The Dining Scene Changed by Corona... Now 'Cleanliness' Matters as Much as 'Taste'

aT 'Dining Consumption Behavior Survey'... Taste Importance Overwhelming in 2019

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Eun-mo] Domestic consumers prioritize cleanliness and hygiene as much as the taste of food when choosing a restaurant for dining out. Considering that two years ago the importance of food taste was overwhelmingly higher, this is interpreted as an increased demand for 'safe dining' following the spread of COVID-19.

The Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT) announced the results of the '2021 Dining Out Consumption Behavior Survey' containing these findings on the 13th.

aT conducted a survey on dining out consumption behavior targeting 1,341 consumers nationwide aged 20 to 69 who had dined out more than 10 times in the past month, between September 6-17 and November 1-8 last year.

The survey team presented participants with about 10 factors to consider when judging a good restaurant and asked them to rate the importance of each on a 5-point scale (Not important at all to Very important). As a result, the importance ratio (somewhat important + very important) for 'taste and quality of food' was the highest at 94.3% (multiple responses), followed by cleanliness and hygiene (92.1%), cost-effectiveness (86.0%), service (81.1%), and reputation among others (80.5%).

Importance Ratios of Factors Considered When Choosing a Restaurant

This indicates that the cleanliness of a restaurant is considered as important as the taste of the food. This is significantly different from the results of a similar survey conducted in 2019 before the COVID-19 outbreak. At that time, the most important factors considered when using a restaurant (multiple responses) were food taste (71.6%), price (46.2%), location accessibility (38.4%), and restaurant cleanliness (22.7%), in that order.

Although the response methods differ and the two survey results cannot be simply compared, it can be seen that the importance of restaurant cleanliness has clearly increased over the past two years. The survey team analyzed this as "due to the increased demand for safe dining after COVID-19."

This trend was also evident when choosing restaurants for 'honbap' (eating alone). When selecting a restaurant for honbap, the importance ratio of 'cleanliness' (91.1%) was slightly higher than that of food taste (90.8%).

The survey team also examined Koreans' consumption behavior regarding delivery food through this survey. The most influential factor when choosing a delivery restaurant or food was reviews (number of reviews or ratings), accounting for 23.7%. This was followed by food price (19.9%), delivery fee (14.9%), delivery time (13.3%), and menu variety (11.4%). This indicates that consumers consider review content more than price or delivery time when selecting delivery food.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.