FOODLIT-PRO - Food Literacy Project: Development of Concept, Measure, and Intervention

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Foodlit-pro: Food literacy project food literacy conceptualisation, assessment, and intervention with portuguese adults

Publication . Rosas, Raquel Alexandra Ferreira; Leal, Isabel Pereira; Pimenta, Filipa; Schwarzer, Ralf

Individuals’ food-related education and empowerment is crucial not only to transform knowledge, competencies, and behaviours towards healthier and more sustainable food choices, but also to provide for skills that allow consumers to successfully navigate within food systems. The central aim of this dissertation was to contribute to further advancements in the field of food literacy by exploring its conceptual understanding, facilitate its assessment, and developing a theory-supported intervention. To this end, we developed a mixed-methods and sequentially designed project entitled ‘FOODLIT-PRO: Food Literacy Project’ that comprises three stages described in five chapters. Presented in chapters 2 and 3, Stage 1 demonstrated a wider outlook on the comprehension of food literacy, providing for a conceptual and empirical framework with a multidimensional definition of the construct, a characterisation of its determinants, and the identification of inter-sectorial fields of action. Described in chapter 4, Stage 2 allowed to translate the multifaceted conceptualisation of food literacy into a quantitative assessment tool, providing for an adaptable and validated measure to assess food literacy, its determinants, and influential factors in Portuguese adult samples. Presented in chapter 5 and 6, Stage 3 enabled the first known mapping of food literacy content into digitally delivered behaviour change techniques and allowed to verify the theoretical suitability of the Health Action Process Approach in predicting food literacy outcomes. These findings suggest that a broader approached should be taken when striving to promote food literacy, acknowledging the impact of surrounding areas and identified determinants. Emphasising the synergy between consumers’ food literacy and wider fields of action, the FOODLIT-PRO underlines the need to consider multidisciplinary approaches towards global food-related sustainability.

2022-12-14Doctoral thesis

Open access