Customer health perceptions of selected fast-food restaurants according to their nutritional knowledge and health consciousness

Though many researchers and media report about the unhealthy nature of fast foods, American people have developed a taste for fast foods. Americans also have an increased interest for nutrition in fast food, as they have become more health conscious. These studies claimed that the trend was that consumers wanted low calorie and light and low fat menu items. In this situation, marketers who manage fast food restaurants need to understand how their customers think of their menu items. Thus, the first step marketers should go through is to investigate consumers' perceptions of fast food menu items served by their restaurants. This is an important step to respond to consumers' new demands with respect to the increased health consciousness. We conducted a study to discover the health perceptions of fast food company's menus by college students, the largest segment of the fast food industry. We tested to see if these perceptions were affected by nutrition knowledge, health consciousness and gender. All factors were found to have a significant effect.