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Meals or Snacks?
Dr. Herb Meiselman
Herb MeiselmanTraining & Consulting
The impact of meal context on food likeability

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Herb Meiselman, Ph.D.
Scientific Committee, Institut Paul Bocuse, France
Research Committee, Culinary Institute of America, USA
IMPACT of MEAL CONTEXT
Providing food in meals enhances liking scores over
foods served individually in laboratory small portions
(King et al, 2004, 2007)
Providing food in meals rather than isocaloric snacks produces
less eating following a meal than a snack. (Capaldi et al, 2006)
The cognitive features of foods, their context, influence both
liking and intake. The natural context of foods is a meal
context.

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MCCORMICK STUDIES – MeanValues for Overall Meal
and Meal Components AcrossTests
Test
Meal
Component
Test 1
Traditional
(N=104)
Test 2
Meal
(N=93)
Overall -- 7.5a
Salad 7.0c 7.5abc
Pizza 7.2ab 7.2ab
Tea 5.9b 7.0a
Within rows, means sharing letters are not significantly different.
King et al, 2004

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Meals are a form of ritual behavior.
“ The term ritual refers to a type of expressive, symbolic
activity constructed of multiple behaviors that occur in a
fixed, episodic sequence, and that tend to be repeated
over time.”
- Rook, D.W., J. of Consumer Research (1985)

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“We have reviewed abundant
evidence, linguistic, culinary, practical,
and memorial, that the meal is a special unit
of eating at the psychological level. It is the basic or privileged
unit...
Both our day and our thinking are organized in terms of meals.”
- Pliner and Rozin (2000), in Meiselman, H.L. (Ed)
Dimensions of the Meal
Meal = the basic unit of eating

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Four terms to describe eating:
• A food event is an occasion when food is eaten.
• A structured event is a social occasion organized by rules
concerning time, place, and sequence of action.
• Food eaten as part of a structured event is a meal. A meal
observes the rules of combination and sequence.
• A snack is an unstructured food event without any rules of
combination and sequence.
Source: Douglas, M & Nicod, M (1974), New Society, 30, 744-747
Structure of British Meals

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Gatenby, 1997Self reported by subjectNo predefined concept
De Castro, 1993210 or 420 or 840 kJ + 15‟
or 45‟ interval time
Energy content +
interval time since last
eating event
Skinner et al.,
1985
More than one single foodFood quality
Presence of fellow eatersSocial interaction
Consumption of>375 kcalEnergy content
Fabry et al., 1964
and others
Eating events in theTime of consumption
AuthorMeal defined asCriteria
Criteria for the Definition of a Meal
Rotenberg, 1981
Bernstein et al., 1981
morning, at midday and
in the evening
Ref: Oltersdorf et al, 1999, Appetite

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Criteria for Proper Meals
 Social, especially nuclear family.
 Duration, enough time for eating and socializing.
 Location, normally at home.
Mestdag, I. (2005) Appetite, 45, 62-74.

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Criteria for Proper Meals
Individual
Social
Private Public
- Eating alone at home - Snack on the street
- Lunch at the workbench
- Individual meal at a
restaurant
- Family meal at home
- Meal at friends’ home
- Meal with friends at
restaurant
- Lunch with colleaguesSource: Kjaernes (2001),Table 1-1, Page 35

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Criteria for Proper Meals
“We could simply use concepts like “dinner”, “lunch”, and “main
meal” implicitly meaning hot meals at certain hours for our
questionnaire. Rather we had to strip such culturally laden
concepts of their nation- or cultural-specific garments. In our
deconstruction process we decide to ask for “eating events”, i.e.
every occasion of eating something…”
Kjaernes (2001), Page 39

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French Meals
Stable three meal pattern (INPES 2004 survey):
90.2 % report three meals the previous day
82-85% for people < 30 years
 Breakfast: Petit dejeuner early morning,
94.5% report having, 15 min.
 3-4 course lunch: Dejeuner (diner) 1200-1400,
96.9% report having, 38 min.
 2 course dinner: Diner (souper) 1900-?, 40 min.
Grignon and Grignon, 2009

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Validation of a buffet meal design in an
experimental restaurant.
Allirot, X et al, 2012, Appetite

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Wansink et al (2010) Meal Snack
Social/alone social alone
Cloth/Paper napkins cloth paper
Longer/shorter long short
Ceramic/paper plates ceramic paper
Sit/Stand sit stand
Hi cost/Lo cost food hi cost lo cost
Large/small portion large small
Hi/Lo quality food hi quality lo quality
Hi/Lo quantity food hi quantity lo quantity
Prepared/Packaged food prepared packaged
Healthy/Unhealthy food healthy unhealthy
Number of items/variety hi variety lo variety
food temperature hot cold
CriticalVariables for Meals and Snacks

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Cardello, Lawless, & Meiselman
(unpub) Meal Snack
Beverages inclusion beverage no beverage
Level of satiation satiating not satiating
Eating times fixed anytime
Eating between meals no yes
Food compatibility compatible not compatible
Color variety color variety no color variety
Family traditions show
at meals
traditions no traditions
CriticalVariables for Meals and Snacks

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 Douglas, M. (1975). Implicit meanings: essays in anthropology. London: Routledge &
KeganPaul
 Douglas, M & Nicod, M (1974), New Society, 30, 744-747
 Meiselman, H.L. (Ed.) Dimensions ofThe Meal. Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen, 2000, 344
pp.
 Meiselman, H.L. (Ed.) Meals in Science and Practice. Cambridge, Woodhead, 2009,
681 pp
 Mestdag, I. (2005) Appetite, 45, 62-74.
 Oltersdorf, U., Schlettwein-gsell, D., & Winkler, G. (1999).Assessing eating patterns—
An emerging research topic in nutritional sciences: introduction to the symposium.
Appetite, 32, 1–7.
 Pliner, P., Bell, R., Meiselman, H. L., Kinchla, M., & Martins,Y. (2004). A layperson‟s
perspective on meals. Food Quality and Preferences, 15, 902.
 Walker, H. (Ed.) “The Meal” Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and
Cookery 2001, Prospect Books.
 Wansink,B., Payne, C.R., and Simizu, M.(2010) Short communication „„Is this a meal or
snack?‟‟ Situational cues that drive perceptions. Appetite 54, 214–216
References

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Creative Credits
Slides by David Meiselman Marketing (www.davidmeiselman.com)
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