Assessing Restaurant Consumers’ Food Safety Comments on Social Media

This study analyzed restaurant consumers' food safe- ty-related reviews on social media. The research questions were what: 1) terms do customers use to communicate their food safety concerns, complaints, and satisfaction in online reviews? and 2) are categories of perceived food safety risks? A data collection tool, Yelp Application Programming Interface, was used to search New York City restaurants serving foods commonly consumed and requir-ing time and temperature control to maintain safety (e.g., salads, burgers). Using Python programming language, researchers collected 273,615 customer reviews from Yelp. Reviews were cleaned, and 276 customers’ food safety-related reviews retained within the 3-month study period. Both manual and AI-driven computer-assisted data analysis software were used to analyze customers’ food safety reviews. Analysis revealed that different customers used the same terms to communicate different mean- ings. The findings also included seven themes customers used to communicate their perceptions of food safety in restaurants, including 1) pests and insects, 2) personal hygiene, 3) overall restaurant cleanliness, 4) foreign ob-jects, 5) food temperature, 6) food quality, and 7) allergy concerns. Based on the findings, actions are suggested for restaurant owners and food safety professionals to avert potential unforeseen financial impacts for the business due to negative food safety reviews.