Street food at a public university: practices and perceptions associated to consumption among students
Street food, Food habits, Food Perception, University Student, Consumers
Purpose – This study aimed to analyze practices and perception of associated factors to street food, among students of a public university.
Design/methodology/approach – An exploratory, qualitative and quantitative study was conducted, along with 427 university students from a public institution. The collection instrument was a self-administered structured questionnaire, which was composed of 21 questions, open and closed, organised in three dimensions: Identification, Eating habits and practices, and Food perception. Data were treated by association analysis, Bi-variate analysis (chi-square test) and multinomial logistic regression, with confidence level of < 0.05.
Findings –Regarding eating habits, most students had a weekly frequency (32,9%) of street food consumption, in places such as snacks stands and street vendors, giving preference to snacks, mostly eating salty and sweet pâtisserie. The main factors that influenced this consumption were hygiene (69.3%), flavour (69.1%), quality (67.7%), price (65.6%), routine (54.6%), and convenience (52.7%). In addition, despite realizing the risks faced in the consumption of street food, they still consume, for considering it more practical and convenient, because the proximity of the study place.
Originality/value – This study is about a specific public from street food, young university students, for whom there is a higher consumption in this trade and shortage of studies in this subject. The results show that factors such as convenience and pleasure prevail over the perception of risk.