Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
N.H. Mohd-Rejab, N.N. Ahmad-Jazuli, J. Jamil, A. Arsat & H. Hassan
Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia
ABSTRACT: Restaurant grading system may assist as a warning for food handlers to avoid from being
downgraded and further lead to possible legal action. The restaurant grading have been implemented to
maintain and keep the food premises clean and safe place to eat. This system acts as the indicator rep-
resenting the level of food premises cleanliness. The purpose of restaurant grading system is to improve
the standard of cleanliness of food premises in order to restrain incidence of food poisoning. This paper
will discuss the benefits of food grading to the restaurants operators in forms of quality, safety, freshness,
cleanliness and integrity of the operators.
Keywords
:
Attitude, restaurant grading system, perception, food premises, awareness
1 INTRODUCTION
implementation of restaurant grading system is
to maintain and keep the food premises clean as
public nowadays are concerned about cleanliness.
In order to cope with the public demands, restau-
rant operators need to provide clean premises and
ensure that the restaurant comply with existing
regulations. Local authorities implement grading
system in order to create awareness among cus-
tomers in promoting customers in selecting cleaner
premises.
Therefore, displaying the grades will assist cus-
tomers in selecting restaurant, as well as serving
as an encouragement for restaurant operators to
keep their premise clean consistently. In line with
this notion, this proposed study is meant to look
into the attitude and awareness of customers
towards restaurant grading system. In addition,
this research also strives to identify the impacts of
the implementation of the grading system towards
customers' perception.
Grading system is the indicator that most country
used to show the cleanliness and safety of food
in restaurants. The system has been implemented
in many countries such as USA and Singapore.
Moreover, local health department is responsible
of inspecting restaurants to ensure the compli-
ance of the established hygiene standards (Musa
et al., 2010). In Malaysia, the local authorities are
responsible to give the grade to the restaurants.
Despite their acceptance of these programs as
standard public health practices, their effectiveness
in preventing foodborne disease remains unclear.
Local authorities' roles are divided into three cat-
egories. Firstly, to plan and develop infrastructure
at urban centers which is including shop units for
food services. Secondly, they are responsible to
produce licenses to food operators through formal
application in accordance to shop units available
and handling courses for food operators comply
with regulations. Thirdly, to ensure the quality of
food services rendered to the public by setting rules
for food operators to avoid from food contamina-
tion. Restaurant grading system will assist the
food handlers in terms of cleanliness and hygiene
to avoid from being downgraded and possible
legal action. Every food handlers including school
canteens, government office canteens, food stalls
and licensed fast food restaurants will be graded
according to the system.
In Shah Alam, Majlis Bandaraya Shah Alam
(MBSA) had introduced the restaurant grading
system in June 2008 (Mstar Online, 2008). The
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1
Customer attitude
As defines by Perner (2010), consumer attitude sim-
ply as a composite of a consumer's belief, feeling and
behavioral intentions towards some object within
the context of marketing. Consumers have the right
to hold the negative or positive feeling towards a
product or services. In general,the most important
reason in selecting the food is safety,followed by
its nutrition,health and taste. The environmental
corncerns are less important,whereby the personal
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