Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess consumers' perception of a typical Brazilian food in its familiar and innovative versions through a survey combined with textual analysis.Design/methodology/approach: The study collected consumers’ data (N = 476) via survey and conducted two textual analysis – similitude and descending hierarchical classification (DHC) – using the Iramuteq software. In order to evaluate the consumers’ perception, traditional cheese breads (familiar) and cheese breads with carrots (innovative) were used. The consumers are from Central-West Brazil and had diverse socioeconomic status.Findings: Similitude analysis showed that the familiar product presented mostly neutral or positive characteristics. The DHC analysis provided three relevant classes for the traditional cheese bread (familiar) product, considering the consumers’ perceptions and socioeconomic status. For the innovative product, the similitude analysis showed negative associations with the food (food neophobia), but there are also positive characteristics to be explored (food neophilia). Neophobia was attributed to hedonic aspects, e.g. doubts about the taste approval. Neophilia was related to normative aspects, e.g. the product's health benefits.Research limitations/implications: The results are exploratory and, therefore, cannot be generalized, but can arise insights to different food products. It was observed that the chosen method can be useful to access the consumer's perception and could be replicated in other cultures and regarding different products.Practical implications: Food neophobia can be avoided by highlighting hedonic aspects and food neophilia can be activate via normative attributes, so the launch of an innovative food should be accompanied by consumer-oriented marketing strategies.Originality/value: The present study brings relevant insights regarding food neophobia and neophilia and uses a combination of survey with textual analysis.

Purpose: Sustainable food consumption is crucial to protect the environment and to promote a better quality of life. Our study analyses and compares the causes, perceived consequences of food waste and practices to mitigate it in supermarkets and restaurants.Design/methodology/approach: We conducted 17 semi-structured interviews with managers or other responsible persons with mastery of information about food waste of restaurants (self-service and à la carte) and supermarkets. The data were analysed via thematic content analysis.Findings: The leading causes of food waste for the interviewed supermarkets and restaurants were improper handling by the staff, ineffective stock control management and lack of employee training. Supermarkets perceived other causes such as inadequate food packaging, refrigeration and temperature issues and dishonesty of carriers. The perceived consequences of food waste were mainly related to the economic aspect. Regarding adopting practices to reduce waste, some highlights are employee training, waste management by a specialized employee, assertive demand forecasting, meal preparation in the store and food donation. Just the supermarkets employ price reduction as a practice to reduce food waste. We concluded that, in general, supermarkets perceive more causes for waste than restaurants but do not necessarily present practices to mitigate these additional causes.Originality/value: This research expanded the scope of studies about food waste and reveals procedures that those in charge can implement to reduce food waste. Our study analysed the causes, practices and consequences of food waste in two types of food channels (supermarkets and restaurants, in different formats). The literature does not clearly disclose aspects assigned to different food marketing channels, especially in emerging economies.

A crise relacionada à covid-19 trouxe mudanças em diversos contextos, incluindo no alimentar. Serviços de alimentação foram fortemente impactados pela restrição abrupta de funcionamento do comércio. Todavia, as Redes Alimentares Alternativas (RAA) se mostraram resilientes neste processo. Para entender melhor esta questão, foram avaliados dois casos de RAA, sendo uma Comunidade que Sustenta a Agricultura (CSA) e um Clube de Compras (CC) de alimentos sustentáveis, ambos no Distrito Federal (Brasil). Os casos se configuram como sistemas que operam de formas diferentes, mas tendo em comum a promoção de acesso semanal a alimentos saudáveis e provenientes da agricultura familiar. No enfrentamento ao isolamento social trazido pela pandemia, foi possível verificar que ambos os casos precisaram se adaptar. Nos dois casos, foram incluídas medidas de saúde e segurança, o que demandou ajustes nas operações. Ainda, na CSA foi necessário, por exemplo, alterar o local de encontro para coleta dos produtos, e no CC foi interrompida a venda a não associados. Apesar das mudanças, nenhum dos sistemas, diferentemente de modelos de negócios alimentares convencionais, sofreu impacto negativo no desempenho econômico ou mudança do perfil de produto obtido pelos consumidores. Houve, na verdade, um aumento da demanda dos consumidores, nos dois casos, garantindo renda aos produtores envolvidos e o acesso a alimentos saudáveis pelos consumidores. Assim, a compreensão das características de RAA forneceu subsídios importantes para o favorecimento da relação produtor-consumidor também em momentos de crise como a da pandemia de covid-19.