Culinary Arts and Sciences VII:Global, National and Local Perspectives

Objective: This study served to determine the perceptions of athletes on the food service quality of the athletes’ cafeteria from four foodservice dimensions. The relationships between respondents’ socio-demographic backgrounds, sport disciplines (aesthetic or non-aesthetic sport), nutrition knowledge and food service perceptions were also determined. Methods: Self-administered questionnaires given to athletes who went to the cafeteria for their meals. Results: The athletes (n=110) were most satisfied with the meal service quality dimension (4.13 ± 0.72) while least satisfied with the food quality dimension (3.77 ± 0.75). Significant differences in nutrition knowledge were observed among the athletes from different ethnic groups (p< 0.01) and educational levels (p<0.05). Discussion: The lowest mean score obtained in the food quality dimension implied that this may the contributing factor towards the low attendance of the athletes at the cafeteria. Athletes’ sport classification, nutrition knowledge and socio-demographic background were independent of their perception on the food services. Conclusion: The results provided an insight to the Food Service Unit into the crucial criteria to be focused on in the implementation of their continuous quality enhancement measure. Future survey specifically on food quality needs to be carried out to ascertain the reason for poor ratings on the cafeteria food. Introduction Proper nutrition is, undeniably, the key to keeping athletes’ bodies healthy and having them perform at maximum potential. A poorly nourished athlete, definitely, will not have the competence to perform well due to the suboptimal Culinary Arts and Sciences VII 17 nutritional status. This is where the role of a good athlete’s cafeteria comes into play to provide high quality foods for the athletes. Realizing the relationship between high quality food and athletes’ performance, the Food Service Unit was established by the National Sports Council with the main role of providing foods to meet the daily nutrient requirements of the elite and non-elite athletes in the country so as to produce world-class athletes. The Food Service Unit also acts as the reference centre for sports nutrition, promote and encourage healthy eating habits and provide excellent foods via the modification of cooking methods and selection of high quality products. Apart from that, the cafeteria also provides the latest information regarding sports and nutrition through its nutrition information boards which was updated on a monthly or even weekly basis as an effort to increase athletes’ level of nutrition knowledge. Despite the availability of the Athletes’ Cafeteria, with various distinctive features such as 30 day menu cycle, menu variation, high quality of food, flexible meal hours, and comfortable dining area, there seemed to be a trend where athletes were taking outside food instead of dining in the cafeteria. According to the Food Service Unit Annual Report of Reservation, the average attendance rate of athletes in the year 2008 was only 74.9%. Athletes who opted to eat outside or buy hawker food increase the risk of unhealthy food consumption and food borne illnesses. Jacobson claimed that eating out will increase the potential for incidences of obesity and other health-related consequences. This high energy intake will further complicate the weight management problems which were mainly found in sports that emphasize leanness, thinness and aesthetic aspects, such as gymnastics, dance, figure skating, synchronized swimming and diving . Although nutrition information was made available, it was unclear if athletes were knowledgeable about the role of nutrition on athletic performance. The dietary requirements between athletes in aesthetic sports and non-aesthetic sports may be different and it is recognized that athletes may restrict dietary fat in an attempt to maintain low body fat . Thus this study aims to investigate if nutrition education received among the athletes will affect their perception of the services provided by the cafeteria. Capra found that consumers’ perception on the service provided is an important aspect in the efforts to improve the quality of food. Many factors can influence athletes’ food intake, including socioeconomic status, access to sufficient calories, intentional weight loss and body image disturbance and peer pressure. However, the perceptions of athletes on the food service quality of the cafeteria were not known. The relationships between socio-demographic backgrounds, sports discipline, nutrition knowledge level and perceived food service quality were presently not well understood either. Therefore, this study aims to fill this void by determining the athletes’ perceptions on the food service quality of the Athlete’s Cafeteria and Culinary Arts and Sciences VII 18 determining the relationships between socio-demographic backgrounds, sports discipline, nutrition knowledge level and perceived food service quality. Objectives This study served to determine the perceptions of the athletes on the food service quality of the cafeteria from four dimensions, namely food quality, meal service quality, staff/service issues and dining environment through selfadministered questionnaires. The relationships between respondents’ sociodemographic backgrounds (sex, ethnic group and educational level), sport disciplines (aesthetic or non-aesthetic sport), nutrition knowledge and food service perceptions were also determined. Method This was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted at the Athlete’s Cafeteria at an athletes’ training center. A convenience sampling method was used where athletes who had meals at the cafeteria for at least 3 months were recruited. A self-administered questionnaire was used as the instrument to determine the socio-demographic characteristics, sport disciplines (aesthetic and nonaesthetic), nutrition knowledge and food service perceptions of the athletes. The questionnaires used for the determination of the nutrition knowledge and food service perceptions were adapted from Rosenbloom and Capra respectively. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17 was used to analyse the data collected. Results A total of 110 athletes from 19 types of sports, which were categorised as aesthetic and non-aesthetic sports, were recruited for the study. There was an unequal distribution of sex among the respondents where the percentage of male respondents (63.6%) surmounted female respondents (36.4%). For ethnic distribution, majority of the respondents were Malays (60%) followed by Chinese respondents (28.2%). The majority of them (52.7%) had completed their secondary school education and those involved in non-aesthetic sports (67.3%) outnumbered those in aesthetic sports (32.7%). Results indicated that the respondents were most satisfied with the meal service quality dimension (mean score 4.13 ± 0.72) while least satisfied with the food quality dimension (mean score 3.77 ± 0.75). All dimensions were significantly correlated with the overall satisfaction with the foodservices (Table 1). Culinary Arts and Sciences VII 19 Table 1: Correlation between mean scores of food service dimensions and overall satisfaction among the respondents Overall satisfaction Food service dimensions Mean score r p-value Food quality 3.77 ± 0.75 0.719* 0.000 Meal service quality 4.13 ± 0.72 0.599* 0.000 Staff/service issues 4.05 ± 0.84 0.514* 0.000 Dining environment 4.08 ± 0.78 0.681* 0.000 * Correlation is significant at the 0.001 level (2-tailed) No significant differences in food service perceptions were found between the athletes from different socio-demographic backgrounds (p>0.05) and aesthetic and non-aesthetic sport disciplines (p>0.05). Significant differences as shown in Table 2 in nutrition knowledge were observed among the athletes from different ethnic groups and educational levels where the Chinese athletes appeared to have higher nutrition knowledge than their Malay counterparts (p < 0.01), while the athletes with tertiary education were found to have higher nutrition knowledge than the athletes with secondary school education (p < 0.05). On the other hand, no significant relationship was found between the athletes’ nutrition knowledge and their food service perceptions (r = -0.015, p > 0.05). Discussion All of the food service dimensions influenced the overall satisfaction of the respondents. The high ratings on the meal service quality dimension indicated that the foodservice staffs were doing a great job where the conditions of crockery and cutlery, the temperature of foods and beverages, the arrangement of the buffet and the use of food tags were being taken care of. Notwithstanding, the lower ratings in the food quality dimension called for greater concern as the lower satisfaction level in this dimension might be the key issue explaining why some athletes chose not to dine in the cafeteria, since food quality appeared to be strongly related to the overall satisfaction. The results also implied that satisfaction with the foodservices was not influenced by athlete’s sport Culinary Arts and Sciences VII 20 classification. As athletes involved in aesthetic sports have a relatively higher need to maintain their body shapes or maintain their weight, higher nutrition mean score was expected. However, the difference between the mean nutrition knowledge scores was not statistically significant (p>0.05). The Chinese athletes had higher nutrition score compared to the other races. These results were in accord with the researcher’s expectation as most of the Malay respondents (66.7%) had only completed their secondary school education whilst the majority of the Chinese respondents (61.3%) had completed tertiary education. Table 2: Mean nutrition knowledge scores of respondents according to socio-demographic characteristics Characteristics No. of subjects Mean score ± Standard deviation P-value