Document is current

Article History

Received: 20 March 2026

Accepted: 28 July 2026

First Online: 2 August 2026

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study was conducted in accordance with the research ethics principles of the Belmont Report and the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical approval was waived by the CTU Research Ethics and Innovation Committee (CTU-REIC), Cebu Technological University, Cebu City, Philippines, in accordance with CTU institutional research ethics guidelines (CTU-REIC Waiver Ref. 2025-HM-001), on the following grounds: (1) participation was entirely voluntary with no inducement or coercion; (2) the study involved no sensitive personal data, no clinical procedures, no minors, and posed minimal risk to participants; (3) data were collected with no personally identifiable information retained in the analysis dataset; and (4) respondents comprised adult food service professionals responding to non-invasive occupational survey questions. This waiver is consistent with the CTU-REIC policy on expedited review exemption for minimal-risk social science survey research involving adult participants. All respondents provided informed digital consent prior to participation via an explicit online consent form describing the study’s purpose, voluntary nature, confidentiality protections, and right to withdraw.

Consent for publication: Not applicable.

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.