Abstract
The foodservice industry is a highly competitive branch where customer satisfaction and loyalty is dependent on the price and the quality of the food. To improve cost competitiveness, instead of fresh ingredients, more preprocessed items are used as components in dishes. This may impair the perceived product quality, and thus potentially decrease customer satisfaction. The effects of the component quality on a single dish were tested by serving fish soup in a consumer study (n = 205), and by serving the dish to an in‐house panel (n = 17) using a modified check‐all‐that‐apply method. The variable used for the quality of the fish and vegetable components was a previously unprocessed/fresh component being compared to a processed. This study showed that in a modular dish, each component had an effect on the perceived quality of the dish. When replacing a preprocessed component with a fresh one, the perceived pleasantness increased to a higher level. The fish as the main dish component had the largest effect on the quality. Fresh fish has the ability to enhance the taste of soup, even with frozen vegetables. The results from this study indicate that the effect of freshness can also be perceived in the cooked product.
Highlights
Foodservices are responsible for an emerging share of daily energy intake (Poti & Popkin, 2011; Lachat et al, 2012; Seguin, Aggarwal, Vermeylen, & Drewnowski, 2016)
A categorical principal component analysis (PCA) was used to test the data from the check-all-that- apply (CATA) method used with the sensory panel
The CATA method was a valuable tool for differentiating the samples
Summary
Foodservices are responsible for an emerging share of daily energy intake (Poti & Popkin, 2011; Lachat et al, 2012; Seguin, Aggarwal, Vermeylen, & Drewnowski, 2016). Lunch and other professionally prepared dishes served by restaurants, office canteens, and institutional cafeterias are important, but a highly competitive part of the foodservice sector. Foodservice restaurants need to be able to serve good quality and reasonably priced dishes to customers. Preprocessed food components require less work during preparation and produce less or no waste; the total cost can be cheaper compared to fresh product (Puckett 2012a, 2012b). With this type of operational practice, the amount of fresh ingredients being used is in the minority or even nonexistent in complete dishes (Engelund, Lassen, & Mikkelsen, 2007). The quality of dishes needs to be developed without adding cost or laborious steps into the production processes
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