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Customers' perception of restaurant food environment by regions in Korea
Author(s) -
Choe JeongSook,
Kim Young,
Park Younghee,
Lee SangEun
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.903.6
Subject(s) - sanitation , environmental health , taste , healthy food , business , rural area , perception , food choice , geography , marketing , advertising , medicine , food science , psychology , chemistry , pathology , neuroscience
The aim of this study was to assess the food environment, particularly focusing on restaurants in Korea. 662 persons were surveyed on customers' perceptions of food environment in Korean restaurants. A structured questionnaire composed of 30 questions on 7 factors_ sanitation(4 items), displaying information(5), food quality(12), information on nutritional and healthy food choice(6), restaurant's accessibility(1), availability(1), and affordability(1) was used. Scores(range of score : 1~7) of each factors assessing the restaurant food environmentwas 5.06 for sanitation factors, 5.05 for displaying information factors, 5.13 for taste & appearance factors, 4.35 for healthy menu factors. Informations on nutritional and healthy foodchoice showed a low rate. Only 16.24% of the subjects answered that there is a message encouraging choice of healthy foods and 27.4% answered that menu contains nutritional information. There were significant differences by regions(city, town, rural) in food environment. The restaurants food environment in rural area turned out to be poor than the other two areas. This study provided evidence for differences of restaurant food environment by regions in Korea. The rural area has a problem in restaurant's accessibility, availability, and affordability because of a lack of variety in menu items and restaurants. This results suggest that there is a need for more healthy food restaurants in rural area.