Riscos percebidos pelo consumidor e estratégias para minimizá-los no consumo de saladas de horataliças cruas em restaurantes à la carte / Risks perceived by the consumer and strategies to minimize them in the consumption of raw vegetable salads in full-service restaurants

AUTOR(ES)
FONTE

IBICT - Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia

DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

28/05/2012

RESUMO

The standard diet of the Brazilian population has been characterized, amongst other aspects, by a reduced consumption of vegetables and by an increasing number of meals eaten away from home, and hence the use of food services could represent an opportunity to include a variety of vegetables in the diet. Consumer behavior when eating away from home has been little studied in Brazil, and could be influenced by the risks perceived in a buying situation. Based on his/her perception of the risks, the consumer could adopt different strategies at the moment of choice, in an attempt to minimize them. With this in mind, the present research had the following objectives: develop a scale with satisfactory validity and reliability indicators to analyze consumer perception with respect to the risks involved in eating raw vegetable salads in full-service restaurants; examine the frequency with which the consumers use strategies to reduce physical risks in the context under study; identify the profile of those frequenting full-service restaurants and eating raw vegetable salads; evaluate associations between the variables studied (risk perception, frequency of use of risk reducing strategies and the frequencies of consumption) and the sociodemographic characteristics and, when pertinent, the tendency for social desirability. A risk perception scale was previously elaborated based on a review of the literature, the carrying out of two focus groups (involving six consumers in each session), the evaluation of ten specialists (content validation) and a pre-test (n = 30 consumers). Two field surveys were also carried out involving adult individuals resident in the city of Campinas, SP, Brazil, all of whom were used to frequenting full-service restaurants at least once in the 3 months prior to the survey. In the first data collection, 271 consumers were interviewed in two shopping centers in the city. The objective of this collection was to purify the scale, and hence the item-total correlation, reliability and exploratory factor analysis were evaluated. In the second data collection, 359 consumers were interviewed in a shopping center in the central region of the city, carrying out the scale purification and construct validation (confirmatory factor analysis) steps. In addition to the risk perception scale, the final questionnaire presented 17 risk-reducing strategies (elaborated based on a review of the literature and the carrying out of two focus groups), socio-demographic variables and a scale to identify a tendency for social desirability. Based on the results of the second collection (n = 359), analyses were carried out involving the differences in the risk levels perceived by the consumer and the frequency of use of the risk-reducing strategies as a function of the socio-demographic variables. The frequency of eating vegetable salads in full-service restaurants was evaluated based on results of both collection (n = 630). Data banks were constructed using the Predictive Analytics 18.0 software and the LISREL 8.80 software. Descriptive analyses were carried out and non-parametric tests used to compare the means and correlations. The final risk perception scale presented 26 items and adequate reliability (Cronbach¿s a coefficient = 0.93). The confirmatory factor analysis validated a perception model composed of six types of risk: physical, performance, financial, time, psychological and social. The results of applying the questionnaire showed that 52.3% of the individuals stated they ate in full-service restaurants at least once a week. Significant differences (p<0.05) were observed when considering the socio-demographic variables and the frequency of eating in full-service restaurants or the frequency of eating salads. The frequency of eating salads in this type of restaurant was significantly higher for weekday lunches and social desirability apparently had no influence on consumer responses with respect to the frequency of eating salads. The consumers showed moderate risk perception, perceiving higher risk levels for physical and performance (means of 24.2 on a scale varying from 1 to 49). The mean for social risk (equal to 8.5) was significantly lower than for the other types of risk. Differences (p<0.05) in the levels perceived for the different types of risk as a function of the socio-demographic variables were identified: in general women and those with lower scholastic levels perceived higher levels of risk in the context surveyed. The most frequently used risk reducing strategies were the following: ¿I take the general appearance of the restaurant into consideration¿, ¿I frequent restaurants I already know¿, ¿I don¿t go back to restaurants where I had an unpleasant experience¿ and ¿I take the general hygiene level of the restaurant into consideration¿. The strategy ¿I visit the restaurant¿s kitchen¿ showed a significantly lower frequency of use than the other strategies. Differences (p<0.05) in the frequency of use of the strategies as a function of the socio-demographic variables were identified and a significant positive correlation (p<0.05) was observed between social desirability and some strategies. It was concluded that the risk perception scale developed showed adequate reliability and validity indicators, and it is hoped that the results provide subsidy for public programs (such as those directed at providing information to the consumer), and provide support for the elaboration of growth strategies for the foodservice sector

ASSUNTO(S)

risco percepção consumidor restaurantes risk perception consumer restaurant

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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