The Malaysian Insider :: Food
The Malaysian Insider :: Food |
| Diners more likely to choose restaurant with menu labelling, shows study Posted: 04 Apr 2014 07:44 PM PDT Those are the conclusions of a joint study published in The International Journal of Hospitality Management, conducted out of Penn State and the University of Tennessee. To conduct their study, researchers presented respondents with different scenarios including the presence or absence of healthy food options and nutritional information. They were then questioned about their perception of the restaurant's social responsibility and their willingness to patronise the eatery. After collecting survey answers from 277 participants, researchers concluded that respondents looked favourably on restaurants that provided nutritional information and served healthy dishes, perceiving the restaurateur as "socially responsible". Transparent restaurants also gained favour among respondents regardless of their level of health-consciousness. The latest study builds on previous research that found customers were more likely to make healthier food choices at full-service restaurants when menus included nutritional labelling. Published last year in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, that study found customers armed with nutritional information purchased foods with 151 fewer calories, 244mg less sodium and 3.7g less saturated fats compared to customers at restaurants without menu labels. – AFP/Relaxnews, April 5, 2014. |
| How the weather could impact restaurant reviews Posted: 04 Apr 2014 05:48 PM PDT According to researchers at Georgia Tech and Yahoo Labs, if you're reading – or writing – a negative review, odds are it was penned on a rainy day, maybe in July or August, perhaps from an outlying suburb. Because after examining more than 1.1 million reviews of 840,000 restaurants between 2002 and 2011 in the US, researchers found that beyond the quality of the meal, price and service, reviews were also influenced by factors like the weather – temperature, rain, snow and season – and demographics. Data was obtained from review sites like Citysearch, Foursquare and TripAdvisor, reports Phys.org. Authors of the study noted that reviews written on a rainy day were more likely to skew negative. The most glowing reviews, meanwhile, were penned on days where the mercury hovered between 21 degrees C and 38 degrees C, they told Phys.org. Where these trends take a bit of a detour, are the summer months: while July and August saw a noticeable spike in the number of reviews produced, they were also the most negative. November was singled out for boasting the greatest number of positive recommendations. A diner's verdict was also influenced by their neighborhood diversity, education levels and population density. For example, researchers noticed that areas that boasted a higher percentage of people with college diplomas (defined as more than 50%) produced more reviews than areas that had lower average levels of education (less than 10% of residents with diplomas). Authors also make a correlation between "Blue" and "Red" states and found that predominantly Blue or Democratic states like California, Washington and Oregon also produced more reviews per restaurants compared to their Red neighbours in the South and Midwest. Researchers also found that reviewers from smaller cities tended to be more demanding and were more likely to nitpick about the pace of service. Their hypothesis? That residents of bigger cities are more accustomed to waiting and therefore moderately more patient. The findings will be presented at the International World Wide Web Conference in Seoul on April 23. – AFP/Relaxnews, April 5, 2014. |
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