How do you choose your meal when you dine out? A mixed methods study in consumer food-choice strategies in the restaurant context

Danyelle Greene; Mai Nguyen; Sara Dolnicar

doi:10.1016/j.appet.2024.107683

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How do you choose your meal when you dine out? A mixed methods study in consumer food-choice strategies in the restaurant context

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

How do you choose your meal when you dine out? A mixed methods study in consumer food-choice strategies in the restaurant context

Danyelle Greene, Mai Nguyen and Sara Dolnicar

Appetite, Vol.203, 107683

2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2024.107683

PMID: 39303827

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Abstract

Decision-making styles

Food choice

Qualitative research

Restaurants

Strategies

Choosing meals in restaurants is a significant part of life. On average, people purchase seven meals per week from one of the over 17.5 million food outlets worldwide. The way people choose restaurant meals is different from how they choose foods they consume at home. Understanding people's decision-making strategies when choosing restaurant meals is critical for designing behaviour change interventions that prompt specific food choices (e.g., health, low emissions). Our study aims to identify meal choice strategies across various food outlets (Study 1) and determine their frequency of use (Study 2). In Study 1, we take a constructionist perspective and derive insights from 21 semi-structured interviews on strategies people use as they select meals in different food outlets. We identify 16 distinct strategies, with many people using multiple strategies within and across different restaurant types (i.e., general restaurants, fast-food, pubs, and upscale restaurants). In Study 2, we quantify which of those 16 strategies are most frequently used. The most used strategies were searching the menu for (1) the most enjoyable meals, (2) the most budget-friendly meals, or (3) familiar meals (i.e., habitual choices); and choosing from those. Few people searched the menu for the most environmentally friendly meals and chose from those. These results could explain the limited effectiveness of carbon labelling at restaurants. Our study calls for future interventions on prompting environmental or healthy food choices to move away from health and environmental labelling and to focus on enjoyment, price, or habit because these are important for people when choosing a meal. We also created a practical measure of the 16 food-choice strategies, available for researchers to use.

Details

Title: How do you choose your meal when you dine out? A mixed methods study in consumer food-choice strategies in the restaurant context
Authors/Creators: Danyelle Greene - Discipline of Tourism, School of Business, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Mai Nguyen - Department of Marketing, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
Sara Dolnicar - Discipline of Tourism, School of Business, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Publication Details: Appetite, Vol.203, 107683
Publisher: Elsevier Ltd.
Identifiers: 991005881352307891
Murdoch Affiliation: School of Psychology
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article

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7 Times Cited - Web of Science

InCites Highlights

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration
Citation topics: 6 Social Sciences; 6.73 Social Psychology; 6.73.1507 Pro-environmental Behavior
Web Of Science research areas: Behavioral Sciences; Nutrition & Dietetics
ESI research areas: Neuroscience & Behavior