Quality of Café Food and Its Effects on Students’

Health

Date of submission: 7th NOVEMBER, 2019

Prepared For: SARA SHERAZ

Prepared By: AAMNA SHAHID

(SP19-BSE-002)

COMSATS University, Park road, Tarlai Kalan, Islamabad

Executive summary

The main purpose of the report is to examine the eating behavior of students and food selection

within limited resources, how to get healthy and nutritional food and which food is preferred by

students in university in consideration with how are they affected by consumption of fast food in

university that contains unhealthy nutritional ingredients. There are many studies which are done

internationally at this issue and some are reflected in this report. We tried to get students’

opinion about food quality and service through surveys and on behalf of result we concluded that

there are four main things which influence on student behavior that are; physical environment,

university characteristics, individual food selection, social environment. And on the basis of

above result we are able to give clarification in this report which concludes that we should try to

create awareness about food quality and services by using all possible means. There are some

limitations as well, because we are focused on university students who were willing to give

answers through participation in this study voluntarily.

Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 1
Background ................................................................................................................................................... 1
Statement of the problem/ purpose ............................................................................................................... 1
Significance of the Study .............................................................................................................................. 2
Explanation ................................................................................................................................................... 2
 UN’s Report ...................................................................................................................................... 2
 Café Food Survey in Pakistan ........................................................................................................... 3
Literature Reviews ........................................................................................................................................ 4
Study overview ............................................................................................................................................. 5
1. Where do they usually eat ................................................................................................................. 5
2. Students’ Self-Response ................................................................................................................... 6
3. Fast Food Affects .............................................................................................................................. 6
Results and Discussion ................................................................................................................................. 6
Results ........................................................................................................................................................... 7
 Students consuming specific food items ........................................................................................... 8
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................... 8
Recommendations ......................................................................................................................................... 9
Limitations: ................................................................................................................................................... 9
References:.................................................................................................................................................... 9
Introduction

Food services are an important element of wholesome setting that impact personal pleasure of

faculty and students at different universities and schools. Furthermore the number of students

registering in universities is expanding continuously, creating explosive development of market.

This contributes to increasing demands and therefore competition between food service

entrepreneurs inside the institute and neighboring entrepreneurs. According to this assessment of

institute, food service become necessary because students will go to an off-campus food service

if the on-campus food service facilities don’t meet their need.

Background

Cafeteria food services can be found in many different areas like, schools, hospitals, prisons etc.

As the number of students are increasing continuously in the universities so the demand of food

services is also increasing in universities. As a result of these increasing demands food quality

operations are putting an increase pressure to satisfy the students’ needs. The main factors that

affect students while selecting a food item to satisfy their appetite are; value, price, cleanliness

and quality of food. Hygiene and quality of service also matters a lot.

Statement of the problem/ purpose

The main purpose of writing this report is that the quality of food and service which should be

acceptable by the consumers. It means that the smell, taste, color and appearance should be

acceptable by the consumers. A research says that positive relationship between consumer and

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food quality is indicated by returning of that consumer to a specific restaurant again. It also states

that general food quality elements play main role in achieving customer satisfaction. Second

purpose is service quality as the company’s ability to satisfy the customers. Service quality can

be determined by customers’ prediction and perception of service. That’s the reason same service

is recognized as low standard by one person and high standard by other.

Significance of the Study

The significance of the study is that, universities’ café administrators should continue to enhance

the quality of food served to customers increasing their satisfaction level. After reading this

report entrepreneur should be able to achieve all the targets for customer satisfaction as the

quality of food affects student health. They should provide questionnaire to the students to

analyze their service. There should be an attractive menu with reasonable price and healthy food.

The atmosphere of café should be clean. They should also focus on employee training and

development.

Explanation

 UN’s Report

According to the UN’s department of world Health Organization, food safety is a

multifaceted maintainable expansion problem, which is associated with

malnutrition, but also to defensible economic development, environment and

trade. Food safety is stand on three columns: availability, access and usage. All

three of these columns play out in student’s lives every day. Students may not

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 have the time or resources to buy whole and fresh food and prepare meals at

home. Deficiency of fresh food and a surplus of unhealthy food options forces

students to pamper in fast food options, which deficient in nutrients necessary for

a healthy diet. Malnutrition is stated to as a lack of proper vitamins, minerals and

nutritional value in the food being consumed. When students are regularly eating

unhealthy food, their performance in class suffers. With a lack of proper nutrients,

students become lethargic, depressed and develop low immunity, therefore

contributing to a lack of performance in their studies. Colleges and universities

are a place for students to learn and grow. How are they able to do so with poor

nutritional food available to them?

 Café Food Survey in Pakistan

1. Following is a survey from Karachi of how often people eat from outside.

People eating from outside

often
always
some times
seldom
never

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 2. Following is the rating given by people in Pakistan to the quality of food

Quality of Food Percentage

60

40

20

0
excellent above average below very
average average poor

quality of
food %age

According a survey in Pakistan the when people were asked about if the fell sick

after eating food from outside 68.6% replied with positively while 31.4% replied

with “no”.

Literature Reviews

Recent literature reviews have reported that the relationship between the food retail environment,

eating behaviors, and weight status varies across settings. For example, in their review of fast

food retailer vicinity and solidity, Fraser and colleagues (included 9 studies that examined eating

behaviors and 14 studies that looked at weight status. Of the 9 eating behavior studies, 3 found a

positive association, 3 found a negative association, and 3 identified no statistically significant

associations. Of the 14 weight status studies, 6 found a positive association, 2 found a negative

association, and 6 did not identify an association. While several studies found no statistical

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association, their findings should not be discounted as the direction of the association was often

positive and the studies may have been underpowered. Furthermore, most of the studies included

in the recent literature reviews studied adults from the US. The relevance of this literature to

youth from other countries remains unclear. To get the answer of what compels customers to eat

fast food although knowing its impact on body, this will present a brief explanation of fast food’s

negative effect, analyze people’s current fast food consumption, compare the two opposite

decisions people make when they are faced with food choice, and finally offer practical

proposals against fast food high consumption.

Study Overview

The current study used data from youth from three countries (Canada, Scotland and US) that

contributed in health behavior in students. These countries represent three modern countries that

are geologically and culturally different to each other. Youth’s lunchtime eating behavior and

body weight status assessed through a survey accomplished by students. The number of chain

fast food and café located within or nearby educational insinuations. Multi-level regression

analyses were used to determine if the number of food retailers surrounding the school was

related to lunchtime eating behavior and body weight status of the student participants within

each country. Cross-national differences in these relationships were explored.

1. Where do they usually eat

The primary result of this study was students ate their lunch at café in educational

institutions and this was the reply of question “Where do you usually eat your

lunch during study in educational institution?”

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  At school

 At home

 At someone else’s home

 In a Snack-bar,

 Fast food restaurant

 Café

 “I never eat a mid-day meal”

2. Students’ Self-Response

The secondary conclusion of this study was weighty and obesity position, which

concluded by the student’s self-response against height and weight

3. Fast Food Affects

People those consume fast food are always gain high calories and meal which

contain less nutritional ingredients. Now it is proved that fast food is damaging

your body fitness to be more precise according to study ‘’Local concentration

sense of fast food at café is associated with poor nutrition and obesity’’

Results and Discussion

The purpose of this explorative study was to identify determinants of eating (incl. drinking)

behaviors in university students. Furthermore, we aimed to collect ideas and recommendations in

order to facilitate the development of effective programs aiming to improve healthy eating

including drinking behaviors in university students. We identified four major levels of

determinants:

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  Individual (intrapersonal)

 Social environment (interpersonal)

 Physical environment (community settings)

 Macro environment (societal)

Many self-regulatory processes, including intrinsic (e.g. food preferences) and extrinsic (e.g.

health awareness, guilt) motivations, self-discipline, self-control, time management, etc. have

been mentioned by our participants to be influencing eating behavior in university students.

Results from our study further indicate that these determinants get more importance when

students go to university after secondary school and their independency increases.

Results

Our group have visited different universities and interviewed different students from random

departments. Results are compiled below in the form of table

Physical environment
University characteristics
1. Availability of healthy food
1. Student societies
2. Easily accessible to food
2. University life style
3. Food prices

University Students'
Eating Behavior

Individual
Social environment
1. Physical Eating Level
1. Parent Control
2. Taste
2. Home Education
3. Metabolism

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  Students consuming specific food items

The condition of students consuming different foods is also described

below with the help of bar chart

4
health ofstudent 1

3
health of student 2

2
health of student 3

0
fast food juices and snacks non-café food
shakes

Conclusion

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study examining perceived determinants of eating

including drinking behavior in university students and collecting ideas and recommendations in

order to facilitate the development of effective and tailored intervention programs aiming to

improve healthy eating (and drinking) behaviors in university students. Students were found to

be influenced by individual factors, their social networks, physical environment, and macro

environment. Furthermore, the relationships between determinants and university students’

eating behavior seemed to be moderated by university characteristics, such as residency, student

societies, and university lifestyle.

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Recommendations

Recommendations for university administrators and researchers include:

 Providing awareness for healthy food via social media.

 Enhancing self-discipline and self-control.

 Developing time management skills.

 enhancing social support

Limitations:

Studies which use a larger representative sample size, should concentrate on providing

measureable proof regarding the importance and value of each determinant, making it also

possible to differentiate according to student characteristics like gender or year in school. So

future customized interposition could focus on those factors which students experience as most

certain in their current eating behavior. Limitation of this study is that we used student

volunteers. And it is to be considered that may be participants were interested in this topic, which

might have resulted in favoritism in selection.

References:

(n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2019, from Cummins

(n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2019, from Fraser

(n.d.)/ Retrieved April 26, 2019, from

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2012.09.004