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Nutrient based quality control in public catering: need for revision
Journal of Food Engineering 56 (2003) 189–193 www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng
Nutrient based quality control in public catering: need for revision A. Guilland Department of Applied Chemistry and Microbiology, Division Nutrition, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 27, 00014 Helsinki, Finland Received 21 October 2001
Abstract Western Europeans eat nearly every day food produced by public catering units. Recommended nutrient based standards exist for the nutritional quality of this catered food. But the production units are under no obligation to do any regulatory control. Very few studies have been done on public catering units. This led to my research on the nutrient based quality control performed by the public catering units in Finland, France and Germany. The results of this research appear to demonstrate a need to promote quality control through a development of more applicable standards and control methods. 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Public or mass catering; Nutritional quality control; Nutrient based standards
1. Introduction Public catering has a special role in feeding important parts of the population in countries like Finland, France and Germany (Anonymous, 1997a; Anonymous, 2001a; Oltersdorf & Ecke, 2000). No systematic monitoring of the nutritional quality of food served in these units exists (Pietinen & Ovaskainen, 1994). Separate studies do however indicate a need for quality improvement (Czernichow & Martin, 2000; Le Francßois et al., 1996; Schauder & Woike, 1994; Sch€ och, 2000; Sinisalo, Kumpulainen, & Nummela, 1991; Stelz et al., 1998; Vartiainen, Bloigu, Urjanheimo, Muuttoranta, & Tainio, 1991; Verger et al., 1994). Qualitative standards with nutrient based indicators exist in Finland, France and Germany (Anonymous, 1998; Anonymous, 2000; Anonymous, 2001b). To maintain and improve quality there need to be control measures in place (OÕLeary & OÕLeary, 1992). This control has also been encouraged by authorities in Finland and in France (Anonymous, 1997b; Anonymous, 1999; Anonymous, 2001c). In Germany, political decision makers have even considered that legal obligations to assure best-known service outcome in care facilities also concern food services (Anonymous, 1995). However, the control relies on nutrient calculations or chemical ana-
E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Guilland).
lysis and this may be difficult to do by unqualified catering personnel (Briley, Roberts-Gray, & Simpson, 1994; Drake, 1992; Margetts, Martinez, Saba, Holm, & Kearney, 1997). Until this present survey was conducted little was known about nutritional quality control done by the public catering units in Finland, France and Germany. The objective was then to reveal the nutrient based quality control in well-organized and informed public catering units. A simultaneous study in these EUcountries was considered useful in understanding and improving the situation. The hypothesis was that only few control regularly all planned menus. The overall purpose was to generate data as a basis on which to build future research projects aiming to develop nutritional quality control. 2. Methods and subjects The study took place in 1997 and consisted of a questionnaire mailing and interviews based on the same questionnaire. A 30-item questionnaire concerning nutrient based quality control performed by the kitchens was created and addressed to the personnel responsible for food quality. Samples for questionnaire mailing were picked out from client registers of professional associations and publications, and material wholesale companies. Local students interviewed production units using the same
0260-8774/02/$ - see front matter 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 2 6 0 - 8 7 7 4 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 2 4 8 - 0
190
A. Guilland / Journal of Food Engineering 56 (2003) 189–193
Table 1 Nutrient based quality control in public catering units and possession of resources N
Weekly– daily (%)
Monthly (%)
Biannual– quarterly (%)
Annual (%)
Occasional (%)
Total of controlling units (%)
HND or university degree (%)
IT-Equip. (%)
Finland Questionnaire Interview
85 27
18 0
9 7
26 37
15 15
16 15
85 74
87 70
49 48
France Questionnaire Interview
24 16
17 44
4 6
0 6
0 0
25 0
46 56
54 0
25 0
Germany Questionnaire Interview
19 16
5 13
0 6
5 13
11 6
26 6
47 44
26 13
16 6
6 8
15 4
10 12
8 4
48 42
63 4
2 19
Units run by catering companies Finland 52 10 Germany 26 15
questionnaire. In Finland and Germany, three, but in France, 23 catering companies were contacted for a separate sample on units run by private companies. In Finland, personal contacts helped acquire samples and responses whereas this was not the case in France or Germany as demonstrated in the results. In Finland 340, in France 170 and in Germany 370 questionnaires were mailed. The response rate to questionnaire was 31% in Finland, 14% in France and 6% in Germany. Altogether 112 Finnish, 42 French and 45 German units participated to questionnaire and interview. Moreover 52 Finnish and 26 German public catering units run by private companies participated in the questionnaire. No similar sample was acquired from French catering companies. The total amount of responses represented 2.1% of the public catering units in Finland, 0.001% in France and 0.004% in Germany. The samples from the three countries being quite different, the data analyses were limited to mathematical calculations performed with Excel 2000 (Tables 1–3).
Table 2 Responses to questionnaire and interview in Finland concerning quality control among respondants working with and without ITequipment
Questionnaire Control with IT-equipment Control without IT-equipment Interview Control with IT-equipment Control without IT-equipment
Daily– weekly (%)
Monthly– biannually (%)
Annually– occasionally (%)
Total (%)
21
45
29
95
14
26
35
75
0
54
39
93
0
36
22
58
Table 3 Responses to questionnaire and interview in Finland concerning quality control among participants with different qualification
Questionnaire HND or university degree College levela Interview HND or university degree College level a
Daily– weekly (%)
Monthly– biannually (%)
Annually– occasionally (%)
Total (%)
14
38
35
87
45
18
9
72
0
42
37
79
0
50
13
63
College level ¼ college for further education.
3. Results and discussion Concerning the methodology used in this study, deliberately chosen sample sources was also used in studies performed by Briley et al. (1994), Monneuse, Bellisle, and Koppert (1997) and Outila, K€arkk€ainen, Sepp€ anen, and Lamberg-Allardt (1998). The samples size did not correspond expectations, even though much effort was put to sample acquiry. Acquisition of responses may be difficult for various reasons as noticed by Draussin-Germe and Cochet (1995), and Winkler, Brasche, D€ oring, and Heinrich (1998). Le Francßois et al. (1996) recognised in their study that free participation was connected with a feeling of being concerned. Nutritional quality control by chemical analysis is considered to give the most reliable results. However, due to costs involved, even in scientific research it is rarely used (Gebhardt & Kluthe, 1993). In this study, only one participant performed chemical analysis. The results, concerning nutrient calculations, are presented in Table 1.
A. Guilland / Journal of Food Engineering 56 (2003) 189–193
In Finland, 85% of the respondents to the questionnaire and 74% interviewed controlled nutritional quality at least occasionally; in France, the respective values were 46% and 56%; in Germany, 47% and 44%. In a survey carried out in North America, less than half of the food service units studied made calculations on the nutrient contents of the planned menus (Stang, Story, Kalina, & Snyder, 1997). Menu planning is mostly done in public catering units monthly, quarterly, or biannually. In this study, monthly to biannual control was done by 35% and 44% of the Finnish; 4% and 12% of the French; 5% and 19% of the German participants to questionnaire and interview respectively. A comparison was made, on the Finnish samples, concerning nutritional quality control in units possessing information technology (IT) and those working without it. It appeared that IT-equipment was linked to higher prevalence of quality control as shown in Table 2. According to my results, control methodology cannot be based on IT-equipment. It was available in only part of the studied public catering units: in Finland, 48% and 49%; in France, 0% and 25%; in Germany, 6% and 16% participants to questionnaire and interview respectively possessed IT-equipment for nutrient calculations. A study on the Finnish samples revealed that lack of ITequipment was more pronounced in units serving less than 500 portions per day (27%), than in ones producing daily over 500 portions (56%). In a North American study, only a third of the food service units possessed IT-equipment for nutrient calculations (Stang et al., 1997). Previous studies have revealed that educational level is linked with interest towards health issues and nutritional knowledge (Lennarn€ as et al., 1997; Roos, Pr€ att€ al€ a, L€ ahelma, Kleemola, & Pietinen, 1996). On the other hand, highly qualified participants have also been noticed to over-report health related practices (de IralaEstevez et al., 2000). In my study, qualification level of the personnel responsible for quality control differed in the samples as shown in Table 1. In the Finnish samples, the number of participants with high national diploma (HND) or university degree, was equivalent to the number of units controlling nutritional quality (Table 1). A complementary study on the Finnish questionnaire and interview samples revealed that more participants with HND or university degree controlled nutritional quality than those with college level education (Table 3). Misinterpretation of questions, among less qualified personnel, has been reported by Beer-Borst et al. (2000). In this study, misinterpretation might explain popularity of frequent, daily to weekly control, among participants with college level education (Table 3). In France, where also food based, quantitative standards exist (Anony-
191
mous, 2001c), 78% of the interviewed who declared to control nutritional quality replied do so on daily to weekly basis. All these participants had college level. None of them possessed IT-equipment, which would have facilitated these frequent calculations. Complementary findings: • Calculations were mainly done on energy contents and less (16–20%) on other nutrients. • Only part of the meals and meal components were controlled; lunch and dinner, were the main targets. Breakfast was included in the calculations by 65% of all the units offering this service. • One third of the Finnish and French units performing nutrient calculations lacked recipes for the main course. Recipe shortages were more pronounced on other meal components. These indicate that the control measures used gave incomplete information on nutritional quality as described by Kant (1996) and Drewnowski (1999). All participants implicated in menu planning did not consider nutritional quality control as their duty: in Finland, 7% and 9%; in France, 35% and 33%; in Germany, 86% and 69%, of the participants in the questionnaire and interview respectively, considered only menu planning, not the related nutrient calculations, as their duty. Moreover, when asked to rank five given quality factors, taste and aroma and hygienic quality were considered most important. Appearance and color were ranked third, nutritional quality fourth, and texture as fifth important. A fear of declined palatability and attractiveness due to promotion of nutritional aspects of food, might have led to this type of ranking (Lappalainen, Saba, Holm, Mykk€anen, & Gibney, 1997).
4. Conclusions This study appears to demonstrate a need for the promotion of nutritional quality control in public catering. Nutrient based quality control was done only by a part of the public catering units studied. Qualification of the personnel, as well as possession of IT, appeared to be related to regular control. Increased efforts to promote nutritional quality control have been found to be effective if caterers are offered applied resources and control methods (Anonymous, 2001d). However, foodservice personnel seem to prefer food based scales to nutrient based control methods (Anonymous, 2001d). Development of food based scales, with which balance, moderation, variety and palatability (Drewnowski, 1999) can simultaneously be monitored, may prove to be useful in promoting quality control.
192
A. Guilland / Journal of Food Engineering 56 (2003) 189–193
Acknowledgements The project was sponsored by the Finnish Cultural Fond. The author thanks Prof., Dr. A. Ahlstr€ om, University of Helsinki, Prof., Dr. B. Watkinson, Universit€at Hannover, and Dr. S. M€ akinen, University of Helsinki, for their contribution to the success of the study. The following organisations are thanked for their assistance to sample acquiry for questionnaire: in Finland, Finnish Dietetic Association ry, Electrolux Oy and HackmanMetos Oy; in France, La Cuisine collective, Comite de Coordination des Collectivites, Association nationale des directeurs de restaurants municipaux, Association culinaire des etablissements hospitaliers de France; in Germany, Verlagsgruppe Deutscher Fachverlag, Electrolux GmbH, Berufsverband Hauswirtschaftlicher Fach- und F€ uhrungskr€ afte e.V. and Kuratorium Wohnen im Alter e.V. The polytechnic institute of Orimattila and Joensuu, in Finland; Besancßon, in France; Hamburg and M€ unster, in Germany, are thanked for their contribution to the interviews.
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Nutrient based quality control in public catering: need for revision A. Guilland Department of Applied Chemistry and Microbiology, Division Nutrition, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 27, 00014 Helsinki, Finland Received 21 October 2001
Abstract Western Europeans eat nearly every day food produced by public catering units. Recommended nutrient based standards exist for the nutritional quality of this catered food. But the production units are under no obligation to do any regulatory control. Very few studies have been done on public catering units. This led to my research on the nutrient based quality control performed by the public catering units in Finland, France and Germany. The results of this research appear to demonstrate a need to promote quality control through a development of more applicable standards and control methods. 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Public or mass catering; Nutritional quality control; Nutrient based standards
1. Introduction Public catering has a special role in feeding important parts of the population in countries like Finland, France and Germany (Anonymous, 1997a; Anonymous, 2001a; Oltersdorf & Ecke, 2000). No systematic monitoring of the nutritional quality of food served in these units exists (Pietinen & Ovaskainen, 1994). Separate studies do however indicate a need for quality improvement (Czernichow & Martin, 2000; Le Francßois et al., 1996; Schauder & Woike, 1994; Sch€ och, 2000; Sinisalo, Kumpulainen, & Nummela, 1991; Stelz et al., 1998; Vartiainen, Bloigu, Urjanheimo, Muuttoranta, & Tainio, 1991; Verger et al., 1994). Qualitative standards with nutrient based indicators exist in Finland, France and Germany (Anonymous, 1998; Anonymous, 2000; Anonymous, 2001b). To maintain and improve quality there need to be control measures in place (OÕLeary & OÕLeary, 1992). This control has also been encouraged by authorities in Finland and in France (Anonymous, 1997b; Anonymous, 1999; Anonymous, 2001c). In Germany, political decision makers have even considered that legal obligations to assure best-known service outcome in care facilities also concern food services (Anonymous, 1995). However, the control relies on nutrient calculations or chemical ana-
E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Guilland).
lysis and this may be difficult to do by unqualified catering personnel (Briley, Roberts-Gray, & Simpson, 1994; Drake, 1992; Margetts, Martinez, Saba, Holm, & Kearney, 1997). Until this present survey was conducted little was known about nutritional quality control done by the public catering units in Finland, France and Germany. The objective was then to reveal the nutrient based quality control in well-organized and informed public catering units. A simultaneous study in these EUcountries was considered useful in understanding and improving the situation. The hypothesis was that only few control regularly all planned menus. The overall purpose was to generate data as a basis on which to build future research projects aiming to develop nutritional quality control. 2. Methods and subjects The study took place in 1997 and consisted of a questionnaire mailing and interviews based on the same questionnaire. A 30-item questionnaire concerning nutrient based quality control performed by the kitchens was created and addressed to the personnel responsible for food quality. Samples for questionnaire mailing were picked out from client registers of professional associations and publications, and material wholesale companies. Local students interviewed production units using the same
0260-8774/02/$ - see front matter 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 2 6 0 - 8 7 7 4 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 2 4 8 - 0
190
A. Guilland / Journal of Food Engineering 56 (2003) 189–193
Table 1 Nutrient based quality control in public catering units and possession of resources N
Weekly– daily (%)
Monthly (%)
Biannual– quarterly (%)
Annual (%)
Occasional (%)
Total of controlling units (%)
HND or university degree (%)
IT-Equip. (%)
Finland Questionnaire Interview
85 27
18 0
9 7
26 37
15 15
16 15
85 74
87 70
49 48
France Questionnaire Interview
24 16
17 44
4 6
0 6
0 0
25 0
46 56
54 0
25 0
Germany Questionnaire Interview
19 16
5 13
0 6
5 13
11 6
26 6
47 44
26 13
16 6
6 8
15 4
10 12
8 4
48 42
63 4
2 19
Units run by catering companies Finland 52 10 Germany 26 15
questionnaire. In Finland and Germany, three, but in France, 23 catering companies were contacted for a separate sample on units run by private companies. In Finland, personal contacts helped acquire samples and responses whereas this was not the case in France or Germany as demonstrated in the results. In Finland 340, in France 170 and in Germany 370 questionnaires were mailed. The response rate to questionnaire was 31% in Finland, 14% in France and 6% in Germany. Altogether 112 Finnish, 42 French and 45 German units participated to questionnaire and interview. Moreover 52 Finnish and 26 German public catering units run by private companies participated in the questionnaire. No similar sample was acquired from French catering companies. The total amount of responses represented 2.1% of the public catering units in Finland, 0.001% in France and 0.004% in Germany. The samples from the three countries being quite different, the data analyses were limited to mathematical calculations performed with Excel 2000 (Tables 1–3).
Table 2 Responses to questionnaire and interview in Finland concerning quality control among respondants working with and without ITequipment
Questionnaire Control with IT-equipment Control without IT-equipment Interview Control with IT-equipment Control without IT-equipment
Daily– weekly (%)
Monthly– biannually (%)
Annually– occasionally (%)
Total (%)
21
45
29
95
14
26
35
75
0
54
39
93
0
36
22
58
Table 3 Responses to questionnaire and interview in Finland concerning quality control among participants with different qualification
Questionnaire HND or university degree College levela Interview HND or university degree College level a
Daily– weekly (%)
Monthly– biannually (%)
Annually– occasionally (%)
Total (%)
14
38
35
87
45
18
9
72
0
42
37
79
0
50
13
63
College level ¼ college for further education.
3. Results and discussion Concerning the methodology used in this study, deliberately chosen sample sources was also used in studies performed by Briley et al. (1994), Monneuse, Bellisle, and Koppert (1997) and Outila, K€arkk€ainen, Sepp€ anen, and Lamberg-Allardt (1998). The samples size did not correspond expectations, even though much effort was put to sample acquiry. Acquisition of responses may be difficult for various reasons as noticed by Draussin-Germe and Cochet (1995), and Winkler, Brasche, D€ oring, and Heinrich (1998). Le Francßois et al. (1996) recognised in their study that free participation was connected with a feeling of being concerned. Nutritional quality control by chemical analysis is considered to give the most reliable results. However, due to costs involved, even in scientific research it is rarely used (Gebhardt & Kluthe, 1993). In this study, only one participant performed chemical analysis. The results, concerning nutrient calculations, are presented in Table 1.
A. Guilland / Journal of Food Engineering 56 (2003) 189–193
In Finland, 85% of the respondents to the questionnaire and 74% interviewed controlled nutritional quality at least occasionally; in France, the respective values were 46% and 56%; in Germany, 47% and 44%. In a survey carried out in North America, less than half of the food service units studied made calculations on the nutrient contents of the planned menus (Stang, Story, Kalina, & Snyder, 1997). Menu planning is mostly done in public catering units monthly, quarterly, or biannually. In this study, monthly to biannual control was done by 35% and 44% of the Finnish; 4% and 12% of the French; 5% and 19% of the German participants to questionnaire and interview respectively. A comparison was made, on the Finnish samples, concerning nutritional quality control in units possessing information technology (IT) and those working without it. It appeared that IT-equipment was linked to higher prevalence of quality control as shown in Table 2. According to my results, control methodology cannot be based on IT-equipment. It was available in only part of the studied public catering units: in Finland, 48% and 49%; in France, 0% and 25%; in Germany, 6% and 16% participants to questionnaire and interview respectively possessed IT-equipment for nutrient calculations. A study on the Finnish samples revealed that lack of ITequipment was more pronounced in units serving less than 500 portions per day (27%), than in ones producing daily over 500 portions (56%). In a North American study, only a third of the food service units possessed IT-equipment for nutrient calculations (Stang et al., 1997). Previous studies have revealed that educational level is linked with interest towards health issues and nutritional knowledge (Lennarn€ as et al., 1997; Roos, Pr€ att€ al€ a, L€ ahelma, Kleemola, & Pietinen, 1996). On the other hand, highly qualified participants have also been noticed to over-report health related practices (de IralaEstevez et al., 2000). In my study, qualification level of the personnel responsible for quality control differed in the samples as shown in Table 1. In the Finnish samples, the number of participants with high national diploma (HND) or university degree, was equivalent to the number of units controlling nutritional quality (Table 1). A complementary study on the Finnish questionnaire and interview samples revealed that more participants with HND or university degree controlled nutritional quality than those with college level education (Table 3). Misinterpretation of questions, among less qualified personnel, has been reported by Beer-Borst et al. (2000). In this study, misinterpretation might explain popularity of frequent, daily to weekly control, among participants with college level education (Table 3). In France, where also food based, quantitative standards exist (Anony-
191
mous, 2001c), 78% of the interviewed who declared to control nutritional quality replied do so on daily to weekly basis. All these participants had college level. None of them possessed IT-equipment, which would have facilitated these frequent calculations. Complementary findings: • Calculations were mainly done on energy contents and less (16–20%) on other nutrients. • Only part of the meals and meal components were controlled; lunch and dinner, were the main targets. Breakfast was included in the calculations by 65% of all the units offering this service. • One third of the Finnish and French units performing nutrient calculations lacked recipes for the main course. Recipe shortages were more pronounced on other meal components. These indicate that the control measures used gave incomplete information on nutritional quality as described by Kant (1996) and Drewnowski (1999). All participants implicated in menu planning did not consider nutritional quality control as their duty: in Finland, 7% and 9%; in France, 35% and 33%; in Germany, 86% and 69%, of the participants in the questionnaire and interview respectively, considered only menu planning, not the related nutrient calculations, as their duty. Moreover, when asked to rank five given quality factors, taste and aroma and hygienic quality were considered most important. Appearance and color were ranked third, nutritional quality fourth, and texture as fifth important. A fear of declined palatability and attractiveness due to promotion of nutritional aspects of food, might have led to this type of ranking (Lappalainen, Saba, Holm, Mykk€anen, & Gibney, 1997).
4. Conclusions This study appears to demonstrate a need for the promotion of nutritional quality control in public catering. Nutrient based quality control was done only by a part of the public catering units studied. Qualification of the personnel, as well as possession of IT, appeared to be related to regular control. Increased efforts to promote nutritional quality control have been found to be effective if caterers are offered applied resources and control methods (Anonymous, 2001d). However, foodservice personnel seem to prefer food based scales to nutrient based control methods (Anonymous, 2001d). Development of food based scales, with which balance, moderation, variety and palatability (Drewnowski, 1999) can simultaneously be monitored, may prove to be useful in promoting quality control.
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Acknowledgements The project was sponsored by the Finnish Cultural Fond. The author thanks Prof., Dr. A. Ahlstr€ om, University of Helsinki, Prof., Dr. B. Watkinson, Universit€at Hannover, and Dr. S. M€ akinen, University of Helsinki, for their contribution to the success of the study. The following organisations are thanked for their assistance to sample acquiry for questionnaire: in Finland, Finnish Dietetic Association ry, Electrolux Oy and HackmanMetos Oy; in France, La Cuisine collective, Comite de Coordination des Collectivites, Association nationale des directeurs de restaurants municipaux, Association culinaire des etablissements hospitaliers de France; in Germany, Verlagsgruppe Deutscher Fachverlag, Electrolux GmbH, Berufsverband Hauswirtschaftlicher Fach- und F€ uhrungskr€ afte e.V. and Kuratorium Wohnen im Alter e.V. The polytechnic institute of Orimattila and Joensuu, in Finland; Besancßon, in France; Hamburg and M€ unster, in Germany, are thanked for their contribution to the interviews.
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