The Mindful Eating Scale

The Mindful Eating Scale (MES) was developed to assess mindfulness within the specific behavioural domain of eating (Hulbert-Williams et al., 2014) . Although mindfulness is frequently conceptualised as a generalised trait or skill, there has historically been limited empirical evidence that mindful awareness transfers consistently across behavioural contexts. An individual may, for example, demonstrate mindful awareness in relation to pain or stress but not in relation to eating behaviour. The MES was therefore designed to operationalise the central components of mindfulness — attention/awareness and non-judgement/acceptance — specifically in the context of food and eating.The original scale comprised 29 items (later refined to 28 items) across six factors: Acceptance, Awareness, Non-reactivity, Act with Awareness, Routine, and Unstructured Eating. The MES was developed with explicit reference to established general mindfulness frameworks, ensuring conceptual continuity while increasing domain specificity. Initial validation demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and meaningful associations with related constructs, including perfectionism and eating behaviours (Hulbert-Williams et al., 2014) . A shorter form was developed and discussed but ultimately not published. Since its publication, the MES has been translated and validated in multiple languages and cultural contexts. These include:Brazilian Portuguese: Salvo et al. (2023)Arabic: Fekih-Romdhane et al. (2023)Greek: Mantzios et al. (2023)Japanese: Takahashi et al. (2025)These cross-cultural validation studies provide evidence for the structural reliability and construct validity of the MES across diverse populations, while also highlighting culturally specific psychometric nuances. Additional translations have been published beyond those listed here, and further adaptations may continue to emerge.The MES is released under an open licence to support replication, cross-cultural research, and clinical application. Users are encouraged to cite the original publication and relevant translation papers when employing the scale.