Self-service Restaurants Research Articles

The effect of nutrition labels on lunch buffet consumption: a real-life experiment

PurposeThis study aims to increase knowledge of the ability of nutrition labels to guide consumer choices in real-life environments.Design/methodology/approachFood consumption and plate waste data were collected from two self-service restaurants (SSR) with different customer groups over six observation days: three control and three intervention (with nutrition labelling) periods. Study Group 1 consisted of vocational school students, mostly late adolescents (N = 1,710), and Group 2 consisted of spa hotel customers, mostly elderly (N = 1,807). In the experimental restaurants, the same food was served to the buffets during the control and intervention periods.FindingsThe nutrition label in the lunch buffet guides customers to eat fewer main foods and salads and to select healthier choices. Increased consumption of taste enhancers (salt and ketchup) was observed in the study restaurants after nutritional labelling. Nutrition labelling was associated with a reduction in plate waste among the elderly, whereas the opposite was observed among adolescents.Originality/valueThe results provide public policymakers and marketers with a better understanding of the effects of nutrition labelling on consumer behaviour. Future studies should further evaluate the effects of nutrition labelling on the overall quality of customer diets and the complex environmental, social, and psychological factors affecting food choices and plate waste accumulation in various study groups.

Learn More for Food Recognition via Progressive Self-Distillation

Food recognition has a wide range of applications, such as health-aware recommendation and self-service restaurants. Most previous methods of food recognition firstly locate informative regions in some weakly-supervised manners and then aggregate their features. However, location errors of informative regions limit the effectiveness of these methods to some extent. Instead of locating multiple regions, we propose a Progressive Self-Distillation (PSD) method, which progressively enhances the ability of network to mine more details for food recognition. The training of PSD simultaneously contains multiple self-distillations, in which a teacher network and a student network share the same embedding network. Since the student network receives a modified image from its teacher network by masking some informative regions, the teacher network outputs stronger semantic representations than the student network. Guided by such teacher network with stronger semantics, the student network is encouraged to mine more useful regions from the modified image by enhancing its own ability. The ability of the teacher network is also enhanced with the shared embedding network. By using progressive training, the teacher network incrementally improves its ability to mine more discriminative regions. In inference phase, only the teacher network is used without the help of the student network. Extensive experiments on three datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method and state-of-the-art performance.

Tableware Tidying-Up Robot System for Self-Service Restaurant-Detection and Manipulation of Leftover Food and Tableware.

In this study, an automated tableware tidying-up robot system was developed to tidy up tableware in a self-service restaurant with a large amount of tableware. This study focused on sorting and collecting tableware placed on trays detected by an RGB-D camera. Leftover food was also treated with this robot system. The RGB-D camera efficiently detected the position and height of the tableware and whether there was leftover food or not by image processing. A parallel arm and robot hand mechanism was designed to realize the advantages of a low cost and high processing speed. Two types of rotation mechanisms were designed to realize the function of throwing away leftover food. The effectiveness of the camera detection system was verified through the experiments of tableware and leftover food detection. The effectiveness of the prototype robot and the rotation assist mechanism was verified through the experiments of grasping tableware, throwing away leftover food by two types of rotating mechanisms, collecting multiple tableware, and the sorting of overlapping tableware with multiple robots.

Customer Acceptance of Self-Service Technology at Fast Service Restaurants in Tshwane

Objective: Technological advances have prompted many businesses to introduce self-service technology (SST) to improve customer waiting times and reduce operational costs. This study aims to determine the factors linked to the acceptance of self-service technology by customers at fast-service restaurants. Research Design & Methods: This research uses a quantitative method by surveying 172 customers who had visited self-service restaurants within the preceding six months. The Unified Theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) was used to determine the factors linked to the acceptance of self-service technology at quick-service restaurants. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used for analysis. Findings: It was found that age and gender moderate the relationship between the construct: performance expectancy ratio and SST usage intention, effort expectancy and SST usage intention, social influence and usage intention and lastly, age moderates the relationship between facilitating conditions and SST usage behaviour. Contribution & Value Added: The design of future self-service technology at restaurants should be constructed in a manner that would appeal to customers of all ages and gender. An education drive should be prioritised to educate customers about the benefits of self-service while ensuring that they also understand that technology does not reduce employment but may be used to create employment in other forms. Future studies should also investigate whether technology education might have a moderating effect on technology.

The effects of crowding and service climate on the perception of the Experiential value of consumption in self-service restaurants

ABSTRACT This research seeks to verify whether perceived crowding, perceived service climate, positive customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions, and dysfunctional customer behavior influence the perception of experiential consumption value in self-service restaurants. We surveyed by applying a questionnaire to 337 consumers. The results showed that the perceived service climate and positive C2C interactions could influence the experiential value of consumption in a self-service restaurant. We found that perceived crowding can influence positive C2C interactions and dysfunctional customer behavior. The results also demonstrate that positive C2C interactions can mediate the relationship between the perceived service climate and the experiential value of consumption.

Tableware tidying-up robot for self-service restaurant – robot system design

This study developed an automated tableware tidying-up robot mechanism to tidy up the tableware in a self-service restaurant with a large number of tableware. This study focused on the process of sorting and collecting tableware that were placed on trays by the guest and flowed to robot with belts conveyor. The separated tableware was placed in a washing machine. Garbage and leftover food were also treated with this robot mechanism. The parallel arm and robot hand mechanism were designed to realise the advantages of low cost, high processing speed, and space saving. It was proved that the prototype robot can move and grab tableware smoothly with the high-speed position control. The finger and hand rotation mechanism can throw away leftover food by the leftover food throwing experiment. Additionally, the system can sort the tableware by multiple robots was verified using the tableware sorting experiment.

Tableware tidying-up robot for self-service restaurant - robot system design

Tableware tidying-up robot for self-service restaurant - robot system design

Moderating Effect of Gender on the Relationship between Technology Readiness Index and Consumers’ Continuous Use Intention of Self-Service Restaurant Kiosks

This study aims to analyze the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between technology readiness and willingness to continue using self-service kiosks in fast-food restaurants among middle-aged and older consumers. We conducted a survey from 1 May to 30 May 2020 among 320 consumers born in or before 1980 who only used kiosks in fast-food restaurants. The findings are as follows: First, the more innovative and optimistic the consumer, the more they are willing to continue using kiosks, whereas the more discomfort the consumer feels, the less likely they are to continue using them. Second, among technology readiness factors, a sense of insecurity does not have a significant effect on the willingness to continue to use kiosks. Third, among innovative consumers, men were found to be more likely to continue using kiosks than women. Thus, fast-food restaurant managers need to know that men and women perceive technology-based self-service differently.

Evaluating the impact of food labeling in a vocational school: an open prospective pilot study

Background: In October 2017, France adopted the Nutri-Score label as the official food label to display on industrial food packaging. School mass catering is recognized as a substantial contributor to individual diet.
 Objective: Evaluating the impact of the food label Nutri-score on food choices of students at a school self-service restaurant and at home.
 Methods: Longitudinal open prospective pilot study conducted in the self-service restaurant of a vocational school in France in 2019. After a survey among guests (T0), food products labeled with the Nutri-Score were presented to consumers on the menus at the entrance and directly on the food dishes at the counters (T1). The intervention was supplemented by a counseling service on healthy diet conducted by a nutritionist (T2).
 Results: We observed a decrease in students’ consumption of sweet products (57%). Similarly, the self-service catering staff observed at the end of T1 a decrease in food leftovers categorized as less healthy. The implementation of the counseling service at T2 was significantly associated with a higher consumption of fruits and vegetables (P < .001), healthier eating habits at home (P < .001), more home cooking (P < .02), and an increased will to check for the presence of the Nutri-Score labels on supermarket food items (P < .001).
 Conclusions: After the display of the Nutri-Score label, we observed an improvement in students’ diets. However, results were significant only when the Nutri-Score was associated with a counseling service.

Self-Service Restaurants in SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic

During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the self-service restaurant sector, as well as other types of food services, are facing an unprecedented crisis needing to adapt their service to avoid closing their doors. With varied and quick meals, the self-service buffet is one of the most important types of outside services. However, the type of service where the clients follow a line on the buffet and serve their meals has impaired traditional restaurant operation during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and, perhaps, after it. In this sense, this study presents an overview of the self-service buffet restaurant operational system in the context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Factors affecting the consumers’ embracement of manual self-ordering system (order chit) in restaurants

ABSTRACT The upsurge of manpower crunch issues has tightened up the service capacity of many full-service restaurants. The introduction of manual self-ordering system (as opposed to electronic menu and computerized ordering system) was the outcome of the manpower shortage among many financially restricted small- to mid-scale restaurant operators in Malaysia. Past studies pertaining to self-service restaurants mainly focused on multinational fast-food chain’s counter service, e-menu, electronic ordering system, and online food ordering system. The purpose of this research is to identify factors affecting Malaysian consumers’ acceptance toward the use of order chit as a form of self-ordering system within the casual dining establishments. Specifically, the study focused on the context of mid-scale casual dining restaurants. Based on the literature review, a hypothetical construct of factors determining the adoption of order chit system was proposed. The model was then tested using data collected from a sample of casual dining restaurant patrons residing in the Klang Valley of Malaysia. Results of a structural equation analysis suggest that ease of use, information clarity, perceived service, and ordering technique fit, and freedom of choice are found to be significant in increasing the acceptance of order chit system. However, peer pressure was found to not significantly affect the acceptance of such practices. The academic and managerial implications of these findings are considered.

Avaliação de desperdício em restaurantes comerciais do tipo self-service total na Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ)

O controle das perdas e desperdício de alimentos é relevante do ponto de vista econômico, em relação ao combate à fome e na melhoria da segurança alimentar. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o desperdício de refeições e identificar e quantificar os resíduos de frutas e hortaliças em restaurantes comerciais do tipo self-service na Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, comparar os dados desta pesquisa com outros estudos, e apresentar estratégias para minimização e reaproveitamento de resíduos. Para análise da sobra descartada foi realizada a pesagem das cubas, ainda com alimentos, descontando o valor do recipiente. Para quantificar o índice de resto ingestão, foram pesados os restos deixados pelos comensais. Os resíduos de frutas e hortaliças foram pesados separadamente. Para obtenção do valor monetário perdido com a sobra descartada, multiplicou-se o preço do quilograma (kg) de comida cobrado aos clientes pela sobra descartada. Os dados foram avaliados por análise de variância (ANOVA) seguida de pós-teste de Tukey (p≤ 0,05), utilizando os softwares Excel 365 (Microsoft®) e PAST 3.2. Para levantamento dos dados de outros estudos e das estratégias para minimização e reaproveitamento de resíduos, foi realizada revisão bibliográfica. Os três restaurantes apresentaram resto ingestão per capita dentro dos valores usuais de acordo com a literatura (15-45 g). Entretanto, a sobra descartada per capita foi superior ao que é preconizado e o Restaurante 1 apresentou maior perda monetária com esta sobra. No Restaurante 1, a soma dos resíduos de frutas e hortaliças corresponderam a mais de 50% do total de resíduos orgânicos. O desperdício de alimentos representa um cenário real, sendo preocupante sob o ponto de vista social, econômico e ambiental. Desta forma, políticas públicas são necessárias para ampliar as condições de acesso à alimentação, incentivar o reaproveitamento dos alimentos e reduzir os resíduos gerados.

Portioning meat and vegetables in four different out of home settings: A win-win for guests, chefs and the planet

Individuals increasingly consume their meals away from home. This article describes a series of studies that examined the effects of meals with reduced amounts of meat and increased amounts of vegetables on food consumption, waste and guest satisfaction in four real-life restaurant settings in the Netherlands: an a-la-carte restaurant, six company canteens, a self-service restaurant, and a buffet restaurant, including nearly 1500 participants in total. The four studies in these four different out of home settings consistently showed that adapting portion sizes of meat and vegetables was effective to reduce meat consumption and increase vegetable consumption, while maintaining high guest satisfaction. Guest satisfaction even increased when vegetables were presented and prepared in a more attractive and tasty way. Thus, adapting portion sizes of meat and vegetables provides a viable strategy to stimulate healthy and environmentally sustainable consumption patterns in out of home settings.

Comfortable seating: The influence of seating comfort and acoustic comfort on customers’ experience of hospitality in a self-service restaurant

Does comfort in a restaurant influence people's experienced hospitality? Effects of seating comfort and acoustic comfort on the experience of hospitality were examined by means of a 2 x 2 between subjects experiment among 262 customers of a self-service restaurant, using the EH-scale measuring the experiential factors care, comfort and inviting. In line with theory on embodiment, MANOVA and mediation analysis showed that comfortable seating positively influences mental comfort, which subsequently increases the experience of hospitality (comfort factor). Extra ambient sound (acoustic discomfort) cancels out this effect. Also, people's desire to sit matters: people with a low desire to sit interpret comfortable seats as more caring instead of comfort. Regarding the discussion on (dis)comfort: seating comfort, not discomfort, accounted for the effects. Altogether, the hospitality experienced in a restaurant may be enhanced by offering comfortable seats, making customers feel more comfortable, physically and mentally.

Evaluation of the Temperature of Distribution and Analysis of Critical Control Points on a self-Service Restaurant of the City of Guanambi – BA

AbstractCompliance with health legislation is important to ensure food safety in food production. The objective was to evaluate the time and temperature of distribution of hot and cold preparations, as well as to identify the critical control points of the stages of preparation of chicken salpicão, in a self-service restaurant in the city of Guanambi - BA. To evaluate the temperature of distribution, two hot preparations (whole rice and white) and a cold (mayonnaise salad) were selected, served daily in the restaurant. The measurements were taken with the aid of a thermometer, for 120 minutes, with an interval of one hour. Monitoring of the time and temperature were also evaluated in each operation (cooking, cooling and distribution) of chicken salpicão production, with subsequent identification of critical control points. It was found that the mayonnaise salad reached the cooling counter with a temperature above 10 ° C. Although it has been observed a reduction of this during the exposure time, the same was above as recommended by the legislation (up to 10ºC / 4 hours exposure). The white and whole rice presented adequate temperatures at the beginning of the distribution, 61ºC and 66ºC, respectively, with subsequent reduction of these. The cooking, cooling, mixing and distribution stages of chicken salpicão production were identified as critical control points because they present potential health risks to consumers when not properly performed. It is necessary an efficient monitoring and inspection by the responsible organs, in order to obtain the adequacy of the temperature of the foods offered to the consumers. Keywords: Collective Feeding. Monitoring. Food Supply. ResumoO cumprimento às legislações sanitárias é importante para garantir a segurança alimentar na produção de alimentos. Objetivou-se avaliar o tempo e a temperatura de distribuição de preparações quentes e frias, bem como identificar os pontos críticos de controle das etapas de preparo do salpicão de frango, em um restaurante self-service da cidade de Guanambi – BA. Para avaliar a temperatura de distribuição foram selecionadas duas preparações quentes (arroz integral e branco) e uma fria (salada de maionese), servidas diariamente no restaurante. As medições foram feitas com o auxílio de um termômetro, durante 120 minutos, com intervalo de uma hora. Avaliou-se também o monitoramento do tempo e temperatura em cada operação (cocção, resfriamento e distribuição) da produção de salpicão de frango, com posterior identificação dos pontos críticos de controle. Verificou-se que a salada de maionese chegava ao balcão de refrigeração com temperatura acima de 10°C. Embora tenha sido observada uma redução desta durante o tempo de exposição, a mesma encontra-se acima do preconizado pela legislação (até 10ºC/4 horas de exposição). O arroz branco e integral apresentaram temperaturas adequadas no início da distribuição, 61 ºC e 66 ºC, respectivamente, com posterior redução destas. As etapas de cocção, resfriamento, mistura e distribuição, da produção de salpicão de frango, foram identificadas como pontos críticos de controle por apresentarem riscos potenciais à saúde do consumidor quando não realizadas adequadamente. Faz-se necessário um acompanhamento e fiscalização eficiente por parte dos órgãos responsáveis, a fim de se obter a adequação da temperatura dos alimentos ofertados aos consumidores. Palavras-chave: Alimentação Coletiva. Monitoramento. Abastecimento de Alimentos.

When are “Dish of the Day” nudges most effective to increase vegetable selection?

Previous research has suggested that featuring vegetable-rich dishes as “Dish of the day” (DoD) could be an operationally feasible and straightforward strategy to promote healthier food choices in restaurants. However, the available evidence regarding the effect of DoD on food choices is limited, and little is known about the conditions of its effectiveness in the field. This study investigates the effect of introducing DoD options in a real self-service restaurant setting on the selection of vegetable-rich options. The objectives are to (1) replicate and measure the DoD effect in this situation; and (2) investigate the moderating role of two features of the choice set: (i) the type of option set as DoD and (ii) the number of alternatives options to choose from. In a living lab experiment, 294 consumers came for lunch to a self-service restaurant and chose between a target vegetable-based dish (vg1) and respectively one, or two, alternatives: a meat-based dish (nvg) and another vegetable dish (vg2). Five choice task conditions were tested, in a between-subjects design: three conditions examined dish choices when two options were available (vg1 versus nvg): no DoD (T1-0); vg1 as DoD (T1a); or nvg as DoD (T1b). Two further conditions used three options (vg1 versus nvg versus vg2): no nudge (T2-0), or vg1 as DoD (T2a). In neutral conditions T1-0 and T2-0 respectively, 34.4% and 23.3% of consumers chose vg1. The DoD effect was observed in all conditions: choices in favour of vg1 increased by 25.2% when in was DoD by 25.2% in T1a vs. T1-0 and by 30% in T2a vs T2-0; while 7.6% more consumers chose nvg in T1b vs T1-0. Regarding the conditions of DoD effectiveness, the size of the DoD effect was larger for the initially less popular dish vg1 (T1a) compared with nvg (T1b). Introducing more options also increased the relative effect of DoD in favour of vg1, from 73% (T1a) to 129% (T2a). There were no effects of the condition on consumer satisfaction with the dish chosen, nor on the amount of food wasted. This research gives insight into the elements of the choice task to consider when setting up nudges, and could help choice architect to better design efficient and acceptable nudges in foodservice settings.

Discussion on the Relationship Between Characteristics of Self-Service Restaurants and Consumption Willingness

Since changed in external environment and technology as well as diversified demands of customers, the innovation of dishes and services is necessary to attract customers. Therefore, based on literature analysis and empirical research, this study discussed the relationship among customers’ experience connotation to self-service restaurants, service characteristics, customers’ technology involvement, attractions of self-service restaurants, customers’ perceived values and customers’ consumption willingness; and further compared the difference on the relationship mode between the groups who are and are not willing to spend money at self-service restaurants. In this study, the consumers who were 15 or above in Taiwan and had eating-out experience were taken as the main respondents and the questionnaires were sent by staff to carry out the convenient sampling survey, and totally, 650 valid questionnaires were collected. Then, the consumers were divided into two groups: the group with certain consumption intentions and the group with uncertain consumption intentions, according to the condition whether they will be willing to spend money at self-service restaurants in the future, in order to conduct group pattern comparison. It is found from the results that the two groups are significantly different in the strength of the 3 relationship paths. Therein: (1) the customers’ technology involvement of the group with certain consumption intentions has significantly positive effects on the paths to the customers’ perceived values and is stronger than that of the group with uncertain consumption intentions, (2) the attractions of self-service restaurants to the group with certain consumption intentions have significantly positive effects on the paths to the customers’ perceived values and is stronger than that to the group with uncertain consumption intentions, (3) the customers’ perceived values of the group with certain consumption intentions have significantly positive effects on the paths to the customers’ consumption willingness and is stronger than that of the group with uncertain consumption intentions. From the study results, the consumption willingness models of both groups are also different. The results can be provided to the operators of self-service restaurants as the reference to make decisions.

Grab, Pay, and Eat: Semantic Food Detection for Smart Restaurants

The increase in awareness of people toward their nutritional habits has drawn considerable attention to the field of automatic food analysis. Focusing on self-service restaurants environment, automatic food analysis is not only useful for extracting nutritional information from foods selected by customers, it is also of high interest to speed up the service solving the bottleneck produced at the cashiers in times of high demand. In this paper, we address the problem of automatic food tray analysis in canteens and restaurants environment, which consists in predicting multiple foods placed on a tray image. We propose a new approach for food analysis based on convolutional neural networks, we name Semantic Food Detection, which integrates in the same framework food localization, recognition and segmentation. We demonstrate that our method improves the state-of-art food detection by a considerable margin on the public dataset UNIMIB2016, achieving about 90% in terms of F-measure, and thus provides a significant technological advance toward the automatic billing in restaurant environments.

Alimentos funcionais: conhecimento e consumo por usuários de restaurante self-service em capital do nordeste brasileiro

Objetivo: Descrever o conhecimento e consumo de alimentos funcionais por usuários de restaurante self-service da capital piauiense. Métodos: Trata-se de estudo transversal descritivo, conduzido com 161 indivíduos, de ambos os sexos, idade de 20 a 59 anos. Os usuários foram investigados quanto à definição de alimentos funcionais. A dieta habitual foi avaliada por aplicação de um questionário de frequência alimentar, adaptado para alimentos funcionais, com as categorias de consumo: habitual, não habitual, raramente consumido e nunca consumido. Os dados obtidos foram analisados por estatística descritiva com auxílio do software IBM SPSS Statistics. O estudo foi aprovado por Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa. Resultados: A amostra, com média de idade de 38,6 ± 9,0 anos, apresentou maioria masculina (57,8%), com ensino superior completo (73,3%). Desta, apenas 36,6% dos indivíduos definiram corretamente a terminologia “alimentos funcionais”, em contradição ao esperado para escolaridade elevada como determinante do conhecimento e qualidade alimentar. A dieta habitual caracterizou-se por baixa ingestão semanal de frutas, hortaliças, cereal integral, leguminosas, óleos insaturados, peixes, oleaginosas, chás e especiarias, sendo insuficiente, portanto, em compostos antioxidantes, anti-inflamatórios e anticarcinogênicos, entre os quais se destacam: resveratrol, licopeno, organossulforetos, catequinas, gingerol, curcumina e ômega 3. Conclusão: Conclui-se que a população de adultos ativos participante deste estudo possui conhecimento inadequado sobre alimentos funcionais, os quais não estão incluídos em sua alimentação habitual.

Food Rating Scale in Food Services: From Development to Assessment of a Strategy for Consumer Healthier Choices.

This study aimed to create an easy tool to identify healthier choices for meal assembly in food services (self-service restaurants) and to allow consumers to compose their plates to make healthier choices. It is an interventional study, and the first step was setting healthy food parameters to design a rating scale. The first evaluation criterion was based on energy density (ED) and sodium content (SC) using “traffic light” color in the dishes’ nameplates; the second criterion was based on food groups; the third criterion was based on ingredients of the meals. After using the classification, we assessed the rating scale in a food service and we evaluated the strategy with its consumers. To evaluate the effect of the nutritional intervention, we developed a multiple-choice-questionnaire with eight questions to measure the impact on consumer food choices quantitatively. The dish nameplate allows identification of healthier choices regarding SC and/or ED by colors; ingredients that compose the dish; the food group and the serving size, helping the identification of the amount of food to compose the meal. Banners helped consumers to understand the information. After four weeks, all the consumers (n = 1000) received questionnaires regarding their comprehension of the classification. The questionnaire presented an ICC of 0.71. Most of the preparations (61%) were inadequate based on ED and/or SC at the studied food service. A total of 556 consumers returned questionnaires, and 86.3% of them observed the rating scale as a nutritional strategy. Almost 55% (n = 261) of consumers reported changes in food choice after reading the dishes nameplates. The items with greater impact on consumer change in eating behavior were the use of colors as an indicator of nutritional quality, portion size information and ingredients list. Almost 25% of the consumers that changed their eating behavior noticed more than three items presented on the nameplate.