation and Analysis
  • Polysaccharides in Foods
  • The Fast Food Restaurant Market of Canada
  • The Food Justice Social Movement
  • The Impact of Food Demand Upon Areas of Outstanding Beauty
  • Dog Food by Subscription: Service Design Project
  • Organoleptic Properties in Foods: Substance Density Value
  • Strategic Planning of Whole Foods Market
  • Food Processing and Preservation Methods
  • Ideology of Fast Food Industry Development
  • Canada Food Guide Overview
  • Food Safety and Information Bulletin
  • COVID-19: Supply Chain Management Challenges of Food Industry
  • Food Safety in the Modern World
  • Distinguish Unpleasant Tastes From Food Reactions
  • Food, Music and Verbal Communication in China
  • Impacts of H7N9 Virus and Food Contamination at Maleic Acid on Inbound Tourism for Elderly to Taiwan
  • Changing the Food Journal After Every Month
  • The Chemical Composition of Food
  • The Sunshine Wok: Food Hygiene Inspection
  • Food Provision at the Annisburgh District Music Festival
  • The Fast Food Culture in Saudi Arabia
  • Consumptions of Fast Foods Among Youth in Saudi Arabia
  • Fast Food and Gender: Is There a Relation?
  • Genetically Modified Food: Analysis and Implications
  • Julia Food Booth: Business Decision Analysis
  • The Routine Food Hygiene Inspection
  • Food Borne Diseases Associated With Chilled Ready to Eat Food
  • Facing Food Insecurity: Causes & Current Programs
  • The Role of Food for Sustainability in the Built Environment
  • Nutrition: Preventing Food Born Diseases
  • Safe Food Handling for Optimum Nutrition
  • Obesity Prevalence and Fast Food Restaurant Prevalence
  • Regulation of the Fast Food Industry: Review
  • Nutrients and Food Guide Pyramid Recommendation
  • Brand: An Exceptional Food Experience
  • Food Stamp: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
  • Personal Reflection of the Book “In Defense of Food”
  • The Food Industry as a Threat to Public Health and Food Safety
  • Food Security: Limiting the Use of Antibiotics to Reduce or Slow the Antibiotic Resistance
  • Food Product Trends Related to Consumer Demands
  • Food Processing and Farming Methods
  • Fast Food: What Is Really in It?
  • Are Packaged Foods Fat-Free Products?
  • Public Service Bulletin: Food Safety Issues
  • Fast-Food and Tobacco Industry Regulation
  • Recommendations for Food Security
  • Raising Awareness on Food Poisoning Among Children Riyadh
  • Food Security and Macroeconomics Discussion
  • 21st Century Guiding Principles for the Location of Foods In a Supermarket: Maximizing Profit or Maximizing Health
  • The Reasons Behind the Popularity of Fast Food in the Context of the Lebanese Market
  • Nutrition. 3-Day Food Intake
  • Magnesium in Food and Dietary Allowance
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction-Based Diagnostics for Pathogens in Food
  • Food Diary Project: Dietary Recommended Intakes (DRI)
  • “The Bitter Truth About Fast Food” by Schlosser
  • Sugar Is Back on Food Labels as a Selling Point
  • Overnutrition, Obesity, and Food Insecurities as the Global Concerns
  • Keeping a Food Diary: Control of Calorie Intake
  • Entrepreneur Ayesha Khan and Her Food for Employees
  • Biotechnology and Animal Welfare: How Genetically Modified Chicken Serves the Demand in Fast Food Chains
  • The Food of Easter Holidays: The Roots of the Easter Tradition
  • Healthy Food With Proper Rationing and Balanced Meal
  • European Union Health Law and Food Law
  • Rhetorical Analysis on Healthy Food and Labeling Problem
  • Introducing Infants to Semi-Solid Food
  • Food Safety Policy and Inspection Services
  • Independent Food Safety Inspections in US Restaurants
  • The Problem of Food Safety and the Spread of Various Diseases
  • Protecting Americans From Food-Related Illnesses
  • Home Isolation Survival Kit: Food Kits for Emergencies
  • Quality System Implementation in Greek Food Sector
  • New Food Movements: The Raw Foodism
  • Festive Food in Chinese-Vietnamese Fests by Nir Avieli
  • Food Addiction and Obesity in Children and Teens
  • Food Texture in Packaging of Cakes, Pastries and Sweets
  • Food Security and Environmental Designers
  • Agriculture and Environment: Organic Foods
  • Adverse Impacts of Food on Human Health: Toxicity, Nutritional Deficiency, and Allergenicity
  • Fast-Food and Restaurant Strategic Marketing
  • Is Genetic Engineering an Environmentally Sound Way to Increase Food Production?
  • Kudler Fine Foods Analysis and Promotional Strategies
  • Flavours of Chittering Food & Wine Festival: Analysis
  • Organic Food as a Viable Option for Consumers
  • The Demand for Food in South Africa
  • Agro-Food Geographies: Food, Nature, Farmers and Agency
  • Appropriateness of a Food Production and Service
  • Foods Crises in Uganda Issue Analysis
  • The Specificity of Chinese Culture in Terms of Food and Music
  • Functional Food: Definition, Types, Benefits
  • Beef Industry: Nutrition and Food Safety Analysis
  • Science Nutrition: Controversies in Food and Nutrition
  • 3D Printed Food and Utensils Safety
  • Meatpacking and Fast-Food Industry: Making a Better Tomorrow
  • Meat and Fast-Food Industry: What Are We Eating?
  • Texture Description of Food for Preschool Children
  • Water Efficiency in Food Production: Food Security, and Quality of Life
  • The Analysis of the Annual Amount Spent on Organic Food Using Multiple Linear Regression
  • The Opportunity for School Food to Influence a Child’s Dietary Intake
  • Food Distribution and Water Pollution
  • Extending Existing Knowledge in the Area of Schools Foods and Their Influence on Children’s Diets
  • How Architecture Is Being Used to Meet the Challenge of Food Provision
  • Organic Food: Eco-Friendly Attitudes and Behavior
  • Understanding Genetically Modified Foods by Howard et al.
  • Food Choices and Dietary Habits: An Interview With a Mexican Immigrant
  • Food and Drug Administration Importance
  • Menu Foods Tainted Pet Food Crisis, 2007
  • Dough Pizza Company in the Food Truck Industry
  • Food Security Solutions for Kenya
  • Science and Grow Food Sustainability
  • Processed Foods and High Fructose Corn Syrup Effects
  • Acid Effects on Starch Gels in Food Preparation
  • Food Recommender Systems and Their Types
  • Emily Baumgaertner: Crop Viruses and Food Security
  • Environmental Issues and Food Efficiency
  • Conventional Food System: Justice and Security
  • Food and Beverage Server’s Duties and Dependencies
  • Hong Kong Street Food in Ethnographic Studies
  • Food Anthropology and Its Research Methods
  • Low-Calorie Frozen and Microwavable Food Industry
  • Food, Customers, and Culture in the Grocery Store
  • Fast Food Restaurants and Buyers’ Responsibility
  • Changes in Food Preferences
  • Fast Food, Fat Profits: Obesity in America
  • Food Choices: Diets and Diseases
  • Gender Relationship: Food and Culture
  • Healthy Foods: Behavior Change Analysis
  • International Food and Beverage Business in Africa
  • Food Inspection Procedures in Saudi Arabia
  • Food Poisoning and Hygiene Awareness in Saudi Arabia
  • Food Safety and Health Violation at Workplace
  • Genetically Modified Foods and Pesticides for Health
  • Food Business and Government Regulation in the US
  • Best Food Superstores’ Customer Service Policy
  • Dog Food: Pedigree Company’s Case
  • Snack Food Company’s Product Marketing Research
  • The 38th Winter Fancy Food Shows in San Francisco
  • Genetically Engineered Food Against World Hunger
  • Demographic Transition Model and Food Security
  • Food Texture and Health Outcomes Association
  • The Impact of Supply Chain Efficiency on Food Losses
  • Chemical Contaminants in Food: Endocrine Disruptors Study
  • Farmers Views: Should Organic Food Be Promoted From?
  • Should Organic Food Be Promoted?
  • The Organic Food Benefits
  • Globalization, Food, and Ethnic Identity in Literature
  • Food Safety at Introducing of New Meal
  • Food Product Risk Assessment
  • The Effect of Food Texture on Health Outcomes
  • Chicago Food and Beverage Company: Human Resources
  • Childhood Obesity and Food Culture in Schools
  • Food Texture Research for Healthcare
  • Food Safety: Washing Contact Surfaces and Cooking
  • Technology and Communications in the Global Food Industry
  • East Asian Food and Its Identifying Factors
  • Kuwaiti Food Industry and Its Development
  • The Food Angel Visiting Project
  • Visual Cameras and Inspection in Fast Food Restaurant
  • Agri-Food Supply Chains Stakeholders
  • Food Allergies Management
  • Carlo’s Food Company: Information Misunderstanding
  • Genetically Modified Foods: Pros and Cons
  • Healthy Food Truck: Management Project
  • Oil-For-Food Program: International Law Issues
  • Janesville School District Food Services Leadership
  • Food Nexus Models in Abu Dhabi
  • Family Food and Meals Traditions in Dubai History
  • Schneiders Food Company and Tyson Foods Inc.
  • Food Corporations’ Damaging Influence
  • Unhealthy Food Access and Choice Ethics
  • Genetically Modified Foods: Scientific Resources
  • Healthy You: Diets and Food
  • Imbalance in Food Supply and Growing Demand
  • Organic Foods Consumption and Cancer Prevention
  • “How to Solve the Food Waste Problem” by Chavich
  • Genetic Engineering in Food: Development and Risks
  • Food and Water Quality Testing Device
  • Popular Food as a Part of Contemporary Culture
  • American Food Industry in “Food, Inc.” Documentary
  • Food Production and Animals Suffering
  • Black Families’ Issues in the “Soul Food” Series
  • Fresh Food Provision for Low-Income Families
  • UAE Food & Clothes Retail and Restaurant Business
  • Kasih Food Company’s Export Strategy
  • Pet Food Industry in the United States
  • Swordfish Restaurant and Store in Food Services
  • US Food and Drug Administration Approval System
  • Aspen Hills Inc.’s Food Safety and Quality Issues
  • Long-Term Investment Decisions in Food Industry
  • US Pet Food Delivery: Industrial Marketing
  • Cultural Studies: Aesthetics of Food and Wine
  • Australia New Zealand Food Authority Business Plan
  • Sous Vide Food Production System
  • Food Shortages in the Republic of Malawi
  • Food and Water Waste Disposal in NYC
  • Tamwal Mobile Food Trucks Business Plan
  • Fast Food Consumption in New Jersey (United States)
  • Mexican Cuisine’s Transition to Comfort Food
  • Food and Drug Administration’s Strategies
  • Employee Turnover in Fast-Food Restaurants
  • Food and Stress Relationship: Psychological Factor
  • Gluten-Free Products in the US Food Market
  • Low-Calorie Frozen Food Company’s Market Structure
  • McDonald’s New Strategy Toward Healthy Food
  • Depressive Food Intake Disorder
  • Organic Food as a Solution of Global Food Problem
  • Glass vs. Paper/Cardboard in Food Packaging
  • The “Waist Banned” Article – Taxes on Junk Food
  • Food Business and Government Role in Saudi Arabia
  • Factors Contributing to Fast Food Consumption in UAE
  • The Fast Food Danger Awareness Among the Young People
  • Food Nexus Tools and Results
  • Supply and Demand Influences on Food in the Recent Years
  • Halal Food and Terrorist Organizations in Australia
  • Food Sovereignty in United States
  • Malaysia National Agri-Food Policy: Local Food Promotion
  • Sliders Mobile Food Truck Marketing Plan
  • Blue Springs Fast Food Store vs. Blue Gardens Restaurant Analysis
  • Spoilage Device: Forget Expiration Dates
  • The Mass Production of Food: Food Safety Issue
  • Animal Production and Food Availability
  • Froma Harrop Views on Genetically Modified Food
  • Carbon Dynamics and Food Chains in Coastal Environments
  • Temperature Impacts on Food
  • Special Food Shop for Pregnant Women
  • Traditional Medicine or Food Customs in a Chinese Culture
  • Healthy Consequences of Fast Foods
  • Food Production, Sharing, and Consumption
  • Fast Food War in Singapore: The Stiff Competition and Fight for Customers
  • Recent and Promising Food Allergy Treatments
  • Feeding Baby: How to Avoid Food Allergies
  • Nitrogen from Food Waste
  • Role of Food in Cultural Studies: Globalization and Exchange of Food
  • Food’ Role in International Students Interaction
  • Hinduism Religion: Food and Asceticism
  • Food as a Means of Cross-Cultural Interaction
  • Nutrition: Is Genetically Modified Food Bad or Good?
  • Should Fast Food Qualify As “Food”?
  • Global Food Trade’s Benefits
  • Fast Food Industry and Its Impacts
  • Food Role on Social Events
  • Genetically Modified Foods: Should They Be Consumed?
  • Corn is Our Every Day Food
  • Analysis of the Documentary Fast Food, Fat Profits
  • Good Food That Does not Grow on Trees: Analyzing the Key Supply Chain Issues
  • Organic Foods in Australia and the USA
  • Determinants of Success in the Swedish Food and Drink Industry
  • The Economic Effect of Issuing Food Stamps to Those in Poverty
  • Obesity and Fast Food
  • Liability in Food Illness Cases
  • Expanding the Australian Food Processing Industry into the United States
  • Wegmans Food Markets v. Camden Property Trust
  • Food Security in Sydney
  • World Food Program
  • Threats to Global Food Supplies
  • Whole Foods Market Strategic Analysis
  • Food Borne Diseases of Intoxicants on MSG
  • Increasing the Consumption of Healthy Food Products
  • Operations Decisions for Krafts Foods Inc. and Manute Foods Company
  • Kraft Foods’ Diverse Brand Portfolio
  • Monaghan’s Conributions to Society Foodservice Management
  • Analysis of Whole Foods Market’s feedback loops
  • Analysis of Whole Foods Market using Nadler-Tushman Congruence Model
  • Analysis of Whole Foods Market’s inputs
  • Organizational diagnosis for Whole Foods Market
  • Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning at the Whole Foods Market
  • RFID in Food Industry and Global Trading Patterns
  • Kudler Fine Foods: Incorporating Strategic Thinking
  • Fast Food Industry in the US
  • Organic Food Marketing Prospects
  • Business and economics: The organic food sector
  • Consumer Decision-Making Process on Buying Organic Foods
  • Food and Drug Administration in United States of America
  • Literature Review on Organic Food and Healthy Diet
  • Foods That Effect Children With ADHD/ ADD
  • Why Food Services Are the Most Commonly Outsourced Function in the Business Community
  • Food and Wine Tourism
  • A Typology for foodservice menu development
  • Effects of Food Advertising in Australian Television on Children Aged 5-12 Years
  • Sustainable Development in the Food Area
  • Company Research: Whole Foods
  • Evaluate Human Resource Issues in Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department
  • Expansion of Large Food Retailer into Emerging Markets
  • Diet Food Center at the University of California
  • Utley Food Markets: Pay-for-Performance Model Establishment
  • Food Ethics
  • The Problems in Food Ethics in Modern World
  • The economical aspects and different perspectives for fast food industry in Canada
  • The Contribution of Biofuels in the Food Crisis in 2011
  • Food and Culture: Food Habits in Cape Breton
  • Food Security in Detroit – Michigan
  • Challenges Inherent in Repositioning a Fast Food Chain
  • The Food and Beverage Sector
  • Whole Foods Company Analysis
  • Sub-Optimization of The Canadian Food Production System
  • The Food Movement in America
  • Critical Review: “Food’s Footprint: Agriculture and Climate Change” by Jennifer Burney
  • The Effect of Genetically Modified Food on Society and Environment
  • Careers in Lodging and Food and Beverage Industries
  • South East Queensland Food and Wine Festivals
  • Proposition 37 and Genetically Engineered Foods
  • Genetically Modified Food of Monsanto Company
  • Are Government Bio Fuel Incentives Raising Food Prices?
  • Jamie Oliver and Leadership in the Food Industry
  • The Fast-food Industry in Russia
  • Driving Forces behind a Surge of Demand for Food in the Developing Economies by 2020
  • Essential Foods Price: Basics Foods and High Increase in Prices
  • The Pros and Cons of Regulating the Food Business
  • Government Regulation of the Food Business
  • Healthy Foods and Obesity: Unhealthy Weight Loss Methods and Media Weight Loss Campaigns
  • Does Healthy Food Prevent Obesity?
  • Food and Beverage Industry Analysis
  • Foods That Are Being Served to Our Youth in the School System
  • Peoples Food and Policy
  • Genetically Modified Food and European Consumer Behavior
  • Food and Environmental Hygiene Department
  • Entering the Indian Food Market
  • Fast Food Drive-throughs
  • Could Biotechnology Solve Food Shortage Problem?
  • Does Circadian Rhythm Affect Consumer Evaluation for Food Products?
  • Are China’s Grain Trade Policies Effective in the Stabilization of Domestic Food Prices?
  • Can Better Governance Improve Food Security?
  • Does Corporate Social Responsibility Matter in the Food Industry?
  • Are Female-Headed Households More Food Insecure?
  • Can Drought-Tolerant Varieties Produce More Food With Less Water?
  • What Factors Determine/Influence the Food Choice People Make?
  • Why Are Restricted Food Items Still Sold After the Implementation of the School Store Policy?
  • Are Food Safety Standards Different From Other Food Standards?
  • Can Food Monitoring and Accessible Healthy Food Help Combat Child Obesity?
  • Are Food Stamps Income or Food Supplementation?
  • Can Government-Allocated Land Contribute to Food Security?
  • Is Genetically Modified Food Safe for Consumption?
  • Can Insects Increase Food Security in Developing Countries?
  • Are Input Policies Effective to Enhance Food Security in Kenya?
  • Can Non-wood Forest Products Be Used in Promoting Household Food Security?
  • What Are Most Serious Negative Effects of Eating Fast Food?
  • Who Does Regulate Food Safety for the United States?
  • Should the Government Regulate Food More?
  • Vegetarianism Essay Ideas
  • Chocolate Topics
  • Eating Disorders Questions
  • Vitamins Research Topics
  • Dietary Supplements Questions
  • Meat Research Ideas
  • Poisoning Essay Ideas
  • Grocery Store Essay Topics
  • Chicago (A-D)
  • Chicago (N-B)

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"663 Interesting Food Essay Topics, Examples, and Ideas." IvyPanda , 25 Feb. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/food-essay-examples/.

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IvyPanda . 2024. "663 Interesting Food Essay Topics, Examples, and Ideas." February 25, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/food-essay-examples/.

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Bibliography

IvyPanda . "663 Interesting Food Essay Topics, Examples, and Ideas." February 25, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/food-essay-examples/.

COMMENTS

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    2.1. Study Design. Quantitative and qualitative data collection was conducted to address the study aims. The qualitative method of this study utilized data collected from a subset of 1159 undergraduate college students who were 18 years of age or older, taking classes on the university's main campus, and who had completed an online food insecurity questionnaire sent to all undergraduate ...

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    Qualitative research is well placed to answer complex questions about food-related behaviour because it investigates how and why individuals act in certain ways. The field of qualitative health research is undoubtedly gaining momentum and, increasingly, there is a recognition that it should be a vital part of the decision-making processes that direct the development of health policy and practice.

  6. What is healthy eating? A qualitative exploration

    Nutrition knowledge has been identified as influencing not only food choice and consumption, but also how individuals perceive and define healthy eating (, 3,18,19). Various studies conducted during the late 1980s and 1990s explored definitions of healthy eating (, 21-25). Most recently, a Canadian qualitative study explored perceptions and ...

  7. Qualitative Data Analysis: Challenges and Opportunities for Food

    In this sense, qualitative methods based on asking consumers to state their opinions, feelings, attitudes, and preferences might not only complement but also direct further quantitative studies on a food-related research topic [ 5, 6 ]. Qualitative research involves interviews or observations in a less structured way.

  8. PDF Systems Approach and Qualitative Methods in Food Related Research

    Why use qualitative research methods? Accessibility. Reduces "reactivity". Increases relevance of survey questions. Creates intuitive understanding. Fuller picture of complex problems. Explanations for inconsistent data. Many complex research problems (especially food) require it.

  9. Enhancing quality of qualitative evidence in food safety and food

    1. Introduction. Qualitative research studies have contributed extensively to food safety and other food security research with applications in program evaluations, implementation science, and investigations of lived experiences. The food safety landscape relies on qualitative methodologies to obtain a rich, in-depth understanding of social ...

  10. Qualitative vs Quantitative Research: What's the Difference?

    Qualitative research aims to produce rich and detailed descriptions of the phenomenon being studied, and to uncover new insights and meanings. Quantitative data is information about quantities, and therefore numbers, and qualitative data is descriptive, and regards phenomenon which can be observed but not measured, such as language.

  11. Addressing Food Insecurity: A Qualitative Study of Undergraduate ...

    Food insecurity has emerged as a leading health care problem in the United States, impacting college students' health, well-being, and academic performance. The aims of this study were: (1) to assess the prevalence of food insecurity, (2) to identify college students' perceptions about food access resources, and (3) to explore students' expressed needs from the university in improving ...

  12. An Introduction to Qualitative Research for Food and Nutrition

    The purpose of this article is to define qualitative re-. search, explain its design, explore its congruence with. quantitative research, and provide examples of its appli-. cations in dietetics ...

  13. What Is Ethnography?

    Ethnography is a type of qualitative research that involves immersing yourself in a particular community or organization to observe their behavior and interactions up close. The word "ethnography" also refers to the written report of the research that the ethnographer produces afterwards. Ethnography is a flexible research method that ...

  14. A content analysis of qualitative research on college student food

    The primary keywords we used were 'food insecurity', 'food insecure', 'food security', 'food secure' and 'food pantry'. Food pantry was incorporated as a search term because research indicates that campus food pantries are among the most common institutional responses to student food insecurity (Goldrick-Rab et al., 2018 ).

  15. An Introduction to Qualitative Research for Food and Nutrition

    More recently, a perspective has been offered that considers quantitative and well-conducted qualitative research to be complementary (24-27). Figure 3 contrasts the characteristics of quantitative and qualitative research. The weaknesses in one can be compensated by the strengths of the other and vice versa (1,2,4).

  16. What Is Quantitative Research? An Overview and Guidelines

    In an era of data-driven decision-making, a comprehensive understanding of quantitative research is indispensable. Current guides often provide fragmented insights, failing to offer a holistic view, while more comprehensive sources remain lengthy and less accessible, hindered by physical and proprietary barriers.

  17. Qualitative and Quantitative Methods to Evaluate Food Component

    Special Issue Information. Dear Colleagues, The development of qualitative and quantitative methods for food analysis is increasingly seen as a tool to protect consumer health by preventing exposure to toxic food and the occurrence of diseases. New, improved, and reliable analytical methods based on chromatography, electrophoresis, microchip ...

  18. Qualitative and Quantitative Detection of Food Adulteration Using a

    Food adulteration is the most serious problem found in the food industry as it harms people's healths and undermines their beliefs. The present study is focused on designing and developing a smart electronic nose (SE-Nose) for the qualitative and quantitative fast-track detection of food adulteration. The SE-Nose methodology is comprised of a ...

  19. An Introduction to Qualitative Research for Food and Nutrition

    Abstract. The purpose of this article is to define qualitative research, explain its design, explore its congruence with quantitative research, and provide examples of its applications in dietetics. Also, methods to ensure validity, reliability, and relevance are addressed. Readers will gain increased knowledge about qualitative research and ...

  20. Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis

    A quantitative methodology employs measurements, numbers, statistics or quantities during the analytic process. On the other hand, a qualitative methodology is a non-numeric method of analysis and often uses quality, opinion, or feelings during the analytic procedure (Strauss, 2009, Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). For example, when a traffic officer ...

  21. Qualitative and Quantitative Sources

    The strategy for searching for Quantitative Research is different in PubMed. 1. Run your search for your search terms. 2. When looking at the results list, you will use the limiters to choose the type of quantitative studies you would like included in your search results. 3. Choose additional filters on the left hand side. 4.

  22. Qualitative and Quantitative Detection of Food Adulteration ...

    Food adulteration is the most serious problem found in the food industry as it harms people's healths and undermines their beliefs. The present study is focused on designing and developing a smart electronic nose (SE-Nose) for the qualitative and quantitative fast-track detection of food adulteration. The SE-Nose methodology is comprised of a dataset, sample slicing window protocol ...

  23. An Introduction to Qualitative Research for Food and Nutrition

    A qualitative research study may not have all these characteristics, but will contain most. Qualitative research is labor-intensive because of the necessity of detailed data gathering and the amount of observation that must be done. Also, similar to excellent quantitative research, superior qualitative research in-

  24. 663 Food Topics to Write about & Food Essay Samples

    663 Interesting Food Essay Topics, Examples, and Ideas. Updated: Feb 25th, 2024. 35 min. Food essays are an excellent way to demonstrate your awareness of current nutrition and health issues. Obesity is a significant concern that is present in many people throughout the world and can lead to a variety of deadly conditions. Obesity is often ...