agers. This often means de-structured or imbalanced meals from a nutritional perspective. Secondly, it implies that children are asked to decide for themselves what food choices to make in view of the diversity of foods offered by school buffets, bars, canteens, etc. Faced with the panoply of foods available in these places, food choices seem to be guided by the preference for easy-to-eat dishes, some of which come from other cultures. It is under these contexts that the influence of dietary values more insistently conveyed by publicity, schools as agents of socialisation and in-groups is played out. In other words, in this new social reality, the food attributes perceived by young people are largely inherent in the context of socialisation beyond family boundaries. Acculturation thus becomes a natural phenomenon, since such foods do not share the characteristics of those that are, or were, traditional in our culture. It should also be added that today’s way of life, where time is in short supply, does not allow much time for culinary preparation, structured meals or the transmission of knowledge and the sharing of experiences. Additionally, current culinary preparation practices, organised around food that is easy to prepare and eat, do not really encourage the transmission of knowledge, the so-called hand-over of the torch, as happened from mother to daughter with traditional culinary practices. The pleasure of “sitting around the table”, that special moment of socialisation, sharing and fraternisation through food, which encourages communication between family members and the maintenance of certain rituals, while ensuring the continuation of a var-
249 a . f r e i t a s e t a l . ( c o o r d . ) – d i m e n s i o n s o f m e d i t e r r a n e a n d i e t , w o r l d c u l t u r a l h e r i t a g e , f a r o : u n i v e r s i d a d e d o a l g a r v e , 2 0 1 5