Social food pleasure

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce and define social food pleasure as a new conceptual framework that can promote pleasurable and healthy food experiences. Design/methodology/approach: By reviewing the literature related to food well-being and pleasure primarily from marketing and management fields and by looking at current trends appealing to food consumers and food enjoyers, the authors propose a new conceptual framework of social food pleasure. Findings: The authors conceptualize social food pleasure as “the enjoyment derived from the acts of sharing food experiences offline, online, and for society at large, that positively contributes to consumers’ overall pleasure and satisfaction with consumer’s food consumption”. Moreover, the authors identify three key contexts of applications of social food pleasure. Sharing offline relates to the social activities that can help achieve pleasure with food. Sharing online concerns new media tools which allow for the connection between consumers and food to enhance food pleasure. Sharing for society considers the current pleasure of consumers derived from having a positive social experience based on food consumption. Originality/value: By defining social food pleasure and proposing a conceptual framework of the three contexts of application, the authors advance the understanding of what constitutes pleasurable food experiences, connecting it to healthy food choices and well-being.