Main Regional Foods Offered in Northeast Brazilian Restaurants and Motives for Their Offer

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study aimed to identify the regional preparations most offered in the restaurants of the Brazilian northeast, as well as the motives that determined their offer. The research is an exploratory and quantitative study using a questionnaire. We collected data through the application of a questionnaire, consisting of a series of closed-questions, answered in writing, and without the researcher. For each Northeastern capital, a survey was elaborated, being a total of nine questionnaires. Each one had ten regional dishes that the person in charge (manager or dietitians) had to determine the frequency of serving them and the motives for offering them. An expert committee was applied to validate the questionnaire before sending it to the restaurants. The criteria established for the approval of the items was a minimal of 80% (W-values ≥ 0.8) of agreement between the experts. We applied the questionnaires to the restaurants of the nine capitals. We determined the most common dishes analyzing data when the response rate was, at least, 10%. We assessed the frequency of each dish’s serving by transforming the given information on a monthly basis. The most common preparations served were: caldeirada maranhense, peixada, carne-de-sol, baião-de-dois, feijoada, and xinxim de galinha. The motives for offering were: the dish is regional, it is a food habit, and it is well accepted. Even though one of the motives for offering or not the dishes was the nutritional characteristics, this was not considered as very important for the offer by participants.