engleski

Beliefs and motivation factors for buying fish among Croatian restaurant chefs – a pilot study

Introduction: Fish farming compared with the capture fisheries, provides good control of production volume and quality, what is very important to those responsible for large-scale food purchases, such as restaurant chefs. Aim of the study: The aim of this pilot study was to examine motivation factors for buying fish and beliefs regarding farmed vs wild fish among a group of 30 up-scale restaurants chefs. Materials and methods: Motivation factors include 15 questions related to: external and internal characteristics, processing, wild vs farmed, value for money, country of origin, payment terms etc. The beliefs were tested by 21 questions related to fish safety, quality, control issues, customer’s preferences etc. All items were assessed by means of a 5-point Likert scale. Results and discussion: The most important motivational factors for buying fresh fish are: characteristics such as color, smell, eyes etc., delivery mode to the restaurant and the opportunity to purchase fish on the day of the catch (4.7±0.57 ; 4.5±0.78 ; 4.5±0.78). Interestingly, information on whether the fish is farmed is one of the least important factors (3.5±0.90). Among restaurants chefs, one-third mainly procures wild-caught fish while two-thirds mainly procure farmed fish for their restaurants. Significant differences between the two groups were detected in one belief regarding quality issues and in one regarding control issues. Chefs who mostly procure farmed fish consider that wild-caught fish is firmer (p=0.044) and under better control than farmed fish (p=0.043). Although a negative perception of farmed vs wild fish is widespread among consumers, this has not been proven to be the case among our restaurant chefs. The obtained results shed a new light on importance of certain characteristics of fish available to a large number of consumers since chefs can be considered as gatekeepers and decision-makers. Funding: AdriAquaNet - Enhancing Innovation and Sustainability in Adriatic Aquaculture

beliefs, farmed fish, restaurant chefs, wild fish

nije evidentirano