TRENDING TASTES: EXPLORING THE ROLE OF SOCIAL-MEDIA IN DRIVING FOOD INNOVATION AMONG CULINARY STUDENTS

Culinary students occupy an increasingly influential position in shaping food innovation within the Food and Beverage (F&B) industry, yet the way they engage with digital trends remains underexplored. This study, "Trending Tastes: Exploring the Role of Social Media in Driving Food Innovation Among Culinary Students," examines how social media trends drive the tendency to innovate food among culinary students at UiTM Permatang Pauh. Although food-related trends proliferate across social media platforms, there remains a limited understanding of how culinary students draw on this digital content as a guide for their own food innovation. This study addresses that gap by applying the Theory of Planned Behavior to analyze the factors, namely attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control that shape students' tendency to innovate food. A quantitative survey design was adopted, with data collected through a structured questionnaire administered via Google Forms and completed by a total of 147 respondents selected through stratified random sampling. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics, applying descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, correlation, and regression to test the proposed relationships. The findings indicate that attitude and perceived behavioral control significantly predict culinary students' tendency to innovate food in response to social media trends, whereas subjective norms do not exert a significant influence. These results underscore the value of social media as a pedagogical and professional resource, offering practical insights for culinary educators and the wider F&B industry seeking to cultivate an innovative and adaptive future workforce.