Table 2.

Interviews: summary of the reviewed studies (n = 20).

Authors (Year), Country	Objectives	Methods, Settings and Participants	Results/Discussions	Results in Relation to Review
Andersen et al. (2015) [22] Denmark	To broaden our understanding of the concept of commensality by investigating what it means to “share a meal.”	Study: a hot meal based on Nordic ingredients vs the normal Danish school meal arrangement in which children bring lunch packs. In-depth interviews with teachers, chefs and staff, focus group interviews with pupils.	The study showed how different types of school meal arrangement influenced the social life of a school class, and how these arrangements involved strategies of inclusion and exclusion.	The results fail to confirm the conventional view that shared meals have greater social impacts and benefits than eating individualized foods. The article argues that the social entrepreneurship involved in sharing individual lunch packs might even outweigh some of the benefits of shared meals where everyone is served the same food.
Backett-Milburn (2010) [23] UK	To understand more about the social and cultural conditions which might be promoting more positive dietary health and physical well-being amongst middle class families	Parents/main food providers of boys and girls aged 13/14 years Eastern Scotland, Qualitative interviews in parents’ homes. Topic guide.	Most parents’ accounts appeared rooted in a taken-for-grantedness that family members enjoyed good health, lived in secure and unthreatening environments regarding health and resources, and able to lead active lives.	Parents described attempts to achieve family eating practices such as commensality, cooking from scratch, and encouraging a varied and nutritional “adult” diet and cosmopolitan tastes, but work and activities could compromize these
Bailey (2017) [24] Netherlands	To examine how the travel of food, food practices, and commensality reflect the flow of norms, practices, identities, and social capital between India and the Netherlands.	30 in-depth interviews conducted among Indian migrants living in The Netherlands	The main themes from the data included food from home, cooking practices, food sharing, and family relationships. Migrants’ sense of belonging was related to the food they brought from home and the memories it generated.	Commensality with co-ethnics led to a sense of community and stronger community bonds. Commensality with other non-Indian groups was perceived to be problematic. The exchanges of food, eating practices, and care created a sense of “co-presence” in lives of migrants.
Belon (2016) [25] Canada	To identify the barriers to and opportunities for healthy eating among residents of four communities representing the heterogeneity of urban communities.	A total of 35 individuals participated, from four communities in the province of Alberta, representing a spectrum of urban communities as defined by Statistics Canada, semi-structured interviews one-on-one were used.	This study identifies a set of meta-themes that summarize and illustrate the interrelationships between environmental attributes, people’s perceptions, and eating behaviors	This paper recognizes interrelationships among multiple environmental factors that may help efforts to design effective community-based interventions and address knowledge gaps on how sociocultural, economic, and political environments intersect with physical worlds
Cho (2015) [26] Korea	To examine cross-cultural variations of perceptions and actual practices of commensality and solo-eating.	University students in urban Korea and Japan, survey and self-administered questionnaire.	More Korean students reported they prefer commensality and tend to eat more when they eat commensally. Japanese reported no preference on commensality and there was no notable difference in food quantities.	The study revealed cross-cultural variations of perceptions and practices of commensality and solo-eating in non-western settings. Open ended question questionnaire.
Danesi (2018) [27] Switzerland	To contribute to research on social and cultural values of commensality and on the contemporary debate on changes of eating patterns by considering European young people’s food sharing practices	French, German, and Spanish young adult, In-depth semi-structured interviews and observations	The different nationalities contribute to emphasizing cultural diversity and laying the foundations for highlighting poignant differences between countries, in relation to meal times, content, places of food sociability, social organization at shared meals and the role of food sharing.	These aspects reveal different social meanings attached to food and commensality, as well as variability of commensal forms between young people living in or coming from different European countries
Dodds, Chamberlain (2016) [28] New Zealand	To analyze the content of a weekly nutrition column in a popular New Zealand magazine, from a social constructionist perspective.	New Zealand magazine text analyses	The articles advocated eating for health, but depicted nutritional information as open to interpretation. Fear-based messages were used by linking “unhealthy” food choices with fatness and chronic ill health.	Unhealthy foods were portrayed as more enjoyable than healthy foods, social occasions involving food were constructed as problematic.
Fossgard (2018) [29] Norway	To study how students experience and perceive their packed lunches and lunch breaks and to what extent the lunch break is a space for children’s sociality and for teachers’ governmentality?	11-year-old Students, 165 participants, focus-group discussions.	Students expressed that they appreciated their own packed lunches since they could decide what to eat. Shortage of time and disturbance in the classroom could ruin a good meal. The main issue raised was with whom they could sit and eat their packed lunches.	Findings underline the importance of considering the emotional dimensions of eating and that commensal eating is not dependent on sharing the same food. The children experienced that the lunch break was governed by an adult agenda in which they had limited opportunities to create their own spaces.
Giacoman (2016) [30] Chile	To examine the significance of communal eating among adults from Santiago, Chile.	24 group interviews were conducted in Santiago with family members, coworkers, and friends who shared meals with one another.	The results showed that the practice of commensality strengthens the cohesion among the members of a group. However, eating together also is assigned an ambiguous value	On the one hand, commensality is viewed as positive in enabling connections with others. On the other hand, participating in commensality can be viewed as negative, depending on the characteristics of the commensal group and the context, something that also was revealed by this study.
Neely (2014) [31] New Zealand	To explore the promotion of school connectedness through the practice of shared lunches within a secondary school.	Teachers and 16–18-year-old students in a New Zealand secondary school, ethnographic interviews	Shared lunches fostered common humanity, created an informal setting, encouraging sharing, enabling inclusive participation, demonstrating sacrifice for the communal good, and facilitating experiences of diversity.	Shared lunches, as part of an overall strategy to develop a well-connected school community, are adaptable and can fit into a multitude of situations to meet different needs. The findings of this study contributed to understanding the mechanisms by which shared lunches can affect indicators of school connectedness.
Neuman et al. [32] (2017) Sweden	To explore how 31 Swedish men talk about the sociality of domestic cooking in everyday life	31 Swedish men 22–88 years old, interviews with interview guide	Domestic cooking studies can show how Swedish men express sociality of cooking, intertwined with accomplishments of masculinity. The sociality of cooking is a way for men to maintain heterosocial relationships and assume domestic responsibility.	The paper discusses a potential cultural transition in men’s domestic meal sociality and suggest the need for studies to analyze how cooking shares similar properties to commensality, and the implications of this regarding gender relations.
Nyberg, Lennernäs Wiklund (2016) [33] Sweden	To investigate how the organization of work, time, and place influence the food and meal situation, focusing on patterns, form and social context of meals.	Flight attendants (Scandinavia), qualitative semi-structured interviews.	The organization of work, time, and place had a major influence on the meal situation and how meals were managed by FAs. The work was fragmented and inconsistent resulting in scattered meals and a more snack-based form of eating.	The findings demonstrated the individual responsibility to solve the meal at work, e.g., to solve organizational times
Scagliusi (2016) [34] Brazil	To analyze working mothers’ discourses about family meals eaten at the table, on the couch, and in the bed/bedroom.	30 mothers working in public universities of a Brazilian region Semi-structured interviews.	The table is a significant component of meals. Regarding the couch, it seems that the family chose to eat there, as a more casual and relaxed setting. Eating in bed was related to precarity, intimacy, and casualness. In the three settings, watching television was a common practice.	Commensality was seen as an important practice in different settings and contexts. The table emerged as the cornerstone of commensality. When a table was not present, new arrangements were made. Especially the couch seems to be a new commensal space, able to allow some collective conviviality. Finally, the significant role that television assumed in meals was also highlighted.
Schänzel, Lynch (2015) [35] New Zealand	To understand the individual and collective experiences and meanings of family holidays over time.	Ten New Zealand families consisting of 10 fathers, 10 mothers, and 20 children interviewed in homes.	Positive and negative memories of hospitality encounters for different family members are illustrated through the emotive concepts of commensality and spatiality.	Family meals take on symbolic and publicly celebrated characteristics, whereas shared accommodation space is contested. Theoretical implications of the nature of family hospitality dimensions are further discussed.
Sidenvall et al. (2000) [36] Sweden	To delineate the meaning of preparing, cooking, and serving meals among retired single living cohabiting women.	Sixty-three women living in two Swedish cities and their rural surroundings participated in qualitative interviews, home visits.	The whole procedure of preparing a meal could be seen as preparing a gift. Four phases were identified: finding out what to serve, cooking, presenting the gift in a beautiful manner, and enjoying the commensality.	Cohabiting women went on cooking with duty and joy as they had done before retirement. For widows, especially those who had recently lost their spouse, the meaning of cooking and eating was lost, and among these women there was a risk of poor nutritional intake.
Skafida (2013) [37] UK	To explore the extent to which family meal occurrence, meal patterns and perceived meal enjoyment predict the quality of children’s diets.	Scottish sample of five-year-old children, face-to-face structured interviews with child and mother.	Eating the same food as parents is the aspect of family meals most strongly linked to better diets in children, highlighting the detrimental effect in the rise of “children’s food.”	The results suggested that eating together was a far less important aspect of family meals and redirects attention away from issues of form and function towards issues of food choice. Policy implications and the importance for public health to recognize the way eating habits are defined and reproduce social and cultural capital are discussed.
Sobal, Bove Rauschenbach (2002) [38] USA	To study commensal patterns of people entering marriage.	Twenty couples in the USA, in depth semi-structured interviews.	Meal commensality varied across the daily cycle: Many spouses skipped breakfast or ate breakfast separately, most ate lunch at work, and dinner was the main commensal meal.	Greater marital commensality occurred on weekends than weekdays. Kin were major participants in commensal circles, with friends, coworkers, and neighbors also included as eating partners.
Tessler S, Gerber M. (2005) [39] France	To evaluate food habits in a holistic way, identifying key elements of the Mediterranean dietary model.	Mother-daughter couples in Sardinia (63) and Malta (61), qualitative questionnaire, open-ended, anthropological study.	The evening meal was seen to be the socializing meal in both islands. In Sardinia, both lunch and dinner were eaten together with family at home.	Mostly open-ended questions, which means a qualitative approach, showing the importance of the evening meal for socialization, lunches involving family members.
Traphagan JW, Brown LK. (2019) [40] Japan	To study eating patterns and attitudes within fast food restaurants in Japan.	Previously collected, ethnographic free listing, casual conversation interviews and observations, qualitative data from three cities in Japan.	The authors are claiming that McDonalds and other fast food chains are thriving in Japan due to the way such fast-food establishments resonate with other parts of Japanese life and culture.	Several different methods of collecting data, including free listing, casual conversation interviews and observations describing eating patterns and attitudes at fast food establishments in Japan
Vesnaver (2015) [41] GB	To explore experiences among older widowed women in relation to food behavior.	Interviews with 15 widowed women living alone in the community, aged 71 to 86 years.	Widowhood meant significantly fewer opportunities for commensality. Participants attributed changes to their food behaviors due to the experienced difference between shared meals and meals eaten alone, no longer having the commitment of commensality.	Free from the commitment of commensality, some shifted away from regular meals and simplified their meal preparation strategies. This has implications for clinical and research endeavors.