Study of Consumption, Behavior and Awareness of Fast Food among University Hostlers

The aim of this research was to study the fast food habits of the hostlers in relation to their consumption and awareness and to study the role of their parents and advertisement. Food is considered an important representation of all ethnic groups. Although, the trend change and its impact exits on whole society, whether it belongs to lower middle class and/or elite class. But beside this thing till today there is no proper definition of the fast food. Hostel life is entirely different from the in-home especially in terms of eating habit. So, by keeping this view in mind the study was conducted in Lovely Professional University hostels to know about the consumption and awareness of the hostlers about the fast food eating pattern. The study emphasizes on the ambiguity in the knowledge, awareness and prudent consumption behavior amongst the university hostlers. It provides converging evidence of a direct causal link between food advertising, parent’s role and behavioral pattern of the hostlers about the fast food consumption. The study was conducted during the October-November 2011 in the Lovely Professional University hostels. At present 18,000 students residing in the university hostels as information obtained from the university authority from which 10.06% of the total samples i.e., 1811 were targeted and non-parametric test (chi-square) was applied to check the goodness of fit, at 95% level of significance. The survey provides converging evidence of a direct causal link between food advertising, parent’s role and behavioral pattern of the hostlers about the fast food consumption. Understanding hostlers eating attitude and behavior is important in terms of their health which clearly demarks that the adoption of fast food culture among university hostlers in Lovely Professional University is common. The study signifies the direct ambiguity in the knowledge, awareness and prudent consumption behavior amongst the university hostlers.