Television cooking shows and culinary programmes – factor analysis and cluster segmentation

This study investigates the viewing habits regarding culinary television content, such as competition shows and recipe programmes, and their impact on eating out and cooking behaviours. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey in Portugal, on a sample of 250 adult citizens. Data analysis included basic statistics, factor and cluster analysis, and characterisation of the obtained clusters. Results showed that when the participants eat out, they usually do it in restaurants that serve national dishes or in fast food service providers. About two-thirds of the participants watch culinary programmes on TV, although with a low frequency, typically less than once a week, and especially at the end of the day. They believe these programmes can influence the diet because they constitute an opportunity to learn new recipes and new ways to prepare food, including reusing food leftovers to prepare innovative and creative meals. The study reveals that culinary programmes encourage viewers to cook more at home, prepare healthier meals, and reduce food waste. Factor analysis allowed the extraction of two factors, one linked to positive perceptions and the other to negative perceptions. Cluster analysis showed three groups of individuals: those who believe the culinary programmes and shows are not useful, those who find them educational and those who find them essentially entertaining. Finally, significant differences were observed between the clusters for variables such as self-evaluation of the health status, frequency of eating out, and frequency of cooking meals. In summary, this work allowed the identification of three differentiated patterns of individuals in relation to the visualisation of TV cooking shows or culinary programmes.