THE GOOD EATING SECTION WAS BORN 5 YEARS AGO, when we transformed the Food Guide into a new concept. Now we’d like to ask you, the reader, to help us plan for the next 5 years and beyond.
To do that, we’ve designed a survey that we hope will tell us how you deal with food and drink, what you cook and what you look for in recipes. We’ll compile your answers and let you know what we find out in a future edition of Good Eating.
As incentive, we’ll pick one of the returned surveys (one survey per household, please) at random as a winner of $200 toward a shopping spree at your favorite supermarket.
— Fill in the following blanks, or circle the appropriate responses. Feel free to add comments to a maximum of four questions on a separate sheet of paper.
— Mail the survey back by Jan. 19 with your:
NAME ————————–
ADDRESS ———————–
DAYTIME PHONE NUMBER ———-
To: Good Eating Survey
P.O. Box 811130
Chicago, IL 60681-1130
Thanks for your help.
Shopping
1. How often do you visit a supermarket each week?
a. 5-7 times
b. 2-4 times
c. Once
d. Less often than once a week
2. Do you take a list when you grocery shop?
a. yes b. no
3. How often do you buy new foods or products?
a. often
b. sometimes
c. rarely
d. never
4. Do you use coupons?
a. yes b. no
5. Did you visit a farmers market this year?
a. yes b. no
6. How often do you shop at ethnic markets (for example, an Italian specialty store, Hispanic market, Chinese market)?
a. often
b. sometimes
c. rarely
d. never
7. Have you ever not made a recipe because it called for ingredients you couldn’t get at your supermarket?
a. yes b. no
8. Do you buy organic/natural products?
a. often
b. sometimes
c. rarely
d. never
9. Do you read products’ Nutrition Facts labels?
a. often
b. sometimes
c. rarely
d. never
10. Do Nutrition Facts labels influence your decision to buy a product?
a. often
b. sometimes
c. rarely
d. never
11. If you can’t find an item at the store, what do you do?
a. Forget about it and move on, hoping it will be there next time.
b. Find a clerk and ask for help.
c. Go to the customer service desk and request that it be carried.
d. Go to another store to find it.
12. How often do you purchase food items . . .
. . . from catalogs?
a. at least once a week
b. once a month
c. once a year
d. never
. . . from the Internet?
a. at least once a week
b. once a month
c. once a year
d. never
13. Have you added a major piece of kitchen equipment in the past year (for example, a stove, stand mixer, microwave oven, etc.)?
a. yes
b. no
What was it? ———-
How much did it cost?
a. less than $100
b. $100-$300
c. $300-$500
e. more than $500
14. What factors influence your decision to buy a food product? Rate these qualities in order of importance on a scale of 1 to 4, with 4 being very important and 1 being not important:
Price Brand name Taste
Nutrition
Value
Cooking
15. How many times a week do you cook dinner? (Circle one:)
16. Does anyone else in your family cook?
a. yes b. no
. . . In general, how often do they cook dinner per week? (Circle one:)
17. How would you describe yourself as a cook?
a. gourmet
b. avid
c. basic
d. reluctant
18. Which one of the following kinds of ingredients do you use most frequently when you cook?
a. fresh
b. frozen
c. canned
19. How important is a recipe’s nutrition information in your decision to make the dish?
a. very important
b. somewhat important
c. not very important
d. not at all important
20. How often do you improvise in cooking?
a. often
b. sometimes
c. rarely
d. never
21. Do you make substitutions in recipes when you don’t have the right ingredient on hand (for example, skim for whole milk, margarine for butter, all-purpose for cake flour, etc.)?
a. often
b. sometimes
c. rarely
d. never
22. In the past year, have you taken a cooking class?
a. yes b. no
23. Do you decide whether to make a recipe based on the number of ingredients?
a. yes b. no
What is your ingredient limit?
a. 5
b. 10
c. 15
d. doesn’t matter
24. How important to you are the following sources of recipes? Rank them on a scale of 1 to 4, with 4 being very important and 1 being not important:
Magazines
Friends & family
Newspapers
Cookbooks
Internet
Food company promotions
Television and shoes
Product labels
Supermarkets
25. If an expensive ingredient is called for in a recipe that really appeals to you, would you:
a. buy the ingredient
b. save the recipe for another time
c. make the dish but substitute a different ingredient
d. make the dish without the ingredient
26. Not counting your oven or refrigerator, what appliance do you consider the most important in your kitchen?
27. What’s your favorite cooking tool?
28. Do you own a food processor?
a. yes b. no
If yes, how often do you use it?
a. often
b. sometimes
c. seldom
d. never
29. How many cookbooks have you bought in the last year?
a. more than 5
b. 2-4
c. 1
d. none
30. What is your primary cookbook?
31. What ethnic cuisines do you cook frequently? (Circle all that apply.)
a. Italian
b. Mexican
c. French
d. Chinese
e. other(s), specify:
Eating in or out
32. How often does your family eat dinner together?
a. Every evening
b. 4-6 times a week
c. 1-3 times a week
d. Does not apply
33. Which of the following most closely resembles a typical weeknight dinner menu?
a. fast food
b. takeout pizza with a homemade salad
c. takeout from corner Chinese restaurant
d. meat, starch, cooked vegetable
e. soup and sandwich
f. beer and popcorn
. . . weekend dinner menu?
a. fast food
b. takeout pizza with a homemade salad.
c. takeout from corner Chinese restaurant.
d. meat, starch, cooked vegetable.
e. gourmet meal.
f. beer and popcorn.
34. How concerned are you about each of the following as it applies to the food you eat? Rank on a scale of 1 to 4, with 4 being very concerned and 1 being not at all concerned:
Safety
Price
Appearance
Nutrition
35. Given the health warnings about raw eggs, unpasteurized juice, rare hamburger, raw oysters or raw fish, have you given them up?
a. entirely
b. mostly
c. sometimes
d. not at all
e. never ate them anyway
36. Do you or any members of your family eat a primarily vegetarian diet?
a. yes b. no
37. Are you or any members of your family on a restricted diet for health reasons, such as diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease?
a. yes b. no
38. In a typical month, how many times do you . . .
. . . eat at a sit-down restaurant?
a. more than 7
b. 6-3
c. 2-1
d. 0
. . . eat at a fast-food restaurant?
a. more than 7
b. 6-3
c. 2-1
d. 0
. . . eat takeout for dinner?
a. more than 7
b. 6-3
c. 2-1
d. 0
. . . order a meal to be delivered?
a. More than 7
b. 6-3
c. 2-1
d. 0
Drinking
39. What do you usually drink with dinner?
a. coffee
b. tea
c. milk
d. juice
e. wine
f. beer
40. How often do you drink . . .
. . . wine?
a. every day
b. once a week
c. once a month
d. never
. . . beer?
a. every day
b. once a week
c. once a month
d. never
. . . other alcoholic drinks?
a. every day
b. once a week
c. once a month
d. never
