Consumers' Motives for Eating and Choosing Sweet Baked Products: A Cross-Cultural Segmentation Study

This study aimed to examine consumers' motives for eating and choosing sweet baked products (SBPs). A cross-cultural segmentation study on a South African (SA) and Swiss population sample (n = 216), was implemented using the Motivation for Eating Scale (MFES) and the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ). Cluster analyses provided three consumer segments for each population sample: the balanced and the frequenters for both countries, the deniers for SA, and the health conscious for Switzerland. South Africans liked SBPs more than the Swiss respondents, however the Swiss sample consumed SBPs more often. Environmental and physical eating were the most relevant motives when eating SBPs for the SA and Swiss group, respectively. For both samples, sensory appeal was the deciding factor when choosing SBPs. Cross-cultural studies of food choices are important tools that could help improve the current understanding of factors that influence the eating behavior of ultra-processed foods to promote healthy food choices through local and global perspectives. This paper highlights that more research is needed on consumers' motives for choosing and eating ultra-processed foods in order to develop specific integrative cultural exchange actions or intervention strategies to solve the obesity issue.