Enjoy! Enhancing Meals in the Swedish Public Sector

Abstract

ABSTRACTPublic meals in schools, hospitals, social, and elderly care play an important role in Swedish welfare. This article analyzes texts concerning the public catering sector, following up government directives that meals should provide enjoyment. The aim was to study a discernible shift towards enjoyment in the approach to public meals. The method is qualitative, with data from functional texts related to the public meal sector in Sweden, using the Five Aspects Meal Model/FAMM as a qualitative framework used by dietitians to add soft values in the public catering sector to the average nutritional values. The result is described in terms of important meal situations: new values, hospitality and service, environment, experience, and food quality as related to how and in which way to make changes. The question of public meals is important in an international view with elderly and multicultural populations.