Ref 86
Title
Students’ Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Sustainable Food
Consumption in Taipei Junior High Schools
Abstract
This paper presented the result of investigation to junior high students’ knowledge and
attitudes toward green diet in Taipei. In addition to profile students’ knowledge and
attitudes, ANOVA was used to determine any significant differences among different
demographics and lifestyles of their knowledge and attitudes to green diet.
County Credited
TAIWAN
Author Details
AUTHOR
Title of author
Surname
First Name
Name of Institution
Address of Institution
Prof. in Graduate Institute of Tourism & Hospitality
Management
Dean of College of Tourism & Hospitality
HSU
Meei-Ruey
Graduate Institute of Tourism & Hospitality Management
Jinwen University of Science and Technology
No.99, An-chung Road, Hsin-Tien
Taipei, 23154 TAIWAN
mrhsu@just.edu.tw
E-mail address of author
Author biography
I am Vice-President of IFHE for Asia (2006-2008) and Professor in Graduate Institute
of Tourism & Hospitality Management, Jinwen University of Science and Technology
in Taiwan. My experiences include 3 years of high school teacher, 27 years professor in
Home Economics Education and 5 years professor in Tourism & Hospitality.
Category
Sustainable Development
Theme
Health Promotion
Sustainable Consumption 
Type of Contribution
Research Paper
Students’ Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Sustainable Food
Consumption in Taipei Junior High Schools
Hsu, Meei-Ruey
INTRODUCTION
Sustainable food consumption is a healthy and eco friendly lifestyle. This study was to
investigate junior high students’ knowledge and attitudes toward sustainable food
consumption in Taipei and to testify the effect of students’ demography and food-style to their
knowledge and attitudes. The findings will provide to construct a conceptual framework for
developing a series of teaching modules for intervention to promote students’ sustainable
food consumption. The specific objectives were: (1) to develop a knowledge test and attitude
scale for assessing students’ knowledge and attitude to sustainable food consumption; (2) to
examine students’ knowledge and attitude toward sustainable food consumption; and (3) to
identify the variation of students’ knowledge and attitudes to sustainable food consumption
on demography and food-style.
METHODOLOGY
A survey was used in this study by a self-developed instrument. The first draft covered
60 knowledge items and 20 attitude items. A revise had been made after reviewed by the 14
consultants, 4 home economics teachers and 10 environmental educators, and a pretest
administered to 100 students. The final version of instrument included 50 items of true and
false test and 20 items of 4-point Likert-type scale. The test covers 6 domains: green
foodstuff (11 items), the natural organic diet (5 items), genetically modified foods (3 items),
food security (9 items), green tableware and kitchenware (12 items), and leftovers and
kitchen wastes (10 items). The scale includes the feasibility, effectiveness, appreciation, and
appropriateness of sustainable food consumption. The Cronbach α was .8492 for the test and
.7746 for the scale.
The demographic variables include gender, grade, fathers’ and mothers’ education and
occupation. The food-style to be tested are weekdays eating in for breakfast or supper, eating
in or out on weekend, the amount of pocket money a week, and categories of religion. A
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sample of 1,220 junior high students in Taipei was selected by cluster sampling. They were
Grade 7-9 randomly selected from 12 schools at different districts. Home economic teachers
were asked to administer survey one more classes in her school during February, 2005.
Descriptive statistics including percentile and means, and one-way ANOVA were performed.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Characteristics of the samples
The sample appears normal distribution in gender, parent education and occupation.
About 43 % respondents were grade 7th, 29% grade 8th and 28% grade 9th. As to how many
weekdays have breakfast and supper at home, about 1/3 do not have breakfast at home and
1/8 do not have supper at home on weekday. Nonetheless, about 1/2 had breakfast (47.45%)
and supper (51.56%) at home five days a week. It was about 2/3 eating in and 1/3 eating out
on weekend. Students’ food-style is gradually changing from eating in to eating out.
Regarding how much pocket money a week, over 1/4 students received pocket money
below NT$100 (about US$3) and 1/3 students received NT$101-500 a week. Over 1/4
students could not assure the amount of pocket money they received. Generally, students in
Taiwan spend their pocket money on lunch, refreshments, or accessories, especially in their
favorites. Therefore, the amount of pocket money might not enough in general, students save
food expenditure for addressing their needs other than food in particular.
On religion, some students enjoyed freedom of religious worships (43.85%), followed
by Buddhism (33.33%), Taoism (12.65%), Christian (8.03%), Catholicism (1.88%), and
Islam (0.26%). Most students follow their family or parents’ religion.
Knowledge of sustainable food consumption
Four items related “green foodstuff” of cognitive test. Item 4 with 80% of right answer
means students know very well about “processed foods and foods with heavy packaging are
not green foods.” The right answer rate of four items (item 2, 6, 8, 17) are between 70-80%.
Most students understand that purchasing local foods and foods in season are the proper way
to practice sustainable food consumption.
Three items related to edible nest of cliff swallows and shark’s fin (item 1), wildlife
conservation (item 14), and hair-looking grass weed (item 12) are discussed. The rate of right
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answer on item 1 and item 14 are 66.8% and 66.6% respectively, but item 12 is 43.7% only.
To Asians, edible nest of cliff swallows, shark’s fin, hair-looking grass weed are highly price
and scarce foods in short supply. Those are natural but hazardous to eco-system as being
gathered. For example, hair-looking grass weed is a kind of fungi which grows in Mongolian
grasslands and often gathered after snowing. The grasslands gradually become desertification
after people drag away the weed. People favor the weed just because its pronunciation in
Chinese sounds fa tsai which means to be rich. Most students mistake it as a kind of seaweed.
Knowing the impacts of food production and food processing on eco-system is very
important in food class. Three items with percentage of right answer below 60% related to the
basic concept of green foods are item 5 (59.8%), item 13 (50.5%), and item 15 (40.4%). It
means nearly 40% respondents do not realize that taking various foods for daily meal is a
tactic of sustainable food consumption (item 5). About 50% respondents do not have idea
regarding ten times of water consumption on meat production in comparison with plant
production (item 13). And 60% respondents don’t realize that people consume tea, fruit, and
vegetable products growing high latitude will cause mudflows and landslides (item 15).
As to the natural organic diet (NOD), nearly 60-80% respondents provide right
response to NOD on five items (item 3, 11, 16, 19, 20). For instances, the NOD includes
having fruit, vegetables, or cooked grains (79.0%), the NOD enhances people’s immunity.
(78.1%), NOD and vegetarian diet are more eco friendly (76.6%), the NOD emphasizes on
having food which is non-cooked food or cooked with steaming, stewing, and in boiling
water only(66.0%), and Sashimi is a food-style of NOD (62.6%).
As to genetically modified (GM) foods, about 40% students do not know how the GM
foods produce and the NOD is exclusive of GM foods. Specifically in item 10, about 46%
students do not understand our daily meals have been filled with GM foods. In food class,
emphasis on knowledge about NOD and GM foods will be beneficial to practice sustainable
food consumption.
About 75% students gave the right answer to items related to food security (item 18,
21, 25, 28). It shows students possess common sense in homemade foods, natural spices, nonbleached mushroom, and nut with aflatoxin. However, the right responses on item 22, 23 and
26 are 43.4~53.6%. Students are unfamiliar with potential risks in daily foods, such as coffee
cream, domestic poultry and livestock, and high heat of frying oil. Students believe that
4
coffee cream is made from milk rather than a mix of palm oil and cornmeal. In addition, heat
of frying oil may destroy food nutrients and its smoke causes pulmonary tuberculosis.
Eight items related to the safety and sanitation of disposable tableware (items 29~36).
It shows that 77.4% students know paper products polluted by fluorescent ingredients (item
29), 81% students realize that Styrofoam or plastic tableware will release chemical toxins as
heated over 100℃ (item 30 and 34), and 71.1% understand that disposable chopsticks have
often been polluted by a speck of mould or sulfur dioxide (item 32 and 33). Over 70% know
it very well due to its having been banned by Government of Taiwan, but almost 40% do not
know that disposable ware can not guarantee to food safety and customers’ health. Nearly
55% respondents have no idea about green tableware only allowing to fill food with
temperature in the range of -20℃ to 150℃.(item 35). About 37% respondents have no sense
of detrimental variations in heating products of melamine (item 36).
Four items (items 37~40).related to kitchenware, about 45% respondents do not know
electronic cooker may not be environmental protection (item 37). Nearly 40% respondents
have no sense of risks as using microwave oven or electronic stove (item 38). In item 39 and
item 40, Teflon cookware and freshening wrap are convenient even it will release poisonous
substances when being heated. The right answer rate is 40.9% on item 39 and 58.7% on item
40. The convenient appliances may make us neglect possible risks.
Regarding eco processing leftovers and kitchen wastes, most students are unfamiliar
with raw wastes (item 41), cooked leftovers (item 42), kitchen waste (item 43), and identify
trash and recycling resources (item 46~50). Especially, about 75% can not identify trash or
recycling resources. However, students know to strain water before sorting kitchen wastes
(76.8%) and fast food restaurant to equip buckets for gathering leftovers and trash (83.7%).
Attitudes toward sustainable food consumption
Briefly, the respondents tend to hold positive attitudes toward sustainable food
consumption. It is obvious that over 86% respondents positively approve the effectiveness of
sustainable food consumption. Over 80% disagree that sustainable food consumption is
wasting time, mission impossible, hard work, getting little benefit, or a religious behavior.
Over 75% positively confirm the appropriateness of sustainable food consumption to all age
groups. In addition, 74.1% deem sustainable food consumption is worth initiation. Over 60%
believe that sustainable food consumption is delicious and a moral food-style but neither
5
expensive nor fashionable. At least 57% agree that sustainable food consumption is attractive.
Results of one-way ANOVA by demographic variables and food-style
On knowledge, according to Table 1, significant differences are observed on gender,
grade, father’s education, mother’s education, father’s occupation, mother’s occupation, days
of eating breakfast at home on weekday, and eating in or out on weekend. Female students
gain higher scores than male students and grade 9th are more knowledgeable than grade 8th
and grade 7th. The higher educational and occupational level of parents possess, the higher
score students gain. For food-styles, the higher score gain, the more weekdays of eating
breakfast at home and eating in on weekend.
On attitude, significant differences are observed on gender, grade, father’s occupation,
and religious worship. Significant differences were not observed on father’s education,
mother’s education, mother’s occupation, weekdays of eating breakfast or supper at home,
eating in or out on weekend, and the amount of pocket money a week. Female students hold
more positive attitudes toward sustainable food consumption than male students (p<.05).
Students of grade 7th hold more positive attitudes than the grade 8th. The higher occupational
levels of father possess, the more positive attitude students hold. Also, students who are
Buddhists tend to more positive attitudes than who are not.
CONCLUSIONS
This study aimed at investigating junior high students’ knowledge and attitudes toward
sustainable food consumption in Taipei. The students’ food-style and demography have been
discussed. Based on the results, conclusions were drawn as following aspects: (1) Students
with positive attitude to sustainable food consumption do not necessarily possess higher score
in knowledge. There is a discrepancy between students’ knowledge and attitudes. (2)
Students’ knowledge of sustainable food consumption has to be empowered in green
foodstuff, the natural organic diet, genetically modified foods, food security, green tableware
and kitchenware, and leftovers and kitchen wastes. (3) The more frequent students have
breakfast at home on weekday and have meal at home on weekend, the more they know
sustainable food consumption. Nearly 50% students had breakfast or supper at home five
days a week in Taipei.
Table1 ANOVA of Sustainable Food Consumption Knowledge Test and Attitude Scale
Knowledge
Attitude
6
Variables
Gender
(N=1220)
Grade
(N=1220)
Categories
M
F
G7
G8
G9
Father’s education
Junior high
(N=1189)
Senior high
Undergraduate
Graduate
Mother’s
Junior high
education
Senior high
(N=1196)
Undergraduate
Graduate
Father’s
Non- & semi-skilled
occupation
Skilled
(N=1061)
Semi-professional
Professional
Highly professional
Mother’s
Non- & semi-skilled
occupation
Skilled
(N=1097)
Semi-professional
Professional
Highly professional
How many days of
0 day
eating breakfast at
1 day
home on weekday
2 days
(N=1216)
3 days
4 days
5 days
How many days of
0 day
eating supper at
1 day
home on weekday
2 days
(N=1216)
3 days
4 days
5 days
Where’s meals on
 at home
weekend(N=1207)
 out of home
Pocket money a
below $100
week
$101-500
(N=1213)
$501-1000
$1001-1500
$1501-2000
over $2001
uncertain
Religion
Taoism
Buddhism
Christian
Catholicism
Islam
others
***: p<.001; **: p<.01; *:
n
616
604
521
358
341
150
386
505
148
152
506
464
74
115
425
309
158
54
379
354
241
113
10
390
59
87
72
31
577
150
73
114
121
131
627
795
412
319
403
113
41
9
11
317
148
390
94
22
3
513

30.60
32.50
31.05
30.05
33.87
29.71
30.00
32.44
34.86
29.79
30.48
32.98
33.58
30.85
30.26
32.96
34.15
33.22
31.76
30.83
32.59
34.17
29.20
30.15
31.49
30.40
31.86
30.32
32.67
32.56
30.56
32.00
31.93
30.02
31.57
31.94
30.83
32.36
31.05
30.67
31.07
34.67
31.27
31.56
31.12
31.37
33.10
30.64
30.67
31.45
S.D.
8.84
7.01
8.19
8.74
7.67
8.02
8.09
8.25
8.36
8.13
8.10
8.45
8.61
8.27
8.21
7.98
7.71
8.37
8.06
8.15
8.26
7.97
7.93
8.47
8.42
8.33
7.92
7.89
8.19
7.65
9.32
8.03
8.24
9.64
8.15
8.35
8.25
8.18
8.17
8.96
7.48
7.66
8.37
8.64
8.48
8.13
7.64
6.40
17.93
8.75
F value
16.005
***
20.528
***
Scheffe
F >M
17.196
***
>>
11.220
***
>
9.572*
**
>
>
4.479*
**
>
4.824*
**
>
1.640
n.s.
17.196
***
1.184
>
.811
n.s.
7
G9>G7
G9>G8
n.s.
n
616
604
521
358
341
150
386
505
148
152
506
464
74
115
425
309
158
54
379
354
241
113
10
390
59
87
72
31
577
150
73
114
121
131
627
795
412
319
403
113
41
9
11
317
148
390
94
22
3
513
x
58.81
60.03
60.15
58.47
59.27
59.03
59.49
59.44
60.06
59.28
59.33
60.04
57.59
58.34
58.83
59.90
62.12
60.78
59.58
58.99
60.59
60.66
56.30
58.67
59.03
58.98
60.74
59.39
59.84
58.83
58.68
59.63
59.71
58.87
59.64
59.74
58.70
59.97
59.00
59.02
58.24
63.22
60.45
59.56
59.36
60.68
61.10
58.77
60.33
58.26
S.D.
9.23
8.27
9.57
8.30
7.89
6.95
8.24
9.63
9.03
7.32
8.32
9.65
8.98
7.74
8.59
9.42
8.66
8.85
8.95
8.64
8.96
8.57
6.80
9.28
6.60
8.27
8.11
7.98
8.83
9.03
8.21
8.86
9.21
7.71
8.93
8.71
8.91
8.88
9.18
7.54
8.01
9.67
7.59
8.77
8.26
8.37
9.15
6.96
8.50
9.23
F value
5.906*
Scheffe
F>M
3.962*
G7>G8
.345
n.s.
1.829
n.s.
4.969*
**
>
1.917
n.s.
1.217
n.s.
.458
n.s.
3.807
n.s.
.838
n.s.
4.102*
**
>
8