Set Menu Preferences of Middle and High School Students in School Foodservice

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to assess students' preference on set menus served in school foodservice. Questionnaires were distributed to 4,050 students enrolled in 34 middle and high schools located in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Gyeongnam provinces. The students were asked to assess their preferences on 78 set menus using a 5-point Likert-type scale(1 very dislike - 5 very like). Excluding responses with significant missing data, usable responses were 3,433. Data were analyzed with descriptive analysis, t-test, and one-way analysis of variance. There was no difference between middle and high school students in terms of set menu preferences. On the other hand, there was significant difference between boys' and girls' set menu preferences. Among the seven given set menu groups(rice and soup with side dishes, tangs, rice with toppings, fried rice, western foods, noodles . ddeokguk . dumpling soups, and bibimbaps), boys had higher preference scores for the rice and soup with side dishes, tangs, rice with toppings, and fried rice than that of girls. Fried rice set menus were chosen to be boys' favorite menus while western food set menus were most preferred by the girls. Rice and soup with side dishes set menus were least preferred by both boys and girls.