How Often Do We Use Cooking Utensils? An Exploratory Study

Abstract

This study examined the use of cooking utensils among Australians and the influence of respondents’ socio-economic characteristics on utensil usage. A total of 1,027 Australians completed an online survey and reported frequencies of 23 utensils used and details of their demographics, cooking experiences, and household types. Latent class analysis suggested two types of usage patterns: high and moderate use. Ethnic background, cooking evening meals from scratch, and the number of people in the household associated with high utensil use. The lack of strong relationships between utensil usage and socio-economic and demographic characteristics suggests the unique nature of cooking practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Cooking utensils
• demographics
• cooking experiences
• household size
• latent class analysis
• survey
• Australia

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank Ms. Veronique Droulez, Nutrition Manager of MLA, for her support and encouragement, Ms. Victoria Hodgson, The Clever Stuff Market Research Pty Ltd., who conducted the survey the data were derived from, and MLA Pty Ltd. for providing access to the data set.

Notes

Color versions of one or more of the figures in this article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/wcsc.