Purpose

This study aims to examine consumers’ preferences among four calorie-reducing approaches – resizing, reformulation, substitution and elimination – and to understand what motivates consumers to order low-calorie food using the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a model.

Design/methodology/approach

A conceptual model was developed based on the TPB with an additional construct of food choice motives. A total of 467 responses were collected. Descriptive statistics, multiple regression and ANOVA were used in the data analysis.

Findings

Consumers have a clear preference for substitution and elimination. The pattern that ingredients with higher calories were modified at a higher priority indicated that consumers might improve food decisions based on calorie information.

Practical implications

Restaurants should allow substitution or elimination of certain ingredients from menu items. Including more low-calorie sides will cost restaurants less than changing the main dish. A menu item on an entrée form is more amenable to modification for decreased calorie content as consumers have high taste expectations for popular traditional foods (e.g. burgers and pizza).

Originality/value

This is the first study to investigate consumers’ preferences among the four popular calorie-reducing approaches. A novel “Build Your Own Meal” approach was used in the questionnaire to allow the participants to choose from more than 150 ingredients, which compensated for personal preferences, thus mitigating possible limitations associated with studies of this kind, and was a good indicator of the participants’ actual ordering behavior.

中文翻译：

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消费者对休闲餐厅低热量食物替代品的偏好

目的

本研究旨在检查消费者对四种减少卡路里方法（调整大小、重新配方、替代和消除）的偏好，并使用计划行为理论 (TPB) 作为模型了解消费者订购低热量食物的动机。

设计/方法/方法

概念模型是基于 TPB 开发的，具有额外的食物选择动机结构。共收集到 467 条回复。在数据分析中使用了描述性统计、多元回归和方差分析。

发现

消费者对替代和消除有明显的偏好。以更高的优先级修改具有较高卡路里的成分的模式表明消费者可能会根据卡路里信息改进食物决策。

实际影响

餐厅应允许替换或消除菜单项中的某些成分。加入更多低热量的配菜比改变主菜的成本更低。由于消费者对流行的传统食物（例如汉堡和比萨饼）有很高的口味期望，因此主菜形式的菜单项更易于修改以减少卡路里含量。

原创性/价值

这是第一项调查消费者在四种流行的卡路里减少方法中的偏好的研究。问卷中使用了一种新颖的“自己做饭”方法，让参与者可以从 150 多种成分中进行选择，这弥补了个人偏好，从而减轻了与此类研究相关的可能限制，并且是一个很好的指标参与者的实际订购行为。