The purpose of this thesis was to describe what factors influence consumers? choice when buying probiotic products. Functional Foods have been predicted a bright future on the food market but so far the concept have not been embraced by the consumers. The reasons for this are many and not clearly understood. Positive health effects are what set a functional food product apart from traditional food stuffs of the same type.

Since several lifestyle diseases are associated with obesity much research is carried out within the area. Researchers have found that oxidation of fatty acids within the body?s cells may give rise to peripheral signals which regulate food intake, but it is still unclear where such a mechanism takes place. Although much evidence suggests that it is the hepatocytes in the liver that send signals regulating food intake, some researchers have begun to question this theory. Instead they argue that the mechanism takes place within the enterocytes since they are well localised in the gut for such assignment.

This master thesis aims to investigate and quantify the potential associated with increasing the usage of edible by-products as food for human consumption on the Swedish market. The main emphasis is on the Swedish production of offal and the obstacles that currently inhibit greater usage of these products as foods.The results indicate that the Swedish market for offal is limited. Only a small amount of the edible by-products that are produced in Sweden every year are consumed as foods and a considerable amount seem to be downgraded into animal feed or thrown away. The utilization of these products is restricted by economical, technical, legal, and cultural factors that all need to be taken into consideration. On the whole, large-scale slaughter plants seem to be more inclined to utilize these products effectively, as the profit from doing so increases proportionately to the produced volumes.

The cocoa produced in Fiji is exported to industrialized countries for processing of the raw material. The Swedish organization Cocoa Bello is involved in a project to provide the Fijian cocoa farmers with knowledge as well as resources to enable local processing and to attain added value of the cocoa crop. The purpose of this study is to discover a field of application for the Fijian cocoa among the rural population, using an ethnographic design. We spent one week in Namau Settlement, Fiji, where we applied in-depth interviews and participant obser-vations in six families. We found a number of aspects affecting food choices, such as social, economical and cultural beliefs.

Food waste from grocery stores - An analysis of municipal management inSweden and a detailed study of the situation in Umeå municipalityThe objective of this thesis was to analyze the municipal management of food waste fromgrocery stores in Sweden in general and in Umeå municipality in particular. Furthermore theobjective was to account for the different waste treatment methods that can be used and toevaluate them from an environmental perspective. In order to analyze the municipalmanagement a survey was sent to all of the municipalities/municipal waste companies inSweden. A general comparison of treatment methods was carried out on the basis of ascientific review and a system analysis was performed in order to compare three differenttreatment alternatives for the food waste generated in grocery stores in Umeå. The surveyshowed that the legal definition of food waste from grocery stores is unclear and variesbetween municipalities.

The climate affects animal populations through several processes. These processes includereproduction, phenology and the success of hunting. By influencing the phenology of species theclimate also affects the way species interact. If a climate-induced phenology change promotes abasal species to bud earlier in the spring for example, this will affect the links to other species inthe food web due to a time lag in the tropic levels above. This dependence, that a predator has tobeing synchronous to its prey, is called the match/mismatch hypothesis (MMH).

Enligt en studie från livsmedelsverket äter den genomsnittliga svensken alldeles för dåligt. Godis, läsk, kakor och bullar utgör ungefär femton procent av det dagliga energiintaget. Den stora boven är tillsatt socker, som inte bara finns i godis och bullar, utan även i t.e.x. färdiglagade maträtter och bacon. Fika är en tradition som är central i svensk kultur, och det finns nog inte en enda svensk som aldrig fikat.

We have a business proposal. Instead of the consumers visit the country side in order to purshase we are interested in starting a shop with only regional produced products in the city. We have our base in a part of Sweden called Östergötland, therefore we have investigated the market for such a store in Östergötlands biggest city, called Linköping. The conclusion is that the store must sell food produced in the region. Another conlusion is that the store must be located near a bigger supermarket. Our main selling points are quality and that the food is produced in the near region.

To build a sustainable future should we first understand that; every aspect of our daily lives can affect the environment. It?s important that we take responsibility for understanding how we impact the environment and change our actions accordingly. The worlds total energy consumption equivalent to 80 million MWh / year. This corresponds to about 220 million MWh / day.Energy consumption is one of the main reasons for increased greenhouse gases when the reduction of this consumption has a great demand worldwide.In order to prevent the energy that consumed the buildings must be energy efficient but there is a conflict between radon ventilation and energy conservation in a building, given that ventilation can consume as much energy (currently 29-59% of energy-efficient houses use), especially in a cold climate as in Norway.

The world?s population reached more than 6.9 billion people in July 2011. It is expected that the population growth during the next 40 years will take place mostly in low-income countries and the population increase will be 2.3 billion people during 2011-2050. A rapid urbanization is also expected to result in 57.7 per cent of Africa?s population living in urban areas in 2050.

The purpose of this thesis is to gain a holistic understanding of who are the consumers of fortified health food products; moreover to highlight what are the characteristics of the consumers who are likely to purchase these products. This thesis employed a quantitative strategy with an inductive and a grounded theory approach. The data was collected from a research company. Existing theories in the area of functional food were not possible to find. Considering that the area is new this seems plausible; however, previous studies provided insight for substantive framework.

High oil prices and bad harvests have led to dramatic increases in food prices and are nowthreatening millions of people in densely populated cities all over the world. To ensure thatthese people will have enough food without compromising the needs of future generationswill be a demanding task for politicians and decision makers. ?is paper has shown thatHavanas urban gardens have increased urban food security since the hunger crisis thatoccurred a?er the fall of the Sovjet Union in 1989, and that they support the thesis of Amartya Sen and the Ryerson University. Urban gardens can be a good example for cities how to avoid hunger and famine if they are properly managed.

This bachelor thesis argues for consumers' views on origin labeling effect and their willingness to pay for goods with this kind of label. The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors that influence and to measure willingness to pay for a national origin labeled product previously only competeing with a less expensive conventional product, when a further regional product is introduced in the purchasing decisions of consumers. This is achieved by testing whether Simonson's (1989) theory of the compromise effect is applicable to increase consumers' willingness to pay for eco-labeled food products. The factors affecting the willingness to pay; trust in eco- label, opinions about the products of their own nation and the surrounding region. Furthermore presents theory about what underlying the consumer consumption choices.In order to achieve credible results 240 respondents have participated in a questionnaire survey.

The aim of this literature review was to make a comparison between the feeding requirements of Swedish reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) and meat producing cattle (Bos taurus) within farming. Reindeer are an intermediate feeding type; they have the ability to adapt to short term seasonal changes in food. They avoid eating fibre as much as possible and display highly selective behaviour while foraging. Adaptation to harsh environments with a limited amount of food has made reindeer dependent upon easily digestible food and consequently their digestive systems are less capable of processing plants with high fibre content. Herding is an extensive system which requires a significant amount of land and labour and describes the reindeer industry.

The background of this research is that Swedish food products have hard to compete at the home market, depending on imported food products that increase more and more for every year that pass by. The ethic values LRF associate with Swedish food products, many customers have hard to put in relation with condition of foreign agriculture. Most customers today inquire high quality, safety and convenience in the food which they are eating. The source of their food seems to have less meaning. Many restaurants and bigger households appreciate Swedish food products and wants to buy them but price differences against foreign wares are to high. We have done oral interviews with wholesale dealers, restaurants, public purchasers and with different market organisations, there we have discussed buying strategies, the way they see the primary producer, the conscious of guests, choice and attitudes to Swedish and foreign products, distribution of power in the food market chain and to what position and suspension, they want the ranks of suppliers to have. The result shows the share of imported wares within restaurants and bigger households are at a high level and will continuing increasing. Within these sectors the final consumer in many cases put less effort in the origin of the raw source of food.