Shopping and cooking: the organization of foodpractices, at the crossing of access to food storesand household properties in France

This paper explores different ways of organizing food practices in shopping,cooking, and managing leftovers and shows how these relate to sustainability. Weconducted an ethnographic study in France based on in-depth and repeated interviewswith around 30‘ordinary’consumers aged between 30 and 87 years. We analyzed theinterviews using a practice–theory approach and distinguished meanings, materials, andskills linked to food products and eating. We identify four patterns of everyday foodpractices, each coherently linking specific ways of provisioning, storing, cooking,waste sorting, and other practices. We show how households adopt patterns accordingto their social characteristics and place of residence and how they switch from onepattern to another according to circumstances. Each pattern comprises some sustainablepractices, although not always at the same level. We highlight not only the role ofmaterial infrastructure in framing access to food products, but also the necessity toconsider temporal organization, financial resources, household size, and social positionto understand food practices. Food practices also differ according to definitions ofproper eating, which may vary in the long run according to life course events, and in theshort run according to the context of meals. We conclude by discussing different waysto promote more sustainable eating.