A Study on Factors That Influence Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) Undergraduate Students Food Choices

Abstract

People dine out for various reasons including to satisfy hunger, social needs, and self-fulfillment needs. Food choice is influenced by a wide range of complex and often interrelated factors. People are continually choosing a restaurant based on their preference and pursuit of service quality or comfort and an enjoyable environment. Hence, restaurant operators must understand and satisfy consumers’ needs, wants, and demands to succeed in the competitive foodservice industry. This study empirically measures the extent of influence of price, time pressure, lifestyle, and health-conscious towards undergraduate student food choices. This study was structured through a self-administered survey with Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) undergraduate student are identified were chosen for data collection. With 368 respondents, the data was analyzed by process of descriptive, frequency, and inferential analysis using SPSS. The Pearson correlation results show a linkage between price, time pressure, lifestyle, and health-conscious and food choices. Through these findings, it can be determined that the most influential factor towards food choice is a lifestyle.