Analysis of the Decision to Select a Food Production System for School Foodservice

Abstract

Selection of a food production system is a major decision made by school foodservice directors. School foodservice directors in 274 districts with enrollments of at least 2500 students, who had selected a food production system within the last ten years, were asked to provide information on their decision process. Directors indicated issues considered in the selection process, how important these issues were (five-point scale), and their satisfaction with the system chosen (five-point scale). Results suggest that the decision process for the selection of a food production system for use in schools is complex and is one that foodservice directors are likely to be involved in several times throughout their careers. Data analysis results indicate that foodservice directors consider many of the 53 issues when selecting a food production system. Regardless of the system chosen, directors indicated that numerous issues were important in the decision. The decision process used by directors who selected a cook-chill system does appear to differ from the process used by directors who selected on-site conventional and base kitchens. Directors in this study who selected cook-chill were more likely to consider more issues in the decision process, visit other facilities and use non-foodservice personnel such as manufacturers’ representatives and foodservice consultants as resources; they spent more time in the system selection process and were more likely to use a planning committee. Foodservice directors generally were satisfied with the system they had selected and implemented, regardless of whether the system is on-site conventional, base kitchen or cook-chill. However, the degree of satisfaction with certain issues did vary, depending on the food production system chosen. Future research should focus on determining the role of needs assessment and problem identification in this decision.