Model of the food preferences and the mode of selecting of institutional catering based on the value systems

In our paper we would like to present the food preferences and motivations of institutional catering from a value-oriented aspect. The actuality of the topic derives from the value-system changes of the past decade, which have led to the emerge of the so-called „central values” even in the West European nutrition tendencies such as health, ethical considerations, time and pleasure. As a result of these changes, the analysis of values and value trends shaping purchase has come to the foreground of the research on food consumer behaviour. The objective of this paper is to prove that there is a strong correlation between the segments created by the utility factors of the general value system and food consumption as well as by the factors determining the way of institutional catering. The results of the study are parts of a 1000-member national survey. A standardised pre-tested questionnaire was used during the survey. During the processing of the results besides the descriptive statistics, bi-and multi-variable correlation analyses were made with the help of Chi-square trial, factor-, cluster-and variance analysis. Segmentation was carried out by K-means clusterising process at all times. Due to our results we could justify that there was a relation between the value system, food consumer preferences and selecting the way of institutional catering, so the fact, that the value theories interpreted on the food market are also valid for the consumer market of institutional catering too, was also proven.