Rai, MYap, SFYang, LStewart, C2025-09-292025-09-292025-08-04Journal of Marketing Management, ISSN: 0267-257X (Print); 1472-1376 (Online), Informa UK Limited, 41(9-10), 978-1001. doi: 10.1080/0267257X.2025.25386750267-257X1472-1376http://hdl.handle.net/10292/19885Traditional socio-cultural practices surrounding food, vital for cultural preservation and continuity, are increasingly contested due to modern influences such as globalisation and economic growth. These shifts can significantly impact consumption routines and disrupt long-held traditions. While such lifestyle and food-practice shifts can threaten consumers’ sense of ontological security, more attention is needed to understand how these contestations are negotiated and managed. Drawing on theories of practice, we explore how consumers negotiate contestations amid the tensions arising between tradition and modernity. This ethnographic study of 31 middle-class households in India reveals how consumers actively (re)configure material and competence-based elements of food practices to preserve traditional meanings while negotiating modern influences. This study offers theoretical insights into the hybridisation of practices, illustrating how consumers fluidly adapt to sustain cultural continuity and restore ontological security.© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services3504 Commercial Services3506 Marketing3507 Strategy, Management and Organisational Behaviour1503 Business and Management1504 Commercial Services1505 Marketing3504 Commercial services3506 Marketing3507 Strategy, management and organisational behaviourJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.1080/0267257X.2025.2538675