Customers' Perceptions of Operational Status of and Needs for Sodium Reduction in the Industry Foodservice in Seoul / 대한지역사회영양학회지

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to compare customers' perceptions of the need for a low-sodium diet and sodium-reduced operations in the industry foodservice by age. The relationships between health concerns and perceptions of the need for sodium-reduced operations and low-sodium diets in the industry foodservice were analyzed.METHODS: A survey was conducted among 340 industry foodservice customers aged 20–50 years and residing in Seoul, Korea. This study investigated the respondents' health concerns, their perception of the need for sodium-reduced foodservice operations, their perception of a sodium-reduced diet, and the general details of the foodservices they used. A cross-tabulation analysis and ANOVA were performed to identify differences in measurement items by age, and a simple regression analysis was performed to examine relationships between measurement items.RESULTS: For the customers' perception of the need for a sodium-reduced foodservice operation, the item “it is necessary to provide separate spices and sauces to reduce sodium intake” achieved the highest score (3.88 points out of a possible 5 points). For the perception of a sodium-reduced diet, the item “I think it is helpful for one's health” obtained the highest score (4.13 points). Respondents' health concerns had a positive effect on increasing the level of perception of the need for sodium-reduced foodservice operations and that of a sodium-reduced diet.CONCLUSIONS: Foodservice nutritionists could help enhance their customers' perceptions of the needs for sodium-reduced foodservice operations and sodium-reduced diets by frequently providing them with sodium-related health information.

Measurements of Salinity and Salt Content by Menu Types Served at Industry Foodservice Operations in Daegu / 대한지역사회영양학회지

The purpose of this study was to investigate salinity and sodium content in foods served at industry foodservice operations in selected workplaces in Daegu. The researcher collected 1,142 food items categorized into 22 menu item groups from lunch samples served at 100 industry foodservice operations and measured the salinity of the food items, and calculated sodium and salt contents from the salinity. In terms of salt content of one meal at each workplace, 46% of the meals were 3-<5 g, and only 3.0% of them were 1.7 g or less, which is one third of the daily target intake (5 g) presented by the Dietary Reference Intakes for Koreans. In terms of sodium content, 35.3% of the meals were 1,000-< 1,500 mg (most), and only 2.5% of them were 667 mg or less, which is, again, one third of the daily target intake. As to the salinity of each menu item group, side dishes such as sauces, kimchi, seasoned vegetables, hard-boiled foods, and stir-fried foods were significantly higher, but the sodium content was not higher, because their quantity per serving was small. The salinity of foods with liquid such as stews, noodles, soups, and broths was relatively lower, but the sodium content was higher, because their quantity per serving was large. This indicates that an education program should be developed for foodservice workers who prepare food for the workplace regarding the development and promotion of various menus for reducing sodium content, in order to reduce sodium content in meals served by food service in the workplace.

Effects of HACCP Implementation on an Industry Foodservice Operation in Daegu

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of HACCP implementation. The HACCP education was provided twice within one month to 20 employees of a contracted food service operation in Daegu. Critical control points (CCP) were determined based on food preparation processes: non-heating, preparation after heating, and heating. We evaluated the effects of HACCP implementation by checking microbiological quality, time and temperature at each of the CCPs during the receiving, preparation, cooking, and serving stages. After HACCP implementation, the biggest changes in microbiological qualities were in heated foods. At the cooking and serving stages, the microbiological qualities of heated foods improved to the standard levels. HACCP education helped employees ensure that the internal temperatures of the heated foods were kept higher than the standard (74 degrees C) and the food holding temperature avoided the dangerous zone (5-60 degrees C), thus lowering microbiological levels. At the serving stage, the microbiological levels of utensils also improved after HACCP education. This result strongly suggests that it is essential to educate employees in managing the temperature to treat foods safely. However, HACCP education didn't affect the microbiological levels of non-heated foods and foods prepared after heating, which continued to be higher than the standard. The reason for this was that poor microbiological quality seasonings were added to those types of foods. This indicates that seasoning factories as well as food service operations should implement HACCP to reduce hazards.

Analysis of the Dietitian's Job description in the business and industry foodservice

The purpose of this study was to verify the dietitian's job description(2000) for dietitians working at business and industry foodservice. The survey was carried out for the frequency, criticality and difficulty of each job description with 4 point. The number of subject was 39 dietitians, who have been working over 3 years at their position. The results are following ; 1. Duties with high frequency and criticality were menu managements, purchasing, storage and inventory controls, food productions, meal services, waste managements and sanitation managements. 2. Duties with middle frequency and high criticality were managing equipments and facility, human resources managements, financial managements, self promotions. 3. Duties with low frequency and high criticality were nutrition assessment (life cycles, certain diseases, specific conditions), medical nutritional theraphy, nutrition education and public health nutrition. 4. For difficulty, duties related food service had lower points than that of nutrition service.

Evaluation of Sanitary Management based on HACCP of Business and Industry Foodservice Operations in Taegu and Kyungpook Areas

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the status of sanitary management based on HACCP. The surveys which were on various aspects of general characteristics, food handling practice, personal sanitation, equipment sanitation, and equipment possession were carried out using questionnaires for 146 business and industry foodservice operations in Taegu and Kyungpook areas. The results of this study were summarized as follows. Forty-nine percent of surveyed foodservice operations was in Taegu, 51% in Kyungpook and 69.2% in direct foodservice operations and 28.1% in contracted foodservice operations. Seventy-eight percent of foodservice operations replied that they have done only basic sanitary management, while 13% surveyed stated that they were implementing HACCP. Food handling practice and personal sanitation were significantly better in Kyungpook area than in Taegu. Significantly high levels in food handling practice, personal sanitation, equipment sanitation, and equipment possession were seen in foodservice operations which had more than 1,000 meal served than those which had less than 1,000 meals served. According to the results of food handling practice, in items of food-temperature measurement during receiving, cooking, holding after cooking, and reheating, foodservice operations showed very low scores below the average. All foodservice operations presented good scores in the parts of personal and equipment sanitation. In equipment possession, sterilizing systems were generally not enough, dishwasher and sterilizing facilities of contracted foodservice operation showed significantly high scores. Therefore, the business and industry foodservice operations will have to pay special attention to temperature management in the foodservice production process as the first step to implement of HACCP.