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Purpose This study aims to examine consumers’ preferences among four calorie-reducing approaches – resizing, reformulation, substitution and elimination – and to understand what motivates consumers to order low-calorie food using the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a model. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual model was developed based on the TPB with an additional construct of food choice motives. A total of 467 responses were collected. Descriptive statistics, multiple regression and ANOVA were used in the data analysis. Findings Consumers have a clear preference for substitution and elimination. The pattern that ingredients with higher calories were modified at a higher priority indicated that consumers might improve food decisions based on calorie information. Practical implications Restaurants should allow substitution or elimination of certain ingredients from menu items. Including more low-calorie sides will cost restaurants less than changing the main dish. A menu item on an entrée form is more amenable to modification for decreased calorie content as consumers have high taste expectations for popular traditional foods (e.g. burgers and pizza). Originality/value This is the first study to investigate consumers’ preferences among the four popular calorie-reducing approaches. A novel “Build Your Own Meal” approach was used in the questionnaire to allow the participants to choose from more than 150 ingredients, which compensated for personal preferences, thus mitigating possible limitations associated with studies of this kind, and was a good indicator of the participants’ actual ordering behavior.

The study provides a much-needed understanding of how non-visitors form naive destination food images. Specifically, it uses Projective Techniques to identify Egyptian food perceptions held by Americans who never visited Egypt nor tried Egyptian food. Nine food image dimensions were identified: health and nutrition, food culture and heritage, distinctiveness, food quality and variety, flavor profile, cooking methods and ingredients, price and informality, dining places, and table manners. The study showed that non-visitors visualize a destination's food and cuisine based on its cultural and environmental features. It also shows that non-visitors derive their naive destination food images in part from their home country food experiences and places they have visited. Although this study is based on individuals with no Egyptian food experience, it suggests that many secondary experiences influence food images formation.

With consumers becoming increasingly health conscious, the demand for reduced calorie food has significantly increased over the years. However, the definition of low-calorie food remains unclear. T...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the dimensions of restaurant customers’ engagement or disengagement with healthy eating in terms of individual and environmental factors to develop a scale. The results identified the underlying constructs of customers’ individual motives for and perceived barriers to healthy eating, as well as environmental elements of restaurants that encourage or discourage healthy eating. Design/methodology/approach To develop an appropriate set of measures to assess factors influencing customers’ healthy eating behaviors at restaurants, the current study undertook the five steps of scale development suggested by Churchill (1979): specifying the domain of constructs, generating a pool of initial measurement items, assessing content adequacy, administering questionnaires (an online survey method) and purifying and finalizing the measurement (via exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using 410 samples and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using 423 samples). Findings The results revealed ten individual factors (health, body image, weight control, feeling better, unappealing food, cost perception, lack of knowledge, state of mind (stress), lack of self-control and negative influences) and five environmental factors (healthy indications, social impact, availability of healthy menu, price policy and unhealthy indications) influencing customers’ healthy eating behaviors at restaurants. Originality/value This study developed an appropriate set of measures to assess individual and environmental factors influencing restaurant customers’ healthy eating behaviors, along with identifying underlying sub-constructs. The reliability and validity of the scale and the factor structure are presented and potential applications and theoretical contributions of the scale are provided as well.

The restaurant industry’s increased portion sizes have led to accusations that they contribute to food overconsumption. Reducing excessive food portions in restaurants, however, may be considered risky by foodservice operators concerned about consumers’ perceived value of the food. Two quasi-experiments were conducted examining how changes in portion and plate size would affect restaurant consumers’ perceived reasonable price of food and their willingness to pay. A two-by-two, between-subject factorial design was used in study 1 (n = 101) with plate size (small & medium) and portion size (regular & reduced) as independent variables. Study 2 used a between subject design with three experimental conditions: large portion, medium portion, and small portion (n = 71). Results showed that the impact of a reduced portion size on consumer’s perceived value of the food depended on the consumers’ perceived quality of the food and their purchase intention.

Food packages have emerged as an important Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) communication tool. This study examined the effect of on-package CSR claims on consumers' health benefits perceptions, taste perception, attitude and behavioral intentions toward the food company. A 4 (CSR claims: none, food manufacturing, employee welfare, and eco-friendly packaging) by 2 (type of food: essential vs. indulgent) factorial experimental study was conducted to test the hypotheses. The findings demonstrate that consumer-oriented CSR claim (food manufacturing) is most strongly associated with consumers' health benefits perception, whereas employee-oriented CSR claim (employee welfare) is most strongly linked to taste perception and attitude toward the company. All CSR claims were found to positively influence consumers' intentions to purchase and willingness to pay premium. Additional content analysis of the textual data indicated that the employee welfare CSR was most positively perceived. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The effect of basil, bacon, and hickory-smoked beef aromas on customers’ emotions, perceptions of food quality, and the restaurant environment, as well as entree selection was investigated. Followi...

Media communication has become a crucial part of crisis communications due to the rapid dissemination of information along with its immense impact on consumers and other stakeholders. Based on a st...

This study examines the content of professional, semi-professional, and user-generated reviews. By comparing these three review types, this study was able to identify characteristics and factors unique to each type of review. Although, the amount of discourse in a particular factor varied, food is clearly the most important review factor regardless of review type. Semi-professional reviews emphasize atmosphere and decor more than both newspaper and user-generated reviews, while price factors were more prevalent in semi-professional reviews and user-generated reviews than in newspaper reviews. Understanding the varied structures of review types provides guidance for both restaurateurs and review users.

This study investigated restaurants’ response to the aging population’s preferences. Gaps between previously identified preferences and current restaurant design were examined. The observational survey assessed: parking and outside accessibility, comfort and inside accessibility, menu readability, and restrooms. Occasional gaps were found even though restaurants were generally well-designed. Casual dining restaurants were more likely to meet consumer preferences as to the exterior, seating, and service. Limited-service restaurants better met preferences for the bathrooms, lighting, and sound. This information may be helpful when building or remodeling restaurants and may help restaurants to attract older customers.

A survey (n = 151) explored consumers’ experiences with wine-on-tap, a current trend in the U.S. foodservice industry. Wine consumers’ innovativeness (R2 = .49) was explained by wine involvement, opinion leadership, and usage of information sources. Those who recently tried wine-on-tap (n = 43) were significantly more innovative (innovators) than those who never tried it (noninnovators). Furthermore, noninnovators expected to pay significantly less for a glass of wine-on-tap when compared with wine poured from a bottle. Contrary to expectations, the driving force for noninnovative behavior is lack of availability and awareness as opposed to a lack of interest in wine-on-tap.

An online survey explored foodservice operators’ (N = 57) perceptions of wine-on-tap, a recent trend in the United States. Adopters (39.1%) considered themselves more innovative, willing to take risks, and influential on others’ opinions than nonadopters (60.9%). Foodservice operators who currently offer wine-on-tap utilized interpersonal information sources (e.g., distributors) more frequently than nonadopters. Additionally, adopters perceived wine-on-tap’s characteristics more positively than nonadopters, indicating wine-on-tap was significantly easier to use than bottled wine. Among other implications, networking stood out as an important driver of innovative behavior in the foodservice industry.

This study investigates children’s influence over parents with regards to the selection of family dining-out options. To further understand the connection between children’s influence on family dining and practical behaviors, this study examined children’s roles in relation to family communication patterns. Additionally, children’s demographic characteristics were examined as predictors influencing family dining-out choices. The context of this study was casual dining restaurants, a popular destination for family dining, vis-a-vis Taiwanese family consumers. The results show that mothers play a dominant role in the family dining-out decision-making process, and that children’s influence is similar to that of fathers in deciding on the type of restaurants, the specific restaurant, and the order of food items while at a restaurant. Additionally, teenage children have more influence than fathers. This study offers practical implications for foodservice operators in the development of family-friendly services...

High sodium levels in restaurant food have prompted Philadelphia and New York City to require inclusion of sodium content in addition to calories on menus to “nudge” consumers toward lower sodium foods. However, taste perceptions may impact the effectiveness of this intervention. An online survey tested whether sodium and calorie menu nutrition information (MNI) influenced consumer choices from a casual dining restaurant menu, accounting for consumers’ intuition about taste of food relative to sodium, calories, and healthiness. Consumer choices were assessed based on calorie and sodium content of the menu items they selected. Participants were randomized to a menu with (1) calorie MNI only, (2) calorie plus numeric sodium MNI, (3) calorie MNI plus a sodium warning symbol for foods with 2300 mg of sodium or more, or (4) no MNI. Calorie plus numeric sodium MNI was associated with selection of meals lower in sodium compared to meals from the calorie MNI only menu or no MNI menu, but only for consumers with a taste intuition that (relatively) lower sodium, lower calorie, healthy foods were tasty. Consumers with the opposite taste intuition *(foods with these characteristics are not tasty) ordered meals higher in sodium. Inclusion of the sodium warning symbol did not result in a significantly different meal sodium content compared to the other menu conditions, regardless of taste intuition. However, differing levels of taste intuition alone, without consideration of MNI, was associated with ordering meals of significantly different calorie content. Overall, findings suggest adding calorie plus numeric sodium MNI may lead to beneficial outcomes (i.e., selecting meals lower in sodium) for some consumers and detrimental outcomes (i.e., selecting meals higher in sodium) for others, depending on their taste intuition.