Big Brother's cafe watches you eat
22.09.2008 20:03
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- Source: cbc.ca
 The Restaurant of the Future is run by scientists at the Wageningen University to investigate influences on eating behaviour and to carry out studies for the food industry.(Arthur Max/Associated Press)Dutch scientists running a lab disguised as a cafeteria are getting a chance to see how everyday food presentation can be rejigged and gussied up to encourage customers to choose healthier meals. The $4.5-million US Restaurant of the Future is run by scientists at Wageningen University, based in the Netherlands. They're working with Sodexo, an international catering firm, and the Noldus software company to answer questions from the food industry and behaviourists. "We think of ourselves as rational beings, always making the best choice," said Rene Koster, director of the Restaurant of the Future Foundation. But that's not true; 80 per cent of our decisions are made subconsciously, he said, citing U.S. studies. The Wageningen project takes the study of eating to a level approaching rocket science and there's lots of interest from the public and private sector. Forty-two companies are participating. Some firms merely want to find out how to get people to spend more on lunch, but others, like school boards, want to know how to deal with teens who trade their homemade lunches for potato chips and Coke. The cafeteria is organized in a series of islands, each with a different food type, in what Koster called a free-flow system rather than the traditional long line serving everything. People feel they have a wider selection and they tend to spend more money, he said. Discreet ceiling cameras can zoom in on a face or a plate, or pull back to view a table or broad section of the lunchroom. They record not only what food you selected, but what you almost selected and how long you paused before deciding. Facial recognition software analyzes your level of enjoyment. In the control room, technicians watch the action on individual screens and on a large overhead screen divided into quadrants. The checkout is self-service. Customers punch in the dishes they chose on the touch screen and pay by card, ensuring that everyone's eating habits can be tracked and their responses to changes can be recorded. Flush on the floor at the checkout is a scale that records the customer's weight. "The first weeks are not very nice but you get used to it," said Vida Mohammadani, an employee on campus, adding that she no longer pays attention to the monitoring. "It's in how things are laid out that prompts you to buy something," said student Bram van Doorn. "Or when you smell a nice smell, you may buy something that you wouldn't otherwise buy," he said. Low prices attract volunteer diners Volunteers are encouraged to sign up by the cheap prices. It's one of the few places in the country you can eat a full meal for $6.30 US. The lunchroom serves about 200 diners a day. About 480 people registered for the project and gave their written consent to be monitored. Casual visitors are not part of the experiment. Researchers are just beginning to experiment after establishing the clientele's baseline behaviour since the cafeteria opened early this year. But they already are piecing together anecdotal evidence. Some examples: - Put the same coffee in four mugs of different colors and ask people which is stronger. Men likely will point to the brown mug. Women are less likely to be fooled, Koster said.
- For months, he said, customers bought milk from a vending machine. One day, the label was changed to indicate the milk was organic, prompting some people to comment that it tasted funny.
- People eat more when food is served on a big plate, less on a small one.
- Attitudes change when freshly cut flowers are on the table.
"This is a laboratory. We control all the conditions," Koster said. The prices, assortment, arrangement and presentation can be changed according to scientific need. "But we still call it a restaurant," he said. "If we used the word 'laboratory,' it might influence behaviour." With files from the Associated PressRelatedExternal LinksRestaurant of the Future(Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites - links will open in new window) Consumer HeadlinesChina's food safety boss resigns after 53,000 children fall illThe head of China's food safety watchdog resigned Monday amid a scandal over tainted baby formula that made nearly 53,000 infants fall ill, state media reported. 2nd-generation Asians most likely to get university degrees: StatsCanChildren of Asian immigrant parents have the highest rate of university completion in Canada, more than double the rate of other ethnicities, Canadian-born or otherwise, says a Statistics Canada study.Big Brother's cafe watches you eatDutch scientists running a lab disguised as a cafeteria are getting a chance to see how everyday food presentation can be rejigged and gussied up to encourage customers to choose healthier meals.Montreal unveils ambitious bike-rental programMontreal introduced a new self-service, bike-rental system on Sunday modelled after the highly successful Vlib' program in Paris.Chinese dessert mix is recalled over melamineThe Canadian Food Inspection Agency is warning people not to consume a Chinese dessert mix made with milk that was tainted with melamine. Consumer Life FeaturesMOBILE COMPUTINGUltraportablesNew netbooks: Handy, cheap and lightVIDEOElectionChild care promises and realities (3:53)SAFETYRecalls and AdvisoriesTRAVELOutdoorsEndangered natural wonders worth seeingBLOGFood BytesCOMM-ODDITIESFor saleChef offers free diner to right customer People who read this also read …
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