“We think about the quantity more”: factors influencing emerging adults’ food outlet choice in a university food environment, a qualitative enquiry

BACKGROUND: In recent decades, the food environment has seen rapid transformation globally, altering food availability and access along with how people interact with the food environment and make food-related choice. OBJECTIVES & METHOD: This explorative study aimed to identify the factors that shape the decision-making process for food outlet choices among emerging adults in a Ghanaian University food environment. The study uses focus group discussions in combination with novel dyadic interviews with best friend pairs. Verbatim transcripts were analysed thematically using NVivo 12. RESULTS: Drawing on socio-ecological model (SEM) of behaviour, the study used testimony from 46 participants aged 18–25, 47% female, including individuals from major ethnicities and religions in Ghana, and identified three interwoven levels of influence shaping emerging adults’ choices of food outlet. The main factors influencing food outlet choice were identified as food prices, spatial accessibility, budget, and food quantity/satiety with additional factors including hygiene, variety of foods, food quality and taste preferences as well as societal factors such as ambience and peer influence. CONCLUSION: Multi-component approaches that combine structural level interventions in food retailing along with individual level components may be effective at changing emerging adult consumption behaviour in SSA, although this needs to be studied.