Determinants of Styrofoam Food Packaging Usages in Food Service Industry

Abstract

Styrofoam packaging material was often used by food seller/vendors and consumers as food packaging. It is practical, inexpensive, pleasing to the eye and no leaking, make consumers forget the impact and the dangers of Styrofoam packaging containing residues of styrene monomer that can act on greasy foods especially in hot conditions. The purpose of this study was to explore role of food packaging in Food service industries in Brunei Darussalam, to measure the level of awareness among the society in particular the Bruneian about the danger of using Styrofoam food packaging and addressing its drawbacks to the environment as well as health hazards. Another purpose was to investigate the determining factors of Styrofoam usages among the respondents with the application of two model behaviors namely Theory of Planned Behavior and Theory of Interpersonal Planned Behavior. Theory of Planned Behavior consists of three main variables: attitude towards the behavior, subjective norms and perceived behavior. While for Theor of Interpersonal Planned Behavior consists of two variables: Emotions of the consumers and barriers. A single survey questionnaire with a mix of Likert-scale evaluation and multiple answer choices questions relevant to the aims are distributed to random respondents through a mall-intercept personal survey in two major shopping complexes in Brunei Muara District. Findings in this research indicated that respondents mainly used food packaging whenever they want to take-away food especially in night markets, food stall and restaurant. According to the level of awareness of the respondents in this research, positive outcomes showed that majority of them have a high level of awareness. The usage intention of the consumers on Styrofoam food packaging can be affected by attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. Result from this research indicated that consumers emotional responses are influenced by benefits obtained in using non-Styrofoam food packaging and the availability of barriers towards eco-friendly packaging can affect consumers actual usage.