PURPOSEof

QUESTIONNAIRE

How I Carried Out My ResearchFirstly, I thought up 10 questions that I thought would be useful to ask when carrying

out my survey. I then inserted these questions into a free online surveying site. Once this was done, I then posted the web address around various social media sites and forums.

Why conduct research?

Primarily, to give us a better idea of how to create our recipe cards.The research was conducted to try and collate opinions and information from the general public about their views on vegetarianism, how being or not being a vegetarian does or does not affect them, and general information about themselves.

What did you want to get out of it?

The aim was to ascertain information from the person that conducted the survey.Information like ‘How old are you?’, ‘Are you a vegetarian?’, and ‘What is your favourite vegetarian meal?’.

Receiving this information gives us a better idea of what to include in our recipe cards, and to help us target a specific audience. For example, if we get a lot of answers saying their favourite vegetarian food is pasta, then we are likely to create a pasta recipe.

How could this influence your project?

The information received from the questionnaire could influence our project by leading us to alter our views on our target audience and the recipes we’re going to create.

It gives us a much higher chance of success because we know who is going to be reading our recipes, so we are not going in blindly and hoping they please everyone, because that is unrealistic.

Summary of

Data

What is Your Gender?

Every female in the survey who answered this question are vegetarian. This reiterates the figures from my vegetarian fact file that the majority of vegetarians are female.

MaleFemale

Age of vegetarians

Of the 14 people that took the survey, 12 were below the age of 35, and 13 were vegetarians. This is possibly because the websites that I posted the survey on may not have had many users over the age of 35, but it does also give you a good idea of the average age of vegetarians.

Have You Considered Stopping/Becoming a Vegetarian

The majority of people asked in the survey also reaffirmed their position as a vegetarian when asked if they had considered stopping or becoming a vegetarian. This shows that those who are vegetarian are not being a vegetarian as some sort of hobby.

It could also show that with the majority being committed vegetarians, they would want a variety of dishes as when eating out at a lot of vegetarian restaurants their are limited dishes available .

3

11

YesNo

When they became vegetariansOf the 13 vegetarians that answered the question, 7 of them became vegetarians before the age of 17. This shows that you can be influenced at an early age and it is not only once you have become fully educated that you decide to become a vegetarian.

What I found interesting is that none of the respondents became vegetarians between the ages of 26-34, yet 2 became vegetarians between the ages of 35-44. This may have been because they were worried about their health.

I made the mistake of not adding an option that allowed for the 1 non-vegetarian to answer accordingly, so his (1 of 3 males to take the survey) answer of 75+ is redundant.

Favourite vegetarian dishesWe received thirteen responses for this question. A significant proportion of the dishes

listed by the respondents were of an Asian origin. This could help us when deciding upon a theme for our recipe cards.

Two of our respondents listed Quorn based meals as their favourite dishes. This could be because other members of their family are not vegetarians and they feel more comfortable eating something that loosely resembles meat than a salad. This offers encouragement to our initial recipe card ideas in which we proposed the theme of Quorn based Spaghetti Bolognese.

Other dishes listed included:Bean burgersPasta saladsHummus with veggie and pita dippersHazelnut americano with biscotti

Friends and Family35% of our respondents’ children are also vegetarians. This suggests that vegetarians parents implement their views upon their children, this could be due to them seeing this as the correct way to bring up their child.Furthermore, vegetarian parents could see a collective vegetarian family as a more cost effective way of feeding their children. Further evidence of this is provided later in the survey where 85% of respondents declared vegetarianism to be less expensive than non-vegetarianism.

What I also found interesting is that 35% of respondents are in vegetarian friendship groups. This could suggest two things, they are influenced or feel more comfortable being friends with people with similar dietary needs.

Additionally, we found that the higher proportion of respondents family members who are vegetarian are female. This provides further evidence to our suggestion in the fact file that a higher percentage of vegetarians are female.

Who cooks the majority of the meals in their household?

5 of the 14 respondents listed their Mother as the person who cooks the majority of meals in their household, this makes it highly likely that their Mother’s are vegetarians too, and could show that they are vegetarians for this reason.

Is being a vegetarian more expensive than being a non-vegetarian?

Of the fourteen respondents, not one of them believe being a vegetarian is more expensive than being a non-vegetarian.

Does being a vegetarian make a significant difference to the planet?

Thirteen of the fourteen respondents believe being a vegetarian makes a significant difference to the planet.

The common belief is that it helps significantly because it lessens the amount gas and electricity used in the lead up to the meat being sold. From it being taken to processing plants, to it being delivered to wholesale stores.