The Effect of Food Safety-Related Attributes on Customer Satisfaction of Ready-to-Eat Foods at Hypermarkets

Abstract

Food safety issues have become increasingly important in the retail sector. This study focused on the perception of the safety of ready-to-eat (RTE) foods at hypermarkets. The objectives of the current study were to evaluate the perception of food safety-related attributes of RTE food and identify the key influencing factors to satisfaction at hypermarkets. A survey was conducted through a structured questionnaire that was administered at a hypermarket in Taipei, Taiwan. The hypermarket had a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points certification for RTE foods, while the target population was employees who had purchased RTE foods there. In total, 130 of the obtained questionnaires were valid. The statistical analysis encompassed descriptive statistics (means, percentages, and frequencies), exploratory factor analysis, and regression analysis. Four dimensions, i.e., facility, food, ambience/layout, and work staff, were identified to evaluate the food safety-related attributes of RTE foods at the hypermarket. A significant relationship between the food safety-related attributes and the overall customer satisfaction exists for ready-to-eat foods at hypermarkets. The facility, food, and work staff are all significantly impacting customer satisfaction. The results of this study promote a better understanding of consumer behavior toward food safety, thereby encouraging and supporting hypermarkets to design their layout and marketing strategies vis à vis RTE food.

1. Introduction

Improving food safety and hygiene was integral to the successful attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [1]. Due to the food safety crisis, food safety is a critical factor in brand image management [2] and increasing retail satisfaction to gain a good reputation with consumers [3]. Consumers have paid more attention to food safety and changed their food consumption behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic [4,5]. Retailers should promote and communicate food safety and quality standards and guarantee access to affordable and healthy food to limit the food security effects during the pandemic [6]. In the retail sector, food safety is very important, as retail food is generally the end of the food chain before it reaches the consumer. Food retailers are expected to deliver safe food but also provide safe environments to the public.

Ready-to-eat (RTE) foods are those that are ready for immediate consumption at their points of sale. The global demand for RTE food markets has been growing owing to the increasing population of working women and millennials, busy work schedules, and on-the-go consumption habits [7]. Furthermore, RTE foods available for eat-in, take-away, or delivery are sold by specific food outlets. The popularity and availability of RTE meals have risen considerably over the last few decades in many high- and middle-income countries [8]. Regarding distribution channels, the hyper/supermarket segment has been estimated to account for the highest value share of 34.3% in 2016, and it is expected to gain significant market share by the end of 2026 [7]. Most hyper/supermarkets offer customers RTE meals prepared by chefs, representing one of the various innovative retail formats that have emerged because of the competition. Notably, a range of dishes is prepared with available recipes, most of which contain only ingredients from the supermarket’s private label [9]. Interestingly, RTE foods are increasingly important in the retail sector.

RTE foods could be raw or cooked, hot or chilled, and consumed without further heat treatment [10]. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines RTE foods as animal- or plant-derived foods that are cooked, frozen, washed, cooked for hot holding, cooled, and processed to be consumed directly or after heating. Notably, RTE foods must comply with all United States Department of Agriculture guidelines relating to processing, washing, drying, cooling, freezing, and packaging. The food control system is the official institutional setup at the national or subnational level responsible for ensuring the safety and quality of the food supply. Every food business is required to follow the legal requirements for food safety, such as EU regulation (EC) 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs and the local laws based on or similar to the FDA’s Food Code in the US [11]. Foodborne diseases and food contamination are also significant public health issues in Asia, and national/local governments have worked with national/regional food outlet chains to promote the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) regulations in RTE meals in some countries. In Taiwan, hypermarket RTE food manufacturers have been enjoined to implement HACCP systems since 2015. Moreover, RTE, or cooked, meals are considered high-risk products under the HACCP guidelines [12]. Responding to the pandemic, the CDC [13] has recommended a new process to protect customers’ welfare, such as wearing cloth face coverings in public settings, and cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces. Food safety assurance in the retail setting represents a key factor in service quality.

Regular consumers have no information of the handling process of the food and the origin of the materials, and cannot evaluate the food safety level. Therefore, customers use visible and observable cues to form their opinions of a restaurant or retailer. Hygiene practices and safety assurances are important factors that influence consumers’ intention to revisit the retailer [14]. Sanitation influences consumers’ emotions and satisfaction when consuming food in a restaurant [15]. The objectives of the current study were to (1) evaluate the perception of food safety-related attributes of RTE food and (2) identify the key factors influencing satisfaction at hypermarkets.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Food Safety-Related Attributes of RTE Food at Hypermarkets

Under the HACCP guidelines, RET food is considered a high-risk product because the intent is for the consumer to eat the RET food without further cooking it. Thus, RET products present a managerial challenge to food safety authorities for the continuous surveillance of the quality and preparation of the foods [16]. It is crucial to prevent the product from becoming contaminated after cooking. The retailer distributes store-made cooked items, such as salads, dips, spreads, and steamed shrimp, that require careful control. Hypermarkets should follow the same food safety procedures as restaurants and other food-serving businesses to produce in-store fresh and cooked foods. Unlike a factory production line, there is a significant variation of production techniques, products, menu items, ingredients, and staff turnover. Therefore, stores should apply the same principles based on HACCP as the food processing industry. To apply the HACCP guidelines in retail stores, consideration must be given to time–temperature control and keeping products away from cross-contamination to avoid potentially hazardous situations that contribute to foodborne illness [11]. Service quality is measured by the results of the interaction between the service performance and the customer’s perception of the service. The service highlights the physical, technical, human, and procedural characteristics of the retailer, which leads to the perception of the quality of service [17]. A customer’s perception of the quality of service in retail stores involves their experience of the in-store environment in terms of the quality of products, services, and merchandise. The factors involved in food safety in a hotel, as well as the inherent risks, fall into three categories, i.e., food, people, and facilities [18]. Customers could evaluate a restaurant’s food safety attributes by several visible and observable cues, such as the observed cleanliness, as well as the appearance of the dining room and servers, servers’ station, restrooms, and inspection results [19,20]. Safety evaluation in restaurants involves three perspectives: functional, mechanic, and human-related aspects [15]

Although food safety-related issues are not always identified immediately, customers do pay attention to undercooked and off-tasting foods, foreign objects in food [21], and food temperature [22]. Liu and Lee evaluated food-related safety attributes as the restaurant’s provision of information about the appropriate temperature (i.e., hot or cold foods), as well as the use of fresh ingredients (i.e., no off-flavor or off-color food) [15]. Customers also evaluate RTE food safety using food attributes, such as food appearance, food temperature, flavor, and color.

Hygiene purity is the most important tangible service factor. Tangible dimensions include a wide array of factors, such as physical facilities, equipment, and personnel [23]. Mechanic attributes include non-food contact surfaces, e.g., clean and well-maintained environments, tableware, and restrooms, as well as the presence of handwash lavatory and/or soap and paper towel dispensers with hot water, soap, and paper towels/air/dryer in the restroom, appropriate lighting intensity in the dining areas, and adequate setup of light shield, and clean serving utensils [15].

Customers’ perception of restaurant cleanliness established that personal hygiene in the restaurant, the appearance of the restaurant, and the behavior of the servers were important factors that affect the evaluation of the restaurant’s quality [24]. Human-related attributes were based on servers’ food handling behaviors and their appearance, including employees keeping their fingernails clean, wearing only specific types of allowable jewelry, wearing clean uniforms or protective clothing, wearing gloves while handling RTE foods, and free of symptoms of sickness, e.g., running nose, coughing, sneezing, etc. [15].

The supermarket’s in-store shopping experience was evaluated using four factors: the merchandise variety and value, internal shop environment, staff, and other customers [5]. Based on the research over time, the attributes of the food safety of RTE foods at hypermarkets can be evaluated in food, physical environment, and people-related dimensions.

2.2. The Effect of Food Safety-Related Quality on Satisfaction

In summary, consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction was a fundamental element of marketing strategies. Therefore, efficiently addressing customers’ needs and wants is critical to the success of an organization [25]. The evaluation of the overall satisfaction is based on the performance of the attribute level what the consumer deems critical within an evaluated topic [26]. Using perceived performance to measure satisfaction, managers can identify the key attributes of their products/services that effectively affect satisfaction.

Food safety attributes are parts of customer experience. Service performance may positively influence overall satisfaction. A restaurant’s physical environment, such as the cleanliness of the service area, restrooms, and lighting, are associated with customers’ emotional responses and satisfaction [27,28]. Wall and Berry suggested functional, mechanic, and human-related factors to assess restaurant cleanliness and evaluate customers’ restaurant experience [29]. These three factors were critical to ensuring customer satisfaction and business sustainability. Liu and Lee investigated the relationship between food safety-related factors, overall satisfaction, and revisit intention [15]. The attributes of RTE food safety and the performance of RET food at hypermarkets encompass the food-, physical environment-, and people-related dimensions. Based on the preceding discussion, the following scheme (Figure 1) and hypotheses were considered:

Hypothesis 

(H1). There is a positive effect of food-related performance on the overall satisfaction of RTE foods at hypermarkets.

Hypothesis 

(H2). There is a positive effect of people-related performance on the overall satisfaction of RTE foods at hypermarkets.

Hypothesis 

(H3). There is a positive effect of physical environment-related performance on the overall satisfaction of RTE foods at hypermarkets.

This study focuses on food safety performance to determine the level of RTE food satisfaction at hypermarkets. Similar to restaurants, hypermarkets also sell RTE foods to consumers. However, RTE foods are considered high-risk products. This study estimates the effect of food safety-related attributes performance on customers’ satisfaction.

3. Research Method

3.1. Study Sample and Data Collection

Notably, the HACCP certification assumes a significant role, and it was launched to enhance hypermarket RTE food manufacturers’ sanitation, thereby preventing food hazard incidents and reducing the risk of microbial growth in Taiwan since 2015. Furthermore, RTE or cooked meals are considered high-risk products under the HACCP guidelines [8]. Several hypermarkets have obtained HACCP certification for RTE foods in Taiwan. The data used herein were collected at a hypermarket that had HACCP certification for RTE food from August to September 2019. The target population was employees who had worked at the hypermarket for more than one year and had purchased RTE food in the hypermarket. The survey was distributed in person at the workers’ resting room. In total, there were 137 respondents with 130 valid questionnaires, representing a 95% validity rate.

3.2. Research Instrument

A self-administered questionnaire was developed to measure respondents’ perceptions about the quality attributes offered by the hypermarket RTE food court. The questionnaire items were adopted from previous studies and modified to fit the current study. Two associate professors who majored in consumer behavior, one food safety assistant professor, and two food control managers at hypermarkets contributed to the construction of the survey instrument to ensure completeness in the questionnaire design. The questionnaire was revised after pretesting to avoid the misinterpretation of the terminology, questions, and response options. The questionnaire consisted of three parts: the improvement of safety-related attributes in the RTE food court at the hypermarket, service satisfaction in the RTE food court at the hypermarket, and the sample profile. Section 1 incorporated food safety-related attributes of quality based on the definitions and construct items used in the literature [17,20,24,27,28]. Section 2, the satisfaction of buying RTE food at the hypermarket, was based on Liu and Jang [30] and Yoon, Lee, and Lee [31]. In both sections, the response options used a 5-point Likert scale that ranged from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. The third part of the questionnaire consisted of items designed to gather sociodemographic information and perception or experience of RTE food at the hypermarket.

3.3. Analysis Method

All the analyses were undertaken by employing SPSS software 18.0. Scale reliability was measured by Cronbach’s α coefficient. The steps of the data analysis included the characteristics of the test sample, performance of the RTE safety quality, and satisfaction by descriptive statistics (frequencies, mean, standard deviation, etc.). To measure the food safety-related attributes at the RTE area, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to identify the underlying dimensions and reduce the number of measurement items. Moreover, EFA was conducted using the principal axis factoring method and promax rotation. Stepwise multiple regression was performed to test the effects of food safety-related factors on satisfaction. The decision of whether there was a significant relationship between the variables in the linear regression model was based on the dataset associated with a 0.05 significance level.

4. Results and Discussion

As shown in

Table 1. Respondents’ profile and background (n = 130).

		n	%			n	%
Gender	Male	67	51.5	Working experience at this retailer (years)	1–2	35	26.9
	Female	63	48.5		3–5	40	30.8
Age	18–25	27	20.8		5–10	27	20.8
	26–35	33	25.4		11–15	17	13.1
	36–45	29	22.3		15 above	11	8.5
	46–55	20	15.4	Involved in HACCP	YES	28	21.5
	56 above	21	16.2		NO	102	78.5
Education	<senior high school	13	10.0	Familiarity with HACCP	LOW	57	43.8
	senior high school	53	40.8		MEDIUM	39	30
	College/ university	58	44.6		HIGH	33	26.1
	>Master	6	4.6	Attitude toward HACCP	LOW	4	3.0
Marriage	Yes	55	42.3		MEDIUM	46	35.4
	NO	75	57.7		HIGH	80	61.6
Working status	FULL	124	95.4	Buying RTE food (times per week)	<1	24	18.5
	PT	6	4.6		1–2	29	22.3
Responsible for Meal	Yes	49	37.7		3–4	48	36.9
	No	81	62.3		>5	29	22.3

, 51.5% of the respondents are male and 48.5% were female. Most of the respondents fell into the “under 35” (46.2%) and “26–45” (22.3%) age groups. In terms of educational background, most respondents held high school (40.8%) and college degrees (44.6%). More than half of the respondents (57.7%) were unmarried. All of them had worked at the hypermarket for more than 1 year, so they were familiar with the changes in the RTE food court during the HACCP certification. Moreover, 94.5% of the respondents worked full time, and more than half (57.7%) had worked at that hypermarket for 1–5 years. Compared to customer preferences and willingness to pay for coffee certification labels in Taiwan research, the proportion of respondents with university education was 57.2% and with high school education was 22% [32]. Taiwan is of the world’s most highly educated labor forces among OECD countries, and 45 percent of Taiwanese aged 25 to 64 hold a bachelor’s degree or higher [33]. The education level among the employees of this hypermarket is consistent with Taiwan’s education level.

In total, 37.7% of respondents were responsible for meal preparation at home and more than 80% of respondents bought RTE food at least once a week. The degree of familiarity with the HACCP certification was medium and high, accounting for 56.1% of the respondents. The attitude toward the HACCP certification was medium to high, and only 3% of the respondents had a low attitude toward HACCP certification. Approximately 22% of respondents were moderately to very familiar with HACCP certifications for rice and vegetables in Vietnam [34]. In accordance with Sekovska, the study found that consumers who are familiar with quality certifications were likely to have higher income levels, higher education, and tend to shop more in supermarkets than in the local markets [3]. Respondents in this study had high education levels and bought RTE food at hypermarkets. This finding corresponds to the fact that the familiarity and attitude toward HACCP certification were relatively high in this study.

4.1. Food Safety-Related Attributes of Ready-to-Eat Foods at Hypermarkets

The respondents were asked to rate the improvement of food safety-related attributes (

Table 2. Performance and satisfaction of food safety-related service.

Item	Mean *	s.d.
* The work staff wear gloves while handling RTE food.	4.38	0.674
* The RTE food court is clean.	4.36	0.671
* The lighting is bright.	4.29	0.698
* The work staff’s appearance and uniform are neat and clean.	4.24	0.645
* The packing or mouth-guard equipment is good.	4.24	0.745
* The work staff wear proper attire (e.g., Protective clothing, shoes).	4.23	0.710
* The display tables/shelves are clean.	4.19	0.683
* Serving utensils are clean.	4.18	0.775
* Food on display appears fresh.	4.13	0.719
* Food appearance/setting is attractive.	4.12	0.758
* The appearance of the display is improved.	4.11	0.696
* Food is displayed at the appropriate temperature.	4.08	0.803
* The aroma is pleasant.	4.02	0.731
* A wide variety of RTE food is available.	4.02	0.747
* The layout is smooth.	4.02	0.792
* Room temperature is pleasant.	3.96	0.751
* The handwash lavatory and/or soap and paper towel dispensers are equipped with hot water, soap, and paper towels/air dryer in this area.	3.94	0.869
* Food looks and tastes good.	3.90	0.815
* RTE foods are available in various portions/sizes.	3.81	0.782
Mean	4.12	0.740
Satisfaction
* I am satisfied with the cleanness of the display tables at the RTE food area.	4.15	0.648
* I am satisfied with the changes in the RTE food area.	4.12	0.659
* I am satisfied with the working staff at the RTE food area.	4.07	0.728
* I am satisfied with the RTE food.	4.03	0.715
* I am satisfied with the layout and environment at the RTE food area.	3.98	0.731
Mean	4.07	0.696

* A 5-point Likert scale that ranged from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree.

) in 2019, and workers considered the improvement of food safety-related qualities to be good (grand mean = 4.12). The best-performing attributes included the following attributes: “The work staff wear gloves while handling RTE food” (mean = 4.38); “The RTE food court is clean” (mean = 4.36); “The lighting is bright”; “The work staff’s appearance and uniform are neat and clean” (mean = 4.24); “The packing or mouth-guard equipment is good” (mean = 4.24). These attributes ranked among the top five in safety-related service performance. However, less improvement was reported in the following: “RTE foods are available in various portions/sizes” (mean = 3.81); “Food looks and tastes good” (mean = 3.90); “The handwash lavatory and/or soap and paper towel dispensers are equipped with hot water, soap and paper towels/air dryer at this area”; (mean = 3.94), and “Room temperature is pleasant” (mean = 3.94). Overall, people were satisfied with the food safety-related service (grand mean = 4.07).

After the literature review and expert interviews were used to establish questions in the preliminary scale, the EFA was then employed to purify the scale of service quality to delete the ‘‘garbage items”, which do not share a common core. Before the EFA, a Bartlett sphericity test was performed to determine whether the data are appropriate for factor analysis. In terms of service quality, a Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin value of 0.87 and a significance level of 0.00 were obtained, which suggests that the inter-correlation matrix contained sufficient common variances to make factor analysis worthwhile. For the EFA, the principal component analysis was used, with varimax rotation and eigenvalue greater than 1 and factor loadings greater than 0.4. There were four dimensions of food safety-related quality (

Table 3. Factors of food safety-related attributes (n = 130).

Attributes	Factor Loading
Factor 1: facilities (% of variance: 18.26; mean = 4.12)
Food is displayed at the appropriate temperature.	0.501
The appearance of the display is improved.	0.775
The handwash lavatory and/or soap and paper towel dispensers are equipped with hot water, soap, and paper towels/air dryer in this area.	0.631
Serving utensils are clean.	0.696
The display tables/shelves are clean.	0.535
The packing or mouth-guard equipment is good.	0.604
Factor 2: food (% of variance: 16.92; mean = 3.94)
A wide variety of RTE food is available.	0.730
TE foods are available in many different portions/sizes.	0.659
Food on display appears fresh.	0.641
Food looks and tastes good.	0.785
Food appearance/setting is attractive.	0.770
Factor 3: ambience/layout (% of variance: 15.79; mean = 4.07)
The RTE food court is clean.	0.767
The lighting is bright.	0.684
The odor is pleasant.	0.672
Room temperature is pleasant.	0.761
The layout is smooth.	0.618
Factor 4: work staff (% of variance: 10.91; mean = 4.29)
The work staff’s appearance and uniform are neat and clean.	0.413
The work staff wear proper attire (e.g., protective clothing, shoes).	0.799
The work staff wear gloves while handling RTE food.	0.764

Extraction method: principal axis factors; rotation method: varimax with Kaiser normalization.

): facilities, food, ambience and layout, and work staff. The Cronbach’s α coefficients ranged from 0.91 to 0.86, and the cumulative variance explained was 61.89%. The Cronbach’s α for all dimensions was above 0.7, showing that the food safety-related service scale can achieve adequate levels of internal consistency.

There were four food safety-related factors of RTE foods at hypermarkets: (1) The first factor was termed “facilities” and included the following six items: “Food is displayed at the appropriated temperature”; “The appearance of the display is improved”; “The handwash lavatory and/or soap and paper towel dispensers are equipped with hot water, soap, and paper towels/air dryer in this area”; “Serving utensils are clean”; “The display tables/shelves are clean”; “The packing or mouth-guard equipment is good.” The percent variance of the first factor is 18.26. The average performance of this factor is 4.12. (2) The second factor was “food” and included five items: “A wide variety of RTE food is available”; “RTE foods are available in various portions/sizes”; “Food on display appears fresh”; “Food looks and tastes good”; “Food appearance/setting is attractive.” The percent variance of the second factor was 16.92, while the average performance of this factor was 3.94. (3) The third factor was “ambience and layout” and included five items: “The RTE food court is clean”; “The lighting is bright”; “The aroma is pleasant”; “Room temperature is pleasant”; “The layout is smooth.” The percent variance of the third factor was 15.79, while the average performance of this factor was 4.07. (4) The fourth factor was “work staff” and included three items: “The work staff appearance and uniform are neat and clean”; “The work staff wear proper attire (e.g., protective clothing, shoes)”; “The work staff wear gloves while handling RTE foods.” The percent variance of the fourth factor was 10.91, while the average performance of this factor was 4.29. Staff workers at the RTE food area were well trained and followed the workers’ safety guidelines.

Customers buy RTE foods at a hypermarket where the service area is in the view of the customers. The items constituting the factors vary in the current study. Customers can evaluate the RTE food court at the hypermarkets from the food, staff worker, and physical environment including the facilities and ambience. These results are consistent with preceding research, wherein customers investigated visible food safety attributes including their sensory perception of the food, the appearance and behavior of the work staff, and the restaurant environment [15,35]. Customers can observe the good performance of the environment after implementing a food safety system.

Meanwhile, in this study conducted in a hypermarket environment, there were two factors, i.e., facilities and ambience/layout, which accounted for 34.05% variance, or more than half (61.89%) of the total variance. Consumers focused on the cleanliness of the ground, walls, tables, chairs, and toilets in the environment of the restaurant [36]. Unlike restaurants, RTE foods are displayed at hypermarkets, and facility-factor items are mostly related to temperature control and food display shelves. Consumers also pay significant attention to cross-contamination facilities and behaviors.

4.2. The Impact of Food Safety-Related Quality on Satisfaction at Hypermarkets

A multiple regression analysis was performed based on the results from the factor analysis using the four factors as independent variables and overall satisfaction as the dependent variable. The regression analysis of the customer overall satisfaction indicates that the adjusted R² was 0.642, i.e., 64.2% of the variance in the model could be explained by the three food safety-related service factors. The determinant factors explaining the overall satisfaction were F1: facilities (p < 0.000), F2: food (p < 0.000), and F4: work staff (p < 0.001). Furthermore, the results showed that the coefficients were positive, which indicates a positive relationship between the dependent and independent variables. Good performance of the facility, food, and work staff would help increase the customers’ satisfaction.

The standardized beta coefficients of facilities, food, and work staff factors were 0.470, 0.264, and 0.233 (

Table 4. The impact of service factors on satisfaction.

n = 130	B	s.d. a	Beta	t-Value	p-Value
Constant	0.083	0.270		0.308	0.759
F1 (facilities):	0.472	0.073	0.470	6.500	0.000
F2 (food):	0.257	0.059	0.264	4.362	0.000
F4 (work staff):	0.236	0.069	0.233	3.427	0.001
F	55.70
R2	0.650
Adj. R2	0.642

NOTE: DV: customer satisfaction of RTE food area. ^a. “s.d.” means standard deviation.

), respectively, indicating that facilities have a more significant direct effect on satisfaction than food and work staff. Hypermarkets should plan and implement a good food safety management program, in addition to paying more attention to the facilities. Unlike the other factors, ambience/layout does not affect customers’ satisfaction significantly but customers do appreciate good ambience/layout (Table 2). It is plausible that the pleasantness of scent indicates the level of restaurant or hypermarket food safety standards [35]. Thus, hypotheses 1 and 2 are supported, while hypothesis 3 is partially supported because the environment includes the facilities and ambience/layout factors. However, there was no significant effect of ambience on satisfaction.

The facilities, food, and work staff factors were all positively and directly related to satisfaction. This finding is consistent with the preceding research. Multiple aspects of a restaurant’s physical environment, such as personal hygiene in the restaurant, the appearance of the restaurants, and the behaviors of the servers [24], affect customer satisfaction. Liu and Lee’s [15] investigation of consumers’ perception of food safety in restaurants established that human-related, functional, and mechanic factors hold equal importance in enhancing customer satisfaction. In this study, the facilities factor was more important in enhancing customer satisfaction. Considering the present public health situation and the choices of RTE food for customers at hypermarkets, hypermarkets should ensure facilities equip customers with the tools for a safe food shopping experience, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

5. Conclusions and Recommendations

Most research studies on customer-perceived food safety have investigated consumer buying intentions toward food products. The relationship between food safety perception and consumer behavior is usually studied in relation to specific products or product categories. However, the current paper focused on customer’s shopping experience. This study used a service model to evaluate the effect of food safety-related attributes on customer satisfaction of RTE foods at hypermarkets. Four dimensions of food safety-related factors were constructed and identified: facilities, food, ambience/layout, and work staff. Consumers have no information regarding the handling process of RTE foods and the origin of the materials, and cannot evaluate the food safety level even after consuming it. Therefore, consumers have to use some extrinsic attributes to evaluate food safety. Workers at RTE food departments are parts of consumers’ experience and affect consumer satisfaction. Neat appearances and good sanitation practices are important. Educational courses build employees’ food safety knowledge and enhance their knowledge of service quality.

Successfully meeting consumer demand for safe and wholesome foods requires consistent and concerted efforts at all levels of the hypermarket. Hypermarkets can also make food safety tangible via displaying some information to customers, such as food temperature, storage condition, and expiration date, using ready-to-print shelf tags that inform customers or print recommendations in graphics. It is easier for customers to see the tangible value of what they just bought, which increases their satisfaction. Hypermarkets can make food safety tangible by using facilities that prevent cross-contamination, improving the appearance of work staff, for example, by displaying shelves with mouth-guard equipment or the packing/cover RTE food, requiring the use of mouth-guard masks and aprons, and using clean serving utensils.

The food safety factors of RTE foods at hypermarkets proposed were derived using the proposed restaurant food hygiene factors. Several differences in the context of the study, such as the cultural factors, operational procedures of practice, and food styles, may contribute to the special issues of RTE food at hypermarkets. In Taiwan, RTE foods at hypermarkets are primarily Chinese food. Consequently, the extent to which these findings may apply to different types of food may be limited. Similar studies in different food retail settings merit further investigation. Food safety is a critical issue to all customers, and employees are generally considered as internal customers. In-house employees spend much more time in service facilities than customers and have more experience with RTE food safety systems. Future studies should compare the perception of food safety attributes between internal and external customers. Another interesting avenue for future research would be to focus on understanding the consumers’ preference and purchase behavior of different segments (e.g., young generation, higher education level, higher familiarity toward food safety certification), with the aim of understanding the characteristics of consumers who buy RET food with HACCP certification at hypermarkets. Additionally, applying a cluster analysis technique to study RTE food and food safety concepts that were not extensively discussed in this study may provide a more comprehensive and specific overview of food safety practices.