Report for Influencing Factors of Student's Food Choices
Factors of students’ food choices
Findings
Focus group
Our focus group is made up of eight people; two of us are moderator and assistant moderator, and the rest are six participants. Participants are all UG students from university of surrey, and their majors are business management. Three of participants are female, and the others are male. Five Chinese participants are 21 years old, and one American participant is 30 years old.
From our research, we find that there are two primary elements can affect people’s food choice when they shopping for food. One is price, and another one is taste. As participant 2 (21, male, Chinese) said “Between quality and price, I will choose price”, and participant 5 (21, male, Chinese) also stated “I will buy food produced by Tesco, because the price is acceptable, especially for international students”. It can be supported by French (2003), who reveals that price can be a useful method to affect people’s food options, and Price reductions can strongly influencing the buying patterns of targeted foods. When people want to try a new product, price is still a major factor to be considered. Participant 4 (21, female, Chinese) had the same opinion that “If the product is expensive before, but now it has discounts, I will change to buy it”. For taste, participant 4 (21, female, Chinese) claimed that “I will choose the taste, because I’m used to Chinese food that have different flavor with local ones.” Moreover, participant 6 (30, male, American) insist this point too, he said “taste and price are very important. Sometimes the foods are very cheap, but if the taste is bad, I won’t choose it”. There are little literatures supporting this point in recent years, but from the observation of Stewart and Tinsley (1995), they indicated that taste and other sensory elements are the most significant factors that affect young adults’ food choices. Furthermore, there are other factors affect students’ food choices. First is culture
Findings
Focus group
Our focus group is made up of eight people; two of us are moderator and assistant moderator, and the rest are six participants. Participants are all UG students from university of surrey, and their majors are business management. Three of participants are female, and the others are male. Five Chinese participants are 21 years old, and one American participant is 30 years old.
From our research, we find that there are two primary elements can affect people’s food choice when they shopping for food. One is price, and another one is taste. As participant 2 (21, male, Chinese) said “Between quality and price, I will choose price”, and participant 5 (21, male, Chinese) also stated “I will buy food produced by Tesco, because the price is acceptable, especially for international students”. It can be supported by French (2003), who reveals that price can be a useful method to affect people’s food options, and Price reductions can strongly influencing the buying patterns of targeted foods. When people want to try a new product, price is still a major factor to be considered. Participant 4 (21, female, Chinese) had the same opinion that “If the product is expensive before, but now it has discounts, I will change to buy it”. For taste, participant 4 (21, female, Chinese) claimed that “I will choose the taste, because I’m used to Chinese food that have different flavor with local ones.” Moreover, participant 6 (30, male, American) insist this point too, he said “taste and price are very important. Sometimes the foods are very cheap, but if the taste is bad, I won’t choose it”. There are little literatures supporting this point in recent years, but from the observation of Stewart and Tinsley (1995), they indicated that taste and other sensory elements are the most significant factors that affect young adults’ food choices. Furthermore, there are other factors affect students’ food choices. First is culture