Journal of Interdisciplinary Food Studies (Disiplinlerarası Gıda Çalışmaları Dergisi)

Determining The Effect of Catering Companies' Attitudes Toward Customer Complaints on Customer Loyalty

Murat Dogan — Fri, 30 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0300

Catering companies are organizations that provide catering services with a pre-agreed menu and price, prioritizing public health. This study aimed to determine the effect of catering companies' attitudes toward customer complaints coming to customer satisfaction management systems on customer loyalty. For this purpose, 175 customer complaints, the corrective and preventive action reports, and customer loss reports that came to three catering companies for twelve months between 2021 and 2022 were examined by the document review method, and all data were subjected to content analysis. As a result of the content analysis, customer complaints were categorized into four themes: (1) food safety problems, (2) food quality problems, (3) delivery problems, and (4) service quality problems. It was determined that the themes on which the complaints were mostly concentrated were respectively 40.57% food safety problems, 38.29% food quality problems, 19.42% shipping problems, and 1.71% service quality problems. According to the corrective and preventive action reports and customer loss reports, satisfaction levels after solving customer problems (92%) and customer loyalty (79%) were found to be high. These results show that companies that are aware of their mistakes and try to correct them are more successful. Another result of the content analysis applied to the documents is that (1) the competence of the company personnel, (2) the understanding of customer requests, and (3) the establishment of relational communication with the customers reduce complaints and ensure customer loyalty. Overall, it was determined that the attitudes of catering companies towards customer complaints were positive but insufficient, and a positive attitude also positively affected customer loyalty.

Gastronomic Identity in The Process of Nationalization of Local Products: A Case Analysis of Cig Kofte

Abdullah Baycar — Fri, 30 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0300

The popularity of local products at a certain time depends on the depth of its historical, cultural, economic and other social factors. The potential generated by this depth can reach the success of the product by attracting attention in accordance with the conjuncture of time. The widespread consumption of cig kofte (raw meatballs) at the national level can be explained by the compatibility of cultural, economic, current and other social factors accumulated in the Sanliurfa and Adiyaman regions during the historical process. While cig kofte was a local product belonging to these two regions until the 2000s, with the development it has progressed in the last twenty years, it has gained the prevalence of opening independent sales places in all provinces and even almost all districts of the country. They are known as Turkish products in foreign countries, and cig kofte outlets are known as Turkish restaurants. Çiğ köfte also takes part in Turkish promotional festivals abroad. With this nature, it can be concluded that çiğ köfte has achieved the success of becoming an element of national gastronomic identity. In this study, it is aimed to make a case analysis that can be an example of the nationalization of products with similar potential by considering the popularization process of cig kofte. In the study, the position of cig kofte in the stages of local gastronomic identity development was examined by using academic literature, and also traditional and social media analyses. Despite its importance in national level, the number of economic and cultural studies are limited. This research will provide an important contribtion to the insufficient literature. In addition, it will be a guide in increasing the added values of local products by bringing them to tourism and product branding studies.

Determination of Production Method and Quality Parameters of Local Products: Tillo’s Grape Pulp (Herire) Sample

Ergun Demirhan, ayhan aslan — Fri, 30 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0300

Determining and documenting the production techniques of local products ensures the preservation of the local culture and also increases the possibility of its transition to industrial production. After determining the production methods of the local product, the quality parameters of the local products can be determined. Quality parameters are important in many aspects like standardization of the product, gaining geographical indication, and food safety. This study aims to determine the production methods and quality parameters of local products with the example of Tillo grape pulp, Herire. This study aims to introduce the Herire, dried fruit pulp, made from local grape varieties grown in Tillo District of Siirt Province in 2022-2023. In the research, Bineytahti and Sinceri grape, which are local grape varieties grown in Tillo district, were preferred for grape pulp. Herire’s dry matter amount (%), moisture (%), titratable acidity (% of tartaric acid), oil (%), ash insoluble in HCl (%), protein (%), and sugar (%) parameters were examined. According to the laboratory results, dry matter amount was 85.47%, sugar amount was 45.51%, protein amount was 3.01% and fat amount was 0.99%. The study is important in terms of recording the local product in question, being preliminary research and contributing to the adaptation to modern regulations. It also provides guidance for the processes of registering local products of similar nature and transforming them into industrial production. The work has the originality of being the first source written about the Tillo Herire.

Food Dependency in the Middle East and North Africa Region: Retrospective Analysis Projections to 2050

Ferhat Polat — Fri, 30 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0300

This book, Food Dependency in the Middle East and North Africa Region: Retrospective Analysis Projections to 2050, sets out the risks to food security in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region from various issues, including climate change, and how these vulnerabilities interact with other key trends and sources of risk, including population growth, urbanisation, and conflict. Focused on the year 2050, this book contributes to a better understanding of how these trends and threats may affect the region in the coming years. The book predicts that the MENA region will continue to be one of the most import-dependent regions in the world. About half of the food in the region is imported; however, given high population growth rates, with a population growth of 1.7% in 2020 across the MENA region, the second fastest globally, behind only Sub-Saharan Africa. According to the findings of this analysis, import dependency is predicted to expand further by 2050. Some sub-regions are still struggling to attain sustainable levels; the MENA might import 60 to 70% of their food needs.