An Analysis of Household Demand for Food Away from Home (FAFH) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A Right-Left Truncated Generalized Poisson Regression Model

This study analyzed the determinants of household demand for food away from home (FAFH) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Truncated generalized Poisson regression (TGPR) and truncated standard Poisson regression (TSPR) was applied to data from a random sample of 101 families. Maximum likelihood was used to obtain parameter estimates for these two models. TGPR was found to be optimal and appropriate for the analysis of demand data. Both income and number of household members had a significant positive effect, which is consistent with economic logic and reality in Saudi society. Price and taste also had positive effects on FAFH demand. Household income as an economic variable has a significant positive effect on the number of times that a household dines out during the month. When income increases by one thousand Saudi riyals, the demand will increase by 11%, which is consistent with economic logic. Household income as a quantitative economic variable and the number of household members as a quantitative demographic variable are the most important variables in household demand for FAFH. However, the effect of income is more significant than that of the number of household members. As this study investigated the impact of socio-economic and demographic factors on food away from home (FAFH) demand in Riyadh such as household income, number of household members, education level, prices and cleanness of restaurant, and taste of food. Still there are other variables could be used as potential variables could affect FAFH demand in Saudi Arabia in future research such as the change in number of working women which there is shift in the number of female workers recently. The future studies could look at the differences in socio-economic between consumers for different types of restaurants such as traditional, fast food, fish, and luxury restaurants. Due to the high demand for restaurant meals, officials should tighten the health control and close restaurants that do not comply with health requirements as well security and safety requirements. Restaurants should pay attention to improving the quality of meals and offering them at affordable prices to consumers.