Abstract
A theoretical model of modern food consumption is presented built on the assumption that utility from different food characteristics is accumulated over time. The characteristics considered include energy content, taste, health, status and environmental (as well as political and ethical) proprieties, time and financial cost. Another assumption is that food is usually consumed as meals, that is, as bundles of different characteristics. The better the combination of foods chosen over a period (i.e., a diet comprising meals that offer much of utility-increasing characteristics relative to the most restrictive utility-decreasing one), the higher the overall utility will be at the end of the period. The more numerous the characteristics which affect the decision process, the more difficult the food selection process will be. The implications which arise from this approach are: (1) Converging international food consumption can be explained as a reaction to increasingly similar social and economic environments in many countries. (2) Individual preferences may be homogeneous within geographical areas but different across them, thus causing regional food consumption patterns to continue to exist despite international pressures for more similar eating habits. (3) Inter-regionally different preference matrices of consumers make it difficult to market regional dishes successfully internationally. (4) Internationally successful dishes and food products may be those which offer a high content of one or two distinctive utility-increasing characteristics relative to a relevant (i.e., binding) utility-decreasing one. (5) Foreign food products may be more easily accepted when they help to transform food products which already exist, and are highly appreciated, into a new meal which offers a better mix of utility-increasing characteristics.