Hedonic ratings and consumption of breakfast among recruits in basic recruit training (BT)

This research is to examine the
relationship between hedonic
ratings and the consumption of
breakfast food during basic recruit
training. Hedonic ratings of
breakfast items belonging to 30
food items provided by the catering
were collected from 50 recruits,
over 2 months. All foods and drinks
provided by the catering were rated
from 1 (extremely disliked) to 9
(extremely liked), with a score of 5
set as acceptable score. During the
subsequent breakfast, the leftovers
of each individual and menu item
were recorded. Hedonic responses
to breakfast food items differed
significantly [F (29) = 103.62,
p<0.05]. 53.3% of breakfast food
items were scored from 5.12 to
8.52. Honeystar cereals (score
8.52) and nasi lemak (score 8.10)
were liked very much with more
than 90% of consumption. The least
liked breakfast food was kway teow
soup with score of 1.58. A
significant and high correlation was
found between hedonic scores and
food consumption of breakfast food
items (r= 0.725) (p<0.05). In
conclusion, hedonic ratings of
recruits predicted the amount of
breakfast consumption. Low ratings
of breakfast food items raise the
question on how the breakfast food
should be served to encourage their
consumption in recruits during
training.