BACKGROUND In recent years, the evaluation of convenience food has changed. It came to be considered not to have a negative effect on health and is now positioned as a tool to support dietary habits of elderly and other people. In advanced countries where the population is aging, convenience foods are expected to improve the eating habits of the elderly. METHODS We defined the indicators of cooking effort and usage intensity of convenience food and presented a model wherein a "meal" is home-produced. In the model, a home cook decides the optimal cooking effort to apply for a given usage intensity of convenience food. Using an empirical form of the proposed model, we performed a multiple regression analysis and calculated "the elasticity of cooking effort with respect to the usage intensity of convenience food" for home cooks, with each attribute defined by a combination of different personality and demographic factors, using the estimated coefficients. RESULTS Regression analysis results revealed a negative correlation between cooking effort and the usage intensity of convenience food, which is consistent with our theoretical model of home meal production. The results showed that home cooks who have special food preferences may not be satisfied with accepting convenience foods purchased from the market as they are and that these home cooks will require a higher cooking effort to obtain higher satisfaction. The elasticity of elderly home cooks was low, implying that they are not flexible enough to accept convenience food. CONCLUSIONS The results revealed that existing convenience foods do not have the same impact on home cooks with attributes. This problem can be solved with smart food systems that utilize information and communication technology, which allow home cooks to explore information on convenience foods that match their preferences and enable food providers to offer food that matches the specific tastes of home cooks. The regression results suggest this possibility.

中文翻译：

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以更好地利用方便食品为目标——基于家庭膳食生产函数的分析[J].

背景技术近年来，方便食品的评价发生了变化。它开始被认为不会对健康产生负面影响，现在被定位为支持老年人和其他人饮食习惯的工具。在人口老龄化的发达国家，方便食品有望改善老年人的饮食习惯。方法我们定义了方便食品的烹饪强度和使用强度的指标，并提出了一个模型，其中“餐”是自制的。在该模型中，家庭厨师决定适用于给定的方便食品使用强度的最佳烹饪努力。使用所提出模型的经验形式，我们进行了多元回归分析并计算了家庭厨师的“烹饪努力相对于方便食品使用强度的弹性”，每个属性由不同的个性和人口统计因素的组合定义，使用估计系数。结果 回归分析结果显示，烹饪努力与方便食品的使用强度呈负相关，这与我们的家庭膳食生产理论模型一致。结果表明，对食物有特殊偏好的家庭厨师可能不满足于原样接受从市场购买的方便食品，这些家庭厨师需要更高的烹饪努力才能获得更高的满意度。老年家庭厨师的弹性较低，表明他们不够灵活，无法接受方便食品。结论 结果表明，现有的方便食品对具有属性的家庭厨师没有同样的影响。这个问题可以通过利用信息和通信技术的智能食品系统来解决，它允许家庭厨师探索符合他们喜好的方便食品的信息，并使食品供应商能够提供符合家庭厨师特定口味的食物。回归结果表明了这种可能性。