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Influence of nutritional labelling on the choice of a fast food by young adults from the professional and clerk occupational groups in the City of Cape Town, South Africa
Author(s)
Stowe, Kaylee Ann
Date Issued
2017
Type
Thesis
Publisher
Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Abstract
Objective: To determine whether nutritional information provision would influence the choice
of a popular fast food by young adults employed in the City of Cape Town, South Africa (SA),
within the professional and clerk occupational classifications as consumer group, using a beef
burger as exploratory item.
Methodology: A survey, in the form of a self-administered questionnaire comprising closedended
multiple-choice questions, was used to obtain information on the respondent fast food
consumption, fast food consumption on nutritional information provision using a beef burger as
exploratory item, demographic, biographic and lifestyle characteristics, and eating practices.
Through the purchasing of beef burgers across four major leading fast food franchises located
within the Western Cape, and specifically those based in the City of Cape Town competitive in
this fast food category, information pertaining to beef burger ingredients and the individual
ingredient weights were obtained, to compile 16 representative beef burger-types to be presented
in the questionnaire. Beef burgers were presented as two menu-options (i.e. the first containing
energy provision alone, vs. the second containing extended nutritional information as energy,
total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol provision) within the questionnaire, to obtain information
on whether nutritional information provision would influence the respondents’ choice, and if so,
which provision would do so. The questionnaire was assessed for content- and face-validity by an
expert panel, and on the research receiving ethics approval, piloted and adapted before being
distributed.
Questionnaires were distributed according to the respondent preference for ease of use as either
a hard printed copy or an electronic questionnaire. This was done via means of purposive and
convenience sampling and by way of snowball sampling, to obtain young adults aged 20 to 34
years who were consumers of fast food and specifically beef burgers, within the selected
occupational classifications working for small- to medium-sized companies in the City of Cape
Town. Via the Pearson’s chi-squared and Fisher’s exact test and a logistic regression (Wald chisquare
statistic) applied on the analysis, the factors to significantly influence the respondents to
change their beef burger choice on the nutritional information provison were determined.
Results: The final sample consisted of 157 respondents. A near-even split occurred between the
respondents who would (52.2%) and wouldn’t (47.8%) be influenced by the nutritional
information provision. Of the respondents who indicated that they would be influenced, the
extended nutritional information provision had the highest influence. Twelve factors comprising
a combination of the respondent biographic and lifestyle characteristics (n = 2), eating practices
(n = 7), and fast food consumption (n = 3), were found to significantly (p < 0.05) influence the respondent choice of a beef burger on the nutritional information provision, and on application
of the logistic regression, one factor strongly (p < 0.001) in each of the three domains. Of the
respondents who indicated that they would not be influenced, more than half (54.4%) gave their
reason as even though they were aware, or had an idea of the nutritional content of burgers, that
they would still purchase their original choice even if the nutritional information was available,
followed by one-quarter (25%) who indicated that they did not understand nutritional
information.
Conclusions: Extended nutritional information provision was found to positively influence a
popular fast food choice among young adults employed within the City of Cape Town, SA, with
health-consciousness being the overall factor identified to influence the choice of a healthier
option on the nutritional information provision, as the identified significant factors were all
related to health-conscious consumer attributes.
of a popular fast food by young adults employed in the City of Cape Town, South Africa (SA),
within the professional and clerk occupational classifications as consumer group, using a beef
burger as exploratory item.
Methodology: A survey, in the form of a self-administered questionnaire comprising closedended
multiple-choice questions, was used to obtain information on the respondent fast food
consumption, fast food consumption on nutritional information provision using a beef burger as
exploratory item, demographic, biographic and lifestyle characteristics, and eating practices.
Through the purchasing of beef burgers across four major leading fast food franchises located
within the Western Cape, and specifically those based in the City of Cape Town competitive in
this fast food category, information pertaining to beef burger ingredients and the individual
ingredient weights were obtained, to compile 16 representative beef burger-types to be presented
in the questionnaire. Beef burgers were presented as two menu-options (i.e. the first containing
energy provision alone, vs. the second containing extended nutritional information as energy,
total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol provision) within the questionnaire, to obtain information
on whether nutritional information provision would influence the respondents’ choice, and if so,
which provision would do so. The questionnaire was assessed for content- and face-validity by an
expert panel, and on the research receiving ethics approval, piloted and adapted before being
distributed.
Questionnaires were distributed according to the respondent preference for ease of use as either
a hard printed copy or an electronic questionnaire. This was done via means of purposive and
convenience sampling and by way of snowball sampling, to obtain young adults aged 20 to 34
years who were consumers of fast food and specifically beef burgers, within the selected
occupational classifications working for small- to medium-sized companies in the City of Cape
Town. Via the Pearson’s chi-squared and Fisher’s exact test and a logistic regression (Wald chisquare
statistic) applied on the analysis, the factors to significantly influence the respondents to
change their beef burger choice on the nutritional information provison were determined.
Results: The final sample consisted of 157 respondents. A near-even split occurred between the
respondents who would (52.2%) and wouldn’t (47.8%) be influenced by the nutritional
information provision. Of the respondents who indicated that they would be influenced, the
extended nutritional information provision had the highest influence. Twelve factors comprising
a combination of the respondent biographic and lifestyle characteristics (n = 2), eating practices
(n = 7), and fast food consumption (n = 3), were found to significantly (p < 0.05) influence the respondent choice of a beef burger on the nutritional information provision, and on application
of the logistic regression, one factor strongly (p < 0.001) in each of the three domains. Of the
respondents who indicated that they would not be influenced, more than half (54.4%) gave their
reason as even though they were aware, or had an idea of the nutritional content of burgers, that
they would still purchase their original choice even if the nutritional information was available,
followed by one-quarter (25%) who indicated that they did not understand nutritional
information.
Conclusions: Extended nutritional information provision was found to positively influence a
popular fast food choice among young adults employed within the City of Cape Town, SA, with
health-consciousness being the overall factor identified to influence the choice of a healthier
option on the nutritional information provision, as the identified significant factors were all
related to health-conscious consumer attributes.
Additional information
Thesis (MTech (Consumer Science: Food and Nutrition))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017
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