Health and Sustainability in Public Meals—An Explorative Review (original) (raw)
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Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 2016
There is little agreement among governments, institutions, scientists and food activists as to how to best tackle the challenging issues of health and sustainability in the food sector. This essay discusses the potential of school meals as a platform to promote healthy and sustainable food behavior. School meal programs are of particular interest for improving public diet because they reach children at a population scale across socioeconomic classes and for over a decade of their lives, and because food habits of children are more malleable than those of adults. Current research on the history and health implications of school meal programs is reviewed in a crossnational comparative framework, and arguments explored that speak for the need of a new developmental phase of school meals as an integrative learning platform for healthy and sustainable food behavior. Nutritional, social, practical, educational, economical, political, and cultural perspectives and challenges linked to the implementation of healthy and sustainable school meals are discussed. Finally, the need for long-term interventions and evaluations is highlighted and new research directions are proposed.
There is little agreement among governments, institutions, scientists and food activists as to how to best tackle the challenging issues of health and sustainability in the food sector. This essay discusses the potential of school meals as a platform to promote healthy and sustainable food behavior. School meal programs are of particular interest for improving public diet because they reach children at a population scale across socio-economic classes and for over a decade of their lives, and because food habits of children are more malleable than those of adults. Current research on the history and health implications of school meal programs is reviewed in a cross-national comparative framework, and arguments explored that speak for the need of a new developmental phase of school meals as an integrative learning platform for healthy and sustainable food behavior. Nutritional, social, practical, educational, economical, political, and cultural perspectives and challenges linked to the implementation of healthy and sustainable school meals are discussed. Finally, the need for long-term interventions and evaluations is highlighted and new research directions are proposed.
New Medicine, 2016
Introduction. Public catering (also known as mass catering) is an area of nutrition of the population by which the frequency of nutrition-related diseases can be significantly mitigated with the introduction of effective preventive measures. This hypothesis is supported by several studies from all over the world. The analysis of these studies enables a more accurate view on the efficiency of regulative legal measures adopted with regard to public catering. Aim. The aim of this study was to study legal regulations of different countries that are similar to Hungarian Ministerial Decree No. 37/2014 (IV.30) EMMI on the nutritional regulations of public catering, as well as to compare the results of our survey, conducted in order to assess the efficacy of the aforementioned Hungarian legal act, with data concerning nutrition of children from other countries, with the emphasis on Slovakia. Material and methods. The study was conducted between November 2015 and March 2016. 173 Hungarian catering managers, as well as 53 Hungarian and 40 Slovak school children who regularly eat meals provided by public catering, participated in our study. All the participants were selected randomly. We processed and aggregated the data obtained and performed statistical tests, using Microsoft Excel and the R Project software. We compared the menus available in schools to the applicable legal regulations and analysed them, using the NutriCompÉtrend Sport 3.03 (Hungarian version of NutriComp Diet Sport 3.03) software. Results. We discovered that the main factor which influenced the opinion of children on their meals was their taste, but external factors influencing their perception of the meal (such as the appearance of the meal, its taste, general cleanliness, being familiar with the food served, healthiness of the meal and presence of friends) were also important, which was independent from their country of origin. The participating Hungarian children more frequently than Slovak children described their meals as undersalted. Only a small percentage of the participants studied the menu attentively. Energy content and nutritive value of the meals offered by public catering services differed significantly and the analysed menus failed to meet the governmental recommendations accurately in both countries. Energy content and salt content were not consistent with the recommendations in both countries. Even though the majority (87%) of the public catering service kitchens in Hungary introduced some required technical or technological alterations during the grace period allowed by the Decree No. 37/2014 EMMI, the majority of them (62%) still needed further alterations at the time of the study in order to fully comply with the Decree, as declared by managers of the catering services that participated in our study.
Healthcare
Ensuring safe meals with suitable hygienic-sanitary and nutritional features is an essential requirement to guarantee health in different settings. This study aims to evaluate the compliance of collective catering menus adopted in both school canteens and healthcare facilities in a regional area where specific guidelines have been issued, assessing many matters from food weight to single courses and from the use of wholegrain pasta and bread to the rotation of seasonal fruit and vegetables. Overall, 85 menus, edited by freelance professionals and endorsed by the Food Hygiene and Nutrition Service staff of the Local Health Authority, were assessed from 2018 to 2022, highlighting critical issues potentially attributable at a local level to the lack of complete knowledge of the existence of guidelines and official reference documents among nutrition professionals. Since the preliminary outcomes show non-compliance in both sectors investigated, it is essential to continue to strengthen ...
School and workplace meals promote healthy food habits
Public Health Nutrition, 2010
Objective: The present study is to describe, on the basis of recent Finnish population surveys, (i) the frequencies of school and worksite canteen use, (ii) the determinants of having a hot lunch during school or working hours and (iii) the associations of lunch eating patterns with food habits. Setting: The study summarises mainly basic reports and studies concerning catering services conducted in Finland based on nationally representative population surveys. Design and subjects: Cross-sectional study. The most important surveys cited in this paper are the School Health Promotion Study, the Work and the Working Conditions survey, the National FINDIET 2002 Study, and the Health Behavior and Health among Finnish Adult Population survey. Results: School lunch is eaten by on average 70-90 % of children aged 9-18 years. Of all employees, 30 % eat at a worksite canteen daily, whereas 30 % of men and 45 % of women eat packed lunches. Nationally representative cross-sectional population surveys show that the use of catering services is associated with more healthy food habits; schoolchildren eating school meals and employees eating lunch at a worksite canteen tend to make food choices closer to nutritional recommendations as compared to those not using catering services to the same degree. Conclusions: Some evidence exists that catering services in schools and worksites contribute to healthy eating habits in the population. In order to verify the positive role of catering services more scientific research with prospective and intervention design studies will be needed.
Sustainability
This study aimed to evaluate aspects of sustainable nutrition in Public Educational Institutions Restaurants (PEIR) in a Brazilian state. Cross-sectional descriptive research was conducted in six PEIR. Purchased foodstuffs for a one-month period were investigated from the perspective of their origin (place of production), processing degree and nutritional profile. The presence of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) in packaged foodstuffs was also evaluated. Regarding served meals, a four-week period was evaluated in each PEIR considering the Water Footprint (WF) and the nutrient composition of the lunch meals. Results showed that 31.6% of foodstuffs purchased in the period evaluated were from national origin. Analysis of the processing degree of food purchased showed 64.8% unprocessed or minimally processed foods. However, 60.8% of the foodstuffs purchased in a one-month period presented sodium excess, 46.9% had an excess of saturated fat and 40.1% contained an excess of free sugar...
Journal of Nutrition & Food Sciences, 2013
The aim of the study was to determine the acceptability, waste and nutritional adequacy of lunches served in all public primary school canteens in Pavia, Northern Italy. School canteens of all public primary schools were investigated to determine the acceptability, waste and nutritional adequacy of their menus. In addiction, the environment of the canteens (brightness, noisiness, size, crowding, cleanliness, attractiveness) was observed. The observations were conducted from April to June 2012. In each school canteen, lunch was supervised for three consecutive days by 5 trained dietitians. In total, 13 schools, 22 classes and 448 schoolchildren aged 7-8.5 years were investigated. The school canteens were found to be hygienically appropriate and homely. The menus offered appeared nutritionally adequate but portion sizes were often too big for the children's age. Consequently a lot of waste was encountered, especially fruit and vegetables (70% of children refused vegetables), but first and main courses were also wasted (50% of children consumed a first course and the same proportion consumed a main course). The meals offered by the school canteens appeared nutritionally appropriate although portion-sizes were often too large for 7-8.5 aged schoolchildren. The quality and variety of the menus were good and the raw materials were usually D.O.P. (Protected Denomination of Origin) as a guarantee of high quality. This study has drawn attention to the need to adapt the menus to the children's age in order to reduce waste.