Evaluating the Application of Food Safety in the Sailing Floating Restaurants in Egypt and its Impact on Customer Satisfaction: Case Study: Luxor and Aswan Floating Restaurants

Abstract

The sailing floating restaurants (SFR) are new phenomenon for dining out in Egypt, where consumers can be provided not only with a meal but also with an enjoyable casual dining experience with unrivalled views of the Nile. The research objectives are to evaluate food safety application in Egypt, to identify customers` perceptions of the floating restaurants sailing down the Nile and to explore the different attributes that influence customer satisfaction. A Food safety evaluation survey is applied in 12 sailing floating restaurants as a sample of floating restaurants representing 14% of total restaurants of this type in Luxor and Aswan, An Interview with managers of sailing floating restaurants and Customers Food Safety Checklist, 300 checklists were distributed to measure the customers’ feedback (SFR). Data was collected by personal visits. The major findings showed that most executive chefs, who are supposed to be the leaders of kitchen in floating restaurants, are holders of unspecialized education certificates. Most of visited floating restaurants do not have food safety policy or even a written food safety operation standard since most executive chefs ignore the significance of such systems and have poor food safety attitudes and practices. Finally, the study suggested the necessity of creating a food safety operational standards and instruction guide in (SFR).