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Appraisal of Consumers Restaurant Food Quality in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria

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Appraisal of Consumers Restaurant Food Quality in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VIII, Issue IV, April 2021 | ISSN 2321–2705 Appraisal of Consumers Restaurant Food Quality in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria Ogbumgbada, E.C.W. & Poronakie, N.B. PhD Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rumuolumeni Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria Abstract: This study aimed at the appraisal of consumers’ Europe. Now restaurants vary greatly in appearance and restaurant food quality in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area offerings, including a wide variety of cuisines and service of Rivers State with a view to unraveling the reasons behind poor models ranging from inexpensive fast food restaurants and quality and standard of service in the study area through the cafeterias, to mid-priced family restaurant, to high – priced various opinions of respondents and recommending sustainable luxury establishments. strategies to improve the standard. Random social survey and quasi experimental research design were adopted and the Restaurant serves as an alternative source of food supply to opinion on quality and standard of foods from 400 adult home cooked meals for people on-the-go, or travellers on the respondents were sampled through well-structured questionnaire move. Food is fundamental to human survival in several ways. and oral interviews. Statistical application of simple percentages It is basic for averting hunger and maintaining health for proved that there is a significant level of poor health standard occasioned by poor food handling practices by the operators of every human being. Food also creates emotional and social restaurants. It concluded that unhygienic practices such as the satisfaction as well as constitutes a form of cultural use of unsafe water; unhealthy food exposure and underage expression. The food we eat should be safe, palatable, service personnel predispose restaurants food to contamination. affordable, and of the quality that can maintain mental, Recommendations include registration of all public food outlets emotional, psychological and physical health. In other words, with government authorities; regular inspection and enforcement the population without adequate consumption of safe food of food regulations so as to ensure that all restaurants operate at materials, including water is less able to carry on productive a healthy environment with portable water supply and proper lives, and this undermines social, economic and health waste disposal system; Sensitization and public enlightenment development (Nwaogazie, 2006). campaign by relevant government bodies to leave the public with healthy choices; and education and training of restaurant Aguilera and Stanley (1999) defined food as any substance operators on good hygiene practices. either composed of carbohydrates, water, fats, and proteins, Keywords: Restaurant food, contamination, unsafe handling, food eaten or drank by any animal including humans, for nutrition hygiene, food quality. or pleasure. In addition to nutrients, food conveys emotional satisfaction and hormonal stimuli thatcontributes to health. I. INTRODUCTION Food also contains phytochemicals that give it taste, aroma, he world food consumption patterns have dramatically colour and characteristics believed to play role in disease Tchanged across the world in recent times. This common prevention (Kicklighter, 2003). In fact, low calorie intake is consumption pattern that is mostly shared by developing associated with lack of dietary balance, reflecting an countries is the increasing expenditure on different types of inadequate supply of the range and amounts of food nutrients fast food and quick restaurant outlets within our immediate (carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals) needed surroundings/environment. for optimum physical and mental development and maintenance of health (Poronakie, 2015). The word restaurant first meant “a cup of soup” before the modern day notion of a restaurant existed in Western Europe It is a fact that an individual is exactlywhat he consumes. This (Kiefer, 2002). Restaurant is a place where people pay to sit among the major public health challenges that particularly and eat meals that are cooked and served on the premises. It is need urgent attention in our society today are hunger, high- a business which prepares and serves food and drinks to risk lifestyles in diet, among others. Quick service restaurants customers in exchange for money, and the meals are generally make the accessibility to food easy and could stire unwanted / served and eaten on the premises but many restaurants also undue appetite for traded cheap foods. Metabolically, the offer take out and food delivery services. Kiefer (2002) stated more the belly is stuffed up, the longer it takes for the ingested that Revolutionary Paris is widely cited as the birthplace of food to reach and be properly digested in the stomach; hence modern day restaurant as it was the dominant commercial and the higher the riskof infection due to the activities of parasitic cultural center at the time of the emergence of restaurant in organisms in the gullet. www.rsisinternational.org Page 140 International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VIII, Issue IV, April 2021 | ISSN 2321–2705 Historically, humans secure food through two methods: educated and untrained in food safety. That, they work under hunting and gathering, and agriculture. Today, the majority of unsanitary conditions with little or no infrastructural support. the food energy required by the ever increasing population of Following reports of researches that most food related the world is supplied by the food industry. Food is essential illnesses could be prevented by the use of proper food for ecosystem functioning and its high nutrient environments handling. Education and training of caterers and food vendors is capable of Sustaining many microbial lives. The may offer the most cost effective way to reduce the incidence inhabitation of some microorganisms can bring about positive of food borne illnesses. transformation of the food into a high value product, while Wardlaw and Kessel (2002) emphasized that consuming others can completely render it useless. Our "foods whether adequate protein, the gamut of vitamins (especially vitamin E freshly harvested or manufactured start its existence as an and B) and zinc, helps to maximize the health of immune integral part of the natural ecosystem; and inevitably, with system. Deficiency of these nutrients leads to recurrent time, are possessed by microorganisms within. Most of these sickness and poor wound healing process. Food could taste microbiological organisms when ingested by man are nice actually, but may not be enjoyed when eating. Quite a lot pathogenic in nature (Aguelcra and Stanley, 1999). of Variables could be linked to this, such as the location of Lucas and Gilles (2003) defined food safety as the absence of eating, the materials and technique used in serving, among adverse health effect following consumption of' food. Food others. could be processed to eliminate or at least reduce risk of Offering food for sale takes different shapes. While some contamination. The methods enumerated by Achalu (2003) make it available in packs, others offer it bare. Those who fall include thermal method, freezing, chemical preservation, in the latter group are people who usually sell food in dehydration, use of microorganism and microbial polymers. restaurants. In local parlance, many of them are called mama Sunday (2001) confirmed that, the manner of handling food put. In Obio/Akpor LGA, there are many food sellers who has a profound effect on its quality in terms of the extent to operate quick service restaurants in several locations. which it is germ free or it’s potential to initiate diseases. Poorly handled food may be a source of food poisoning to the As a matter of fact, rural - urban migration to Obio/Akpor consumers. This danger emphasizes the need for hygiene LGA is on the increase and its consequent population growth which concerns not only those involved in the preparation but has stimulated a rise in the number of food vending activities also those involved in the distribution, production, storage, throughout the area. There is rising daily need among workers transportation, display, sale, cooking and serving of food. to eat food outside their homes while going to work or beat time for appointments. Consequently, many people are not The preventive measures against food contamination embrace only exposed to food from quick service restaurants on daily laws, proper storage, avoidance, health education and basis but also a pattern of lifestyle especially among the low disposable equipment. Making personal effort and decision income earners who pre-dominated the informal sector of the against patronage of food in the quick service restaurant economy. In such drive, the very readily source to quench actually means reducing exposure to micro-organisms that their hunger becomes the patronage of the restaurant, could cause diseases. irrespective of the quality. Formulating laws by government on the operation of II. AIM AND OBJECTIVES restaurant food is considered to be one of the methods that could safeguard the consumers. Tinker (1987) assured that The aim of this study is to appraise the quality of consumers regulations can make restaurant food safer. Once policy restaurant food in Obio/Akpor LGA. In order to
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