The Effectiveness of Na Reduction Program for Cook in Child-care Center: Focus on Self-reevaluation and Strengthen Consciousness / 대한지역사회영양학회지

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to develop a Na-reduction education program and apply it for cooks who prepare meals in day-care centers. To development of the program was based on increasing the self-awareness of salinity, eating behaviors and enforcing skills of low-Na cooking. METHODS: The study was carried out from April to October in 2013, fifty five cooks participated in this program. The Na reduction program composed of 4 sessions of education which included a 90-minute lecture and self-reevaluation of personal saltsensitivity degree and three low Na recipe cooking classes. In order to measure the effectiveness of the program, the pretest and posttest of salinity of the soups provided by day care centers was conducted at registration and 5 month after the program with the same menu. RESULTS: After the conduct of the program, salimeter using rate was increased from 8.2% to 94.6% after the program and the other measuring instruments using rate was gradually increased. We observed that the score on eating behaviors increased 1.51 points from 38.80 to 40.31 after the intervention program (p < 0.001). Further, increased knowledge and skill provided by the intervention program resulted in improved Nareduction cooking capability. According to the results from analyzing the soup salinity, the salinity in watery soup was significant reduced from 0.556 to 0.449 0.107 and soybean-paste soup was significant reduced from 0.669 to 0.551 after the intervention program (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: As the result of fact, the intervention programs that was based on self-reevaluation, to enforce practical skill and consciousness was effective to serve low sodium menu at day care centers.

Use of Salimeters and Sodium Reduction Education in School Foodservice in the Gyeonggi Area

This study used survey data to identify the use of salimeters and the prevalence of sodium reduction education in the Gyeonggi region. A survey with 211 dietitians working in school foodservice (106 in elementary schools, 69 in middle schools, and 36 in high schools) was conducted from August 6 to August 17, 2012. The data were analyzed using the SPSS program. Though 86.6% of school kitchens had salimeters, the rate for checking the sodium content of soup or stew was just 62.7% and the rate for checking the sodium content of kimchi and solid food was very low. Since salimeters are mostly used to measure sodium in liquid foods, it is urgent to provide an education and manual on using salimeters and to promote salimetry for kimchi and side dishes. It is also important to provide students with nutritional information by clearly posting the sodium content of food on menus and compelling students to notice them. Sodium reduction education for cooks was conducted in the 70.3% of the kitchens; however, the dietitians perceived that the cooks did not understand the importance of the education. Also, sodium reduction education for students was mostly provided through indirect methods, rather than face-to-face education, resulting in poor educational data (only 36.4% comprehending). By providing detailed guidelines for sodium reduction and labelling accurate content of sodium of the menus, we will be able to enforce practices for sodium reduction in school lunches.