Polish and Greek young adults’ experience of low quality meals when eating out

Abstract

The objective of the study was a comparative analysis of the experience and behaviour of young adults (aged 19–29) in Poland and Greece in situations where, when eating out, they had been served low quality meals i.e. low degree to which a set of meals characteristics fulfils consumers' requirements. Nearly 1/5 of the Greeks and none of Poles had been served low quality meals ‘very often’. Subsquently Greeks made complaints more readily than Poles. The most common factors that discouraged Polish consumers from using a particular gastronomic establishment were occurrences of vomiting or diarrhoea or abdominal after pain a meal. For Greeks they were: strange taste or smell of the meal and hot meals being served at a too low temperature. The analysis presented in this paper indicates a practical method of verifying the quality and safety of meals from the consumer perspective.