RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article T1 Meaning of food in eating patterns A1 Hernández Ruiz, Bernardo A1 Chinea Montesdeoca, Cristina A1 Suárez Rodríguez, Ernesto Jesús A2 Psicología CognitivaSocial y Organizacional K1 Meaning K1 Food K1 Pattern K1 Consume K1 Vegans AB Purpose–Thepurposeofthisstudyistoconceptuallyandempiricallyverifythemeaningofthefoodconstruct, while adapting and validating the Meaning of Food in Life Questionnaire proposed by Arbit et al. (2017) into Spanish and comparing groups with specific and non-specific eating patterns in relation to the meaning of food. Design/methodology/approach–Confirmatoryfactoranalysisandmultivariateanalysisinvolvinggroups with specific and non-specific eating patterns. Findings–Resultsshowthattheadaptedversionofthescaleretainedthefivefoodmeaningfactors,althoughfour itemsfromtheoriginalversionhadtoberemoved.Multivariateanalysesofvarianceshowthattherearesignificant differences in the moraland sacred factors offoodmeaning whencomparingpeople withspecific and non-specific eatingpatterns.Significantdifferencesinthemoral,sacredandsocialfactorswerefoundwhencomparingbetween people with a specific diet, vegans/vegetarians and people who do not consume gluten/lactose or are on a diet. Research limitations/implications– Differences in the meanings attributed to food can be observed among the different ways people eat. This could have implications on ethics, sustainability and well-being by considering the characteristics of the five factors of food meaning. Originality/value– This study suggests that food meaning is a complex and rational process, where eating patterns play a key role in the attribution of meaning. YR 2020 FD 2020 LK http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/40110 UL http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/40110 LA en DS Repositorio institucional de la Universidad de La Laguna RD 27-nov-2024