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QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF STREET FOOD CONSUMPTIONS
AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS
Mr. Leo Marc Antipolo, Dr. Elmer Callo and Dr. Susan Groom
Abstract - Street foods are ready-to-eat foods that are served and sold by the vendors in the street where
lots of people are passing through. These foods are consumed by consumers on the run, such as students
because it is cheap, accessible and affordable price compared with the food at restaurants. This research
determined the perspective of college students in their experiences of consuming street foods. To analyze the
street food consumption, the researchers conducted an interview and the participants were from Columban
College Inc. The participants (8) selected students of Hospitality Management through the use of purposive
sampling. The results showed that the participants prefers to eat street food as their snacks because it can be
seen everywhere, mostly vendors place their carts near the school; students prefer to eat street food to treat
themselves especially when they are happy in life or for academic reasons; they felt randomly affected to other
consumers buying street food; and budget friendly for a snack. Another experience and behavioral intention
of the participants is in the form of stress eating because since the respondents eat street foods after school it
implies after “stress” snacks, that will serve as coping mechanisms for their frustrations as means of them
consuming street foods to express their emotions. There are also negative sides of eating street foods such as
experiencing stomachache, vomiting, and diarrhea which are overlooked, because the participants continued
eating street foods despite of experiencing such pains.
Keywords: Street food consumption, behavioral intention, stress eating, qualitative case study
INTRODUCTION
Different people with different nationalities, young and old, disabled or not, men and women and even
internet celebrities are an effective consumer from different varieties of trends such as Fashioned bags, girly
stuffs, perfume for men, high technologies invention, numerous of new clothing brands and other stuff that
became popular that increases the economic performance of each country every year. But aside from
fashioned style wear from body the attention in food of industry has taken its place.
The revolution of food will not be far on in time, and just like a simple lipstick it has its own variety. The
study of Street foods (2014) says that Street Food is not new, neither does it have limits. This is not a passing
trend that will fade away quickly. Since the dawn of civilization, the common populace has always eaten on
the streets. In a 2007 report, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that two and a half
billion people in the world eat this way every day. Ten years later, the phenomenon has grown even more.
According to the Tiger chef (2019) street food has been increasing in popularity for the past several years,
Street food can now be seen at catered events at posh hotels, and in conference centers, offering stylish menu
ideas that are line up with burgers and fries or soups and sandwiches.
Historically, the street food was only a small fried fish that were sold on the streets in ancient Greece
before and was widely consumed by poor urban residents of ancient Rome who did not have kitchens in their
homes (World association of chef’s societies, 2015). Since then, the Street food is clearly trendy and
everyone’s starting to talk about it because it became an important part of daily life as local population
increasingly struggle because of their lifestyle. Travel guides are getting interested and so are large food
producers. Sightseeing is the best part of travelling experience, fine dining can be delicious but the best way
to taste the local cuisine for an affordable price is trying their street food (Western Union, 2016). In the
developing countries, people spend an important amount of their budget for eating outside. Across the globe,
many are being influenced to start opening booths with different mouth-watering street food style. In Latin
America, people will spend nearly half of their budget for street food (Mensah et al., 2002; Muinde and Kuria,
2005; FAO, 2011; Ackah et al., 2011; Badrie et al., 2013).
In Vietnam, their typical street food refers to their signature sandwich, areas in Columbia and
Venezuela, their street food is a classic crepe, street food is such a part of Indian culture for the wide range
of low-cost delicacies you can find there (Western Union, 2016). Malaysia is one of the world's top eating
destinations and their wide variety of street food reflects their citizens of Chinese, Malay and Indian descent,
country of Taipei serves one of the best street food cities in Asia, including noodle soups, dumplings and
steamed buns. Seoul is a city that does not exactly embrace its street food because it’s illegal and authorities
are trying to get rid of them but that does not stop Koreans (Freme, 2017). In Southeast Asia, exotic food with
unique health benefits is not new, neither does it have limits.
Street food is consumed in many countries as food, drinks, and snacks which reflect traditional cuisine
culture in countries along with their content, preparation, sales methods, and consumption ways (FAO, 2010;
Campbell, 2011). For the Local country in southeast Asian neighbors, the Philippines offers a wealth of street
food (Macatulad, 2019), most Filipinos make livelihood for street vendors and can be seen on the corner side
of parking tricycles, churches, local supermarkets, malls and most common schools where Filipino street
vendors target places with lots of people passing through. Wholesomeness, affordability and variety of the
foods were the general basis for satisfaction for a typical student consumer (Azanza, 2009). Since there is a
lot of wonderful nature made town in the Philippines, a lot of foreigners are attracted to travel and to taste the
culture that Filipino has, they explore their adventure through trying Philippine's traditional food, mainly
street foods. Not only because of the beautiful scenery the country has been inviting by many foreigners, It is
also because of the foods that leave the mark on the faces of foreigners. And because of that Philippines is
one of the local countries that are known for its food variety whether influenced by Japanese. Thanks to a lot
of travelers, they feature the good side of the Philippines that helps a lot of street vendors be attractive to
people with different ages.
The purpose of this qualitative research study determined the perspective of Hospitality Management of
Columban College, Inc. in their experiences of consuming street foods. Students at any time especially as
well as after school, set time for buying street foods before they go to their homes and this research study
explained the analysis of emotional response and eating habits of students at the stage of adolescents that they
are one of the effective consumer of street food consumption.
This research study was conducted for the people to give awareness to the local consumers in relation
to their consumption of street food. This was to keep the significance of street food for local consumers that
are students who budget their money. The data were obtained through face-to-face interviews to students that
are an effective consumer of street food consumption.
In this regard, the researchers looked closely on the perception and experiences of senior high school
students upon eating street foods, given that students nowadays usually crave for street foods. Thus, the
researchers found out that emotional response affect the eating habits of the participants that is why the
students need to be more responsible upon consuming street foods because too much intake of street foods
might develop such diseases that weakens the immune system of the body both female and male participants.
Framework of the Study
There are many behavioral theories, such as theories about human needs, motivational processes
and so on, all of this gives explanation to parts of the processes that determines consumer behavior. The
multi-theoretical framework of Jager (2000) indicates that the behavior of consumers can be presented as a
cycle, in which micro and macro level behavior of individuals affects each other. The driving forces of
individual micro and collective macro level are used to determine consumers’ behavior in an environmental
setting. The individual level refers to the consumers, who have different needs, they may be satisfied,
confronted with opportunities for consumption and have choices to face the opportunities. Furthermore,
consumers may be uncertain, depending on the difference between expectations and the actual outcomes of
their behavior. The collective level on the other hand refers to economic, technical and cultural
developments, describing the world consumers are living in.
The impression management theory of Erwin Goffman In Goffman (2015) self-impression
management theory people are portrayed as actors on an everyday life scene, managing the impression of
self in the public space. According to this theory individuals’ actions can be understood as part of a social
consciousness in which people stage themselves in social society striving to give impressions of certain
status and role. Goffman’s theory is therefore useful for this study when trying to understand stages on why
consumers buy street foods. Theory focuses on behaviors of the consumers, whether they buy street foods
because of Filipino’s innovativeness or because it is a subjective norm. Hence, it offers an opportunity to
understand the patterns of behaviors of consumers.
The study is based on the opinions and experiences of the selected college students of Columban
College.
In the history of civilizations, Street food plays an important role in human consumption; since the
beginning of the world's first populations, street food has represented the base of alimentation for the largest
quantity of people. Street food is important with a rich history, we want to be clear about what we mean by
“Street Food”. Street Food as something that is edible and cooked in the streets while people are purchasing
and eating it. Street foods involves use of non-expensive raw materials and simple preparation, but it
guaranties a certain standard of cleanliness.
tends to provide a large calorie intake; uses preparation methods that makes it accessible in terms of cost
and time; requires minimal utensils and usually can be eaten with the hands. This describes not only the
base of Street Food but its greatest perks and strengths. In fact, the consumers cannot underestimate its
simplicity and low cost.
Research Questions
In order to find out the different perception among the SHS students and how they respond to the
popularity of street food this study posits and answers the following research questions:
1. How does street foods affect the eating habits and emotional response of the participants?
2. What are the participants’ reasons for buying street foods?
3. How do the participants describe their satisfaction in eating street foods in terms of physical and health
status?
METHODOLOGY
This chapter contained the research design, research participants, data collection and the data
analysis. It also presented the methods and procedures that were used by the researchers in order to acquire,
analyze, and interpret the data in this study.
In this qualitative research, the researchers conducted a one on one interview with the participant/s. The
researcher’s role was analytical. They were the primary instrument of the data collection and analysis. The
researchers gathered the experiences upon eating street foods, encoded, and analyzed it to be aware about
the perspective and emotional response of the senior high school students. Furthermore, the researchers
developed capability in methods by thoroughly explaining the study without the intent of being biased to
the potential participants. While conducting a one on one interview to know the different perspective/s and
emotional response of both female and male senior college students with regards to their study.
A. Research Design
This research has a design which is the qualitative case study research. This research is focused on the
people’s perspective and experiences.
The case study is a research design under the qualitative research which is common in social science.
It is based on comprehensive investigation of a single individual, group or event. It may be descriptive or
explanatory.
According to Helena Harrison, Melanie Birks, Richard Franklin & Jane Mills (2017) Case study
research has grown in reputation as an effective methodology to investigate and understand complex issues
in real world settings. Martyn Shuttleworth (2008) this method of study is especially useful for trying to
test theoretical models by using them in real world situations.
B. Participants
The participants of the research were 8 Hospitality students from Columban College Inc. Asinan
campus. The researchers used purposive sampling.
C. Data Gathering Procedure and Analysis
In this research, the researchers made a question to interview the respondents, their opinions will be
gathered as on answer.
From the gathered data, the researchers study the opinions of the respondents and these opinions help
to answer the question in qualitative analysis of street food consumptions among senior high school
students. After the data gathering, the researchers made the result and discussion of the research.
Content analysis and thematic analysis are used to analyze the collected data. This helped the
researchers to identify and interpret the essential information they have gathered from the record data. The
researchers generally used a computer or any technology that helped them type the transcripts to their data
analysis. Each of them has the copy of the transcript of the participants to further analyze and interpret the
collected data. The researchers conducted their data analysis for a week. Prior to analyzing the data, the
researchers aimed to understand the perspective and their experiences of students on their street food
consumption. This was answered by selected participants per academic strand.
RESULTS and DISCUSSION
This chapter presented the interpretation and analysis of the data acquired in the study and discusses
an in-depth exploration of the research problem through verbatim and English translation of the transcript.
The findings were based on the data gathered through the transcript of interview from the participants.
R. Q. 1. How does street foods affect the eating habits and emotional response of the participants?
General Idea
Frequency
Summary
Comfort
Food
Female: 4/4
Eating street food after school is their way
to cope up with frustrations.
Male: 2/4
Satisfies
Female: 4/4
Craving
Male: 3/4
Being hungry or being tempted to eat
street foods while craving is like a cure to
feel better.
Interviewer: How does street foods affects your eating habits and emotional response?
Respondent: After school I eat street food to express my emotions, if I’m happy I’ll simply treat myself to
help me overcome my frustrations and when I’m offended or disappointed on that day I’ll do stress eating
. In my own perspective, I feel such craving satisfaction when I eat street foods as it relieves my stress and
tiredness because of its unique and a one of a kind taste.
The analysis of the answers from the eight (8) participants in research question no. 1 were varied from
the result of their perspective on their purpose/ behavioral intention on consuming street foods. 100% of
female participants responded that eating street foods after school helps them to overcome their frustrations
and stress developed from their school. As female respondents stated that street food is their comfort food.
According to them it relieves their stress and tiredness because of its unique and a one of a kind taste.
Because according to omega publishers (2015) stress influenced females’ decision to overeat more often
than among males. This could be due to the belief that stress, and anxiety are closely related emotions. In
order to deal with these feelings, like those suffering from stress, food can be used as a coping mechanism.
Females were significantly more likely to report their eating behavior being affected by certain emotions
than males. Women have also been found to be more sensitive to emotional stimuli and it is speculated that
this may have biological basis based on evolutionary pressures. As a result 100% of female participants
found out that they eat street food because it is the cause of stress eating, they said they express their
emotions through eating street food, whether their reason is to treat themselves on achieving some things
or because they want to entertain themselves not to be bothered about their exams or loads of paper works.
Meanwhile 75% of male participants eat street food unbothered. According to them they usually eat street
food to satisfy their cravings, when they are hungry or tempted to eat and when they have someone to share
with creating bonding between them. As stated to the website of Live Well Dorset (N.D.) It is not Emotional
eating when someone is hungry, because emotional eating usually reaches for food as a cure to help them
feel better. That’s why 75% males according to the results eat unbothered.
R. Q. 2. What are the participants’ reasons for buying street foods?
General
Idea
Frequency
Summary
Stomach
Filling
Female: 4/4
Since street foods are always available and can be found
almost everywhere, students always buy it. Street foods
being delicious is what makes them buy more, thus
making them full.
Male: 4/4
Affordable
Female: 4/4
Given the affordable price of street foods, the students
spend half of their budget in a day to buy.
Male: 4/4
Interviewer: What are your reasons for buying street foods?
Respondent: I buy street foods because these foods can be seen everywhere and less time consuming to
find. Street foods are affordable, a budget friendly for student like me. There are variety of foods serve in
the street, these foods are delicious and serves as my last option when I want to satisfy my cravings. I eat
street foods because it makes my stomach full and satisfied.
The analysis of the answers from the eight (8) participants in research question no. 2 were varied from
their purpose and behavioral intention in consuming street foods. 100% of participants both female and
male consumed street food because of its availability and affordability. In terms of availability, street food
vendors place their carts on places where a lot of people and consumers where visible. According to Hill
(2012) vendors can be all guaranteed to have sales if they park their food cart on a convenient corner during
lunchtime or in the afternoon. This way the customer base is never far away. Furthermore, according to
info entrepreneurs in affordability, pricing tactics can be used to attract customers, an affordable price can
encourage customers to buy products. Because it is unwise to set prices high because it might deter price-
conscious customers, while setting prices to low might throw away profit. That is why 100% of female
participants consumed street food half of their budget while 100% of male participants consumed street
food only half of the number of female participants spent their money on street food. 100% of female
participants responds eating street foods especially after school implies eating street food after stress
situations in order to have chilling moment. Female participants focused more on the effect of snacks to
improve or express their emotions because females especially hitting adolescents where found to be more
emotional. As conducted on the website of () reacting more to negative emotion-inducing experiences,
women may be more sensitive to all emotions of others because of their need to attach with other people,
or women may also be responsive to negative emotions of others better than men do (Hampson et al., 2006;
McClure, 2000) . On the other hand, 100% of male participants responds that eating street food is for them
to have a quick munch or cravings only and just a momentary snack after school. However, 100% of the
participants both male and female agreed that eating street food after a lot of paper works from school
implies it is in the form of stress eating.
R. Q. 3. How do the participants describe their satisfaction in eating street foods in terms of physical and
health status?
General Idea
Frequency
Summary
No effect on
health
Female: 3/4
Females have stronger immune system, which
makes them less prone to bacterial, fungal and
other types of infection than guys.
Male: 2/4
Adverse
effects
Female: 2/4
Due to some unprocessed foods, consumers
experience adverse effects such as diarrhea,
vomiting, and stomachache.
Male: 3/4
Interviewer: How do you describe your satisfaction in eating street foods in terms of physical and health
status?
Respondent: Mostly when I eat street foods I felt the reaction of my intestine, even when the carts where I
bought street foods are sanitized. When I eat street foods without taking my meal eaten before I buy, the
level of acidity in my body is not normal and sometimes I experience diarrhea, stomachache and vomiting.
The analysis of the answers from the eight (8) participants in research question no. 3 were varied from their
experience of consuming street foods in terms of medical security/ cleanliness. 75% of female participants
in consuming street foods have no side effect. Meanwhile, 75% of male participants in consuming street
food experience diarrhea, stomachache and vomiting due to the taste of unprocessed foods. According to
(2013) this is due to women have stronger immune system responses than men. The good news for women
is that this “show no mercy” response means they are less prone to bacterial, viral, fungal and other types
of infection than the dudes are. Researchers found that women’s immune systems responded more strongly
than men to flu vaccine. Old and young women alike produced both more antibodies and a higher
inflammatory cytokine count one sign of potential immunological overreaction than male participants.
CONCLUSION
The researchers analyzed the consumption of street foods among senior high school students. The
respondent’s participants have been interviewed to know their perceptions and experiences upon eating
street foods, based on their findings. The researchers found out that 100% of the female respondents eat
street food because of stress. The female consumers said that it is their way to express their emotions
whether their reason is to treat themselves on achieving some things or because they want to entertain
themselves not to be bothered about their exams or loads of paper works. Meanwhile 75% of male
participants eat street foods unbothered. According to the response of male consumers they eat street food
to satisfy their cravings, when they are hungry or tempted to eat and when they have someone to share with
creating bonding between them.
The participants’ reasons for buying street foods are varied from their purpose and behavioral intention
in consuming street foods. 100% of participants both female and male consumed street food because of its
availability and affordability. In terms of availability, street food vendors place their carts on places where
a lot of people and consumers where visible. It is affordable enough especially for students who has a tight
budget because the price range of street foods starts from 1 peso and 15 pesos being the highest.
The researchers chose their respondents in terms of their experiences upon eating and buying street
foods. Most of the consumers/respondents said that their satisfaction cannot be measured especially when
they are craving for street foods. They varied from their experience/s of consuming street foods in terms of
medical security/cleanliness 75% of female participants in consuming street foods have no side effect.
Meanwhile, 75% of male participants in consuming street food experience diarrhea, stomachache and
vomiting due to the taste of unprocessed foods. According to (2013) women have stronger immune system
responses than men.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations are made as possible ways to improve and deepen this study: The
researchers also recommend that there should be more limitations for a proper way of choosing snacks for
a healthy habit during stress eating and to control stress eating resulting obesity especially other health risk
that may result in diseases that weakens the immune system.
There should be an orientation or seminar supervised by the school administration regarding the
consumption of Street foods. A guide or a manual for the students to further develop consciousness in
health, difference between female and male regarding coping mechanisms for stress eating must be
developed.
The researchers also recommend that the students should be more conscious on foods that they prefer,
as well as their coping mechanisms for stressful situations that may lead to unhealthy eating habits. Either
be a student, a faculty, or an admin have their own perspective in answering the given set of questions. The
participants answered the questions according to their main purpose that will reflect their perspective and
experience. By listening to the interview, the researchers perceived that all of the participants have different
perspective in answering the set of questions given in this study.
REFERENCES
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Western Union. (2016). 10 Street Food Favorites from Around the World. Retrieved July 14, 2019 from
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