Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior towards Ready-to-eat Food Purchasing of Consumers in Tha Chang Subdistrict, Surat Thani Province

Abstract

This survey research aimed to assess consumer nutritional knowledge, attitudes toward ready-prepared foods, and purchasing behaviors related to ready-to-eat and ready-to-serve foods. In addition, this study also investigated the relationships between knowledge, attitudes, and purchasing behavior of ready-to-eat food among consumers in the Tha Chang Subdistrict.

This study included 2,235 consumers aged 18 to 59 years residing in villages No. 1–5 of Tha Chang Subdistrict, Surat Thani Province. A sample size of 360 customers was determined with Krejcie and Morgan's formula. Simple random sampling was applied. Data were collected using questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics (percentage, frequency, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Chi-squared test and Pearson's correlation coefficient).

The study found that 69.7% of the sample were female and 30.3% were male. The majority (33.6%) were aged 51-59 years. Most of them had no underlying disease (81.7%) and were living with family (93.1%). Among the sample, 28.6% had graduated from high school or vocational school, and 26.8% worked for companies, government officials, or government enterprises. 43.6% of the sample had a moderate level of overall nutrition knowledge. Half of the sample (51.4%) had a moderate level of attitude towards ready-to-eat food, followed by a negative attitude (45.3%), and only a minority (3.3%) had a positive attitude. They had a low frequency of purchasing ready-to-eat food in the past 7 days (86.7%). In conclusion, this study found that attitude toward ready-to-eat food was associated with purchase behavior at the 0.05 level; however, no correlation was found between nutrition knowledge and purchasing behavior for ready-to-eat foods.