Food Service Providers Research Articles

HOTEL AND RESTAURANT BUSINESS MANAGEMENT: ESSENCE AND APPROACHES TO THE ORGANIZATION

Objective of the article is to study the essential characteristics of the hotel and restaurant business and outline modern approaches to the organization of management activities within it. Methods. This research used methods of generalization, comparison, description, synthesis, analysis, grouping, as well as systematic and logical approaches, the theory of flexibility, as well as conceptual approaches to understanding the philosophy of Agile management. Results. Based on the differences between the categories of "business" and "business", it was found that the essence of the hotel and restaurant business is manifested in the specifics of services and products provided and sold by entrepreneurs, specified categories "subjects" and "objects" restaurant business. It is determined that the specifics of this business are related to aggregate services and / or products - a pool of customer service activities in the provision of food and accommodation services, which begins long before the physical act of sale and ends by forming and maintaining a prolonged impression of visiting institution. Hotel and restaurant business management is a type of professional activity, the content of which is to influence the subject of management (management system) on the object of management (managed system) to achieve the goal taking into account competition conditions and the interests of key stakeholders. This activity involves the implementation of one of the alternatives of its implementation (situational, functional, marketing, regulatory, systemic, managerial, targeted, innovative, integrated or age-oriented approach), or their collaboration to best meet the conditions of doing business. The study substantiates the effectiveness of the age approach to hotel and restaurant business management, based on the concept of agile management, the content of which is to ensure maximum mobility, flexibility of the hotel and restaurant business management system, its focus on maximum adaptation of the management system to changes in environment and customer needs.

Exploring the potential of industrial symbiosis to recover food waste from the foodservice sector in Russia

The challenge of food waste in the global foodservice sector is significant, and novel approaches are required for its minimization. These approaches can be grounded on the principles of industrial symbiosis which promote inter-sectoral collaboration for better resource efficiency. Foodservices can partner with farmers for food waste collection and its subsequent use as fertilizer or animal feedstock. Anecdotal evidence of industrial symbiosis adopted by foodservices and farmers exists, but no empirical research has been undertaken to understand the determinants of broader industry adoption of industrial symbiosis and how these determinants could be reinforced. This study explores the potential of industrial symbiosis to minimize food waste in commercial foodservices in Russia. By interviewing foodservice providers and farmers, the study demonstrates willingness of selected stakeholders to uptake industrial symbiosis as a means of food waste recovery, but also as an opportunity to reinforce social and network capital of foodservice operators and farmers. To encourage broader industry uptake, policy-makers should build inter-sectoral capacity by connecting foodservices and farmers. Not only will this minimize food waste but can also build more resilient and responsive food supply chains.

Surviving the hectic early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study to the supply chain strategies of food service firms in times of a crisis

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown have hit the food service industry very hard. The COVID-19 outbreak has created a sharp downturn for firms in the food service industry, compelling actors across the whole food service supply chain to rethink their strategies. The purpose of this paper is to document the impact of COVID-19 on the food service supply chain, as well as to identify crisis management strategies food service firms use during the hectic early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic to survive the current and prepare for future pandemics.Design/methodology/approachWe performed a qualitative descriptive study using 21 semi-structured interviews with actors across the food service supply chain (i.e. farmers, wholesalers and food service providers). Data were collected to shed light on food service firms' decision making during the hectic early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic to uncover various crisis management strategies used.FindingsBy integrating the disaster and crisis pyramid and resilience theory, four core crisis management strategies to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic are conceptualized, i.e. (1) managing resources, (2) diversifying strategically, (3) prioritizing long-term outcomes and (4) bonding socially.Originality/valueThe theoretical contributions include documenting the performance impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food service supply chain and exploring crisis management strategies food service firms employed during the hectic early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, functioning and survival during a pandemic, an emerging field in literature, are central to this study. Additionally, while recent research suggests that integrating crisis management and resilience literature may provide a more complete understanding of the organization–crisis relationship, these literature streams mainly developed in isolation. By integrating the literature streams of crisis management and resilience and applying these theories to the COVID-19 crisis, our study provides specific managerial guidelines.

Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty for Online Food Service Providers in Jharkhand State

In the food sector, customer have been voting by their feet since ages. However, due to the technological changes clubbed with present COVID-19 pandemic, the trend has changed rapidly. Customers are confined to their home and technology has emerged as the only saviour. Increase in the number of downloads of food ordering app is an indication of both popularity of this app and helplessness of the present age customer. With restricted movement, they have these apps to either get the food delivered at their doorstep or take away with pre-orders. Hence, it becomes imperative for the app designer and food service provider to brainstorm and develop an app which can focus on the customer ease rather than forcing their design and interface to the customer. In this backdrop, the present study is a novel attempt which primarily focuses on the relationship between app quality and customer satisfaction.

Food choice behavior: a case study in South Korea

PurposeWith dining out increasing globally, policy making and research have been on menu labeling as a source for meaningful nutrition information. Yet, despite attempts to mandate menu labeling and the studies examining consumer's perception of menu nutritional information and how this perception impacts dining behavior and intention to consume, concerns for obesity and malnutrition continue to be at the forefront of public health discussions. This study attempts to comprehend consumers' nutritional goals, intention and food choice behavior, thereby suggesting how to leverage this information for change.Design/methodology/approachUsing survey data and a proposed and validated theoretical model, the study identified the different aspects of consumer's food choice by analyzing the relationship of consumer's perceived importance toward nutrition information, food choice and healthy daily behavior, and intention to improve health.FindingsConsumers who perceive higher importance of nutrition information are more likely to choose healthy food when dining out and have stronger health improvement intention. The results also suggested healthy food choice and healthy daily behavior positively influenced health improvement intention.Originality/valueDespite the previous studies on menu labeling and the numerous policy mandates, there is still concern about the food choice behavior of consumers while eating out. No serious effort exists to regulate food service providers similar to the regulation of other consumer products, whereby consumers are generally protected from harm. This study suggests through education, promotional marketing and industry partnerships, motivating and leveraging consumers' desire for healthy food choices could move food service providers and policy makers to change what information is provided.

Dependency of domestic food sectors on imported inputs with Finland as a case study

The objective of this study is to examine the import dependency of domestic food and service sectors in Finland and produce indicators for measuring the import content of these sectors together with the import dependency of the inputs supplied into these sectors. Input–output analysis is utilised to provide the necessary information on the interdependencies and linkages between different industries for both goods and services in the Finnish economy. Primary agriculture, food processing, distribution and food service providers in Finland are heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels concerning energy and chemical inputs, including high reliance on imported supplementary protein feed for livestock production. However, most of the inputs supplied to the Finnish food and service sectors are domestic because only 20% of the total output is dependent on imported goods, services, and capital goods. The rate of self-sufficiency in food supply is high in Finland, but international trade is essential to provide the necessary energy and chemical inputs needed for food production along with livestock’s supplementary protein feed. Replacing fossil energy with sustainable renewable energy will reduce the dependence on Russia for energy supply and promoting human consumption of plant-based foods will reduce the demand for livestock feed.

IFST vision for a UK‐wide national food strategy

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The Experiences, Challenges and Acceptance of Online Food Application by the Consumers and the Enhancement of Value Through Blockchain Technology

Technology has played a role to revolutionise the food delivery service from phone based to online ordering to satiate consumers’ ever-shifting demands, making its way to the top. Today, the business of food delivery services is one of the fastest segments of e-commerce. This study is conducted to know how consumer expectations from online food service providers. Customer value creation is the utmost requirement for the sustainability of these services. To create value the bottlenecks need to be removed from the service process to enhance highest quality of customer experience through the application of blockchain technology. This paper studies the relationship between information quality and availability at various levels with customer satisfaction through a technology adoption model and value creation through blockchain.

Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty for Online Food Services Provider in India: An Empirical Study

In the food sector, customers have been voting by their feet since ages. However, due to the technological changes clubbed with present COVID-19 pandemic, the trend has changed rapidly. Customers are confined to their home and technology has emerged as the only saviour. The number of increased downloads of food ordering app is an indication of both popularity of these apps and helplessness of the present age customer. With restricted movement, they have these apps to either get the food delivered at their doorstep or take away with pre-orders. Hence, it becomes imperative for the app designer and food service provider to brainstorm and develop an app which can focus on the customer ease rather than forcing their design and interface to customer. In this backdrop, this study is a novel attempt which primarily focuses on relationship amid customer satisfaction and app quality. The inter-related relationship among service quality, satisfaction of customer and their loyalty using the app has been explored. Collection of the data used stratified random sampling. A total of 380 usable data have been collected from customers who have been using this app for ordering since last one year.

Providing Measurement, Evaluation, Accountability, and Leadership Support (MEALS) for Non-communicable Diseases Prevention in Ghana: Project Implementation Protocol.

Background: This study describes the rationale, adaptation, and final protocol of a project developed to address the increase in obesity and nutrition-related non-communicable diseases (NR-NCDs) in Ghana. Code-named the Measurement, Evaluation, Accountability, and Leadership Support for NCDs (MEALS4NCDs) project, it aims to measure and support public sector actions that create healthy food marketing, retail, and provisioning environments for Ghanaian children using adapted methods from the International Network for Food and Obesity/NCDs Research Monitoring and Action Support (INFORMAS).Methods: The protocol for this observational study draws substantially from the INFORMAS' Food Promotion and Food Provision Modules. However, to appraise the readiness of local communities to implement interventions with strong potential to improve food environments of Ghanaian children, the MEALS4NCDs protocol has innovatively integrated a local community participatory approach based on the community readiness model (CRM) into the INFORMAS approaches. The setting is Ghana, and the participants include health and nutrition policy-makers, nutrition and food service providers, consumers, school authorities, and pupils of Ghanaian basic schools.Results: The study establishes a standardized approach to providing implementation science evidence for the prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Ghana. It demonstrates feasibility and the innovative application of the INFORMAS expanded food promotion and food provision modules, together with the integration of the CRM in a lower-middle income setting.Conclusion: The research will facilitate the understanding of the processes through which the INFORMAS approach is contextualized to a lower-middle income African context. The protocol could be adapted for similar country settings to monitor relevant aspects of food environments of children.

A recipe for sustainable development: assessing transition of commercial foodservices towards the goal of the triple bottom line sustainability

PurposeThis study aims to critically evaluate the factual triple bottom line (TBL) sustainability performance of commercial foodservices as featured in peer-reviewed academic publications.Design/methodology/approachThe commercial foodservices’ sustainability performance-related articles were collected for a systematic review. An inductive thematic analysis was applied to the eligible articles.FindingsThe contribution of the commercial foodservice sector to the TBL sustainability is highlighted through eight themes: food waste management; food safety and hygiene; food allergy management; provision of healthy meals; local food use; employment of the disadvantaged; well-being of (non)managerial personnel; and noise level management.Originality/valueThe critical evaluation of the actual TBL sustainability measures adopted by commercial foodservice providers highlights the feasibility of the measures, thus calling for their broader industry uptake. Research gaps and issues for future investigations are accentuated for scholars to support the industry in its progress towards the goals of the TBL sustainability.

Prevention of food waste and alternative destinations for unused food in Brazil

Food loss and waste (FLW) result in significant social, economic, and environmental costs. Although FLW occurs at different levels of food supply chains, retailers can play a key role in the fight against this issue. Food loss (FL) is a decrease in the quantity or quality of food resulting from decisions and actions by food suppliers in the chain, while food waste (FW) refers to the result of decisions and actions by retailers, food service providers, and consumers. Various public policies aimed at fighting FLW and determining alternative destinations for unused food have been implemented around the world. Brazil has established the National Policy on Solid Waste and passed legislation addressing the fight against hunger. These measures have made retailers seek ways to minimize FW and find destination alternatives. This paper introduces the description of an FW in retail supermarkets and strategies for the prevention of FW and alternative destination for unused food that have been adopted (or can be adopted) in Brazil. This is a multi-case study, with data collected through bibliographic and document research and interviews with managers. The results showed that the food categories with greater perishability (fruits, vegetables, butchery, and bakery) also have a higher percentage of loss. The main reasons for these losses were operational breakdowns (management failures) and internal and external theft. A greater number of prevention strategies were observed in regional networks compared to local and independent companies. For all cases, the sale of recyclable goods and proper disposal in landfills were pointed out as the main strategies for alternative destinations of unused food.

The Covid-19 pandemic and food consumption at home and away: An exploratory study of English households

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed attitudes of English households towards food consumption at home and when eating out. Little academic research has however examined the scope and the scale of these changes, especially in the context of foodservice provision. This mixed methods study explores the effect of Covid-19 on food consumption in English households at home and away. It reveals increased frequency and variety of cooking during lockdown as a driver of household food wastage. The study demonstrates public hesitance towards eating out post-Covid-19. Foodservice providers are expected to re-design their business settings and adopt protective and preventative measures, such as frequent cleaning and routine health checks, to encourage visitation. After the pandemic, increased preference towards consuming (more) sustainable food at home, but not when eating out, is established. These insights can aid grocery and foodservice providers in offering more tailored products and services in a post-pandemic future.

MUSLIM TOURISTS’ FOOD AND BEVERAGE NEEDS AND PREFERENCES DURING TRAVEL

The Muslim travel market is regarded as an encouraging market in the tourism industry at the current state. Muslim tourists prefer to select a tourist destination whereby Islamic elements are available, which permits them to enjoy their travels without neglecting the religious obligations. These elements undoubtedly will provide an enriching experience during their travels. Therefore, this paper aims to examine experiences faced by Muslim tourists in terms of their needs and preferences in the provision of food and beverage services during their travels. In order to fulfil the study’s aim, 14 international Muslim participants who have travelled internationally were interviewed during the data collection process. The findings revealed that Muslim tourists seek for the convenience of finding Halal outlets/Halal food, and prefer restaurants or outlets with certified Halal logo. The participants also expressed their concern regarding the different food culture experience. This study has supported previous literatures on enhancing Muslim customers’ experience in terms of food and beverage provision worldwide. Furthermore, the findings help aid in enhancing the experiences of Muslim tourists during travelling hence supporting the growth of Halal tourism. It is seen that tourist destinations and facilities that can provide the needs of faith of the Muslim tourists will exceed in the creation of memorable and meaningful tourist experience.

Food Safety Knowledge of Food Sanitation Hygiene Practices in the Era of Pandemic COVID-19

Background and Objectives: Food hygiene and sanitation in various food industries or processed food service providers requires special attention from the government during this pandemic, where the sector remains a necessity for the entire community. Monitoring and evaluation are urgently needed in order to break the chain of transmission and eliminate the risk of contamination of food during processing or during packaging. This study was conducted to determine the relationship between knowledge and food hygiene and sanitation practices at public facilities providing processed food.Methods: This research is an observational study using a cross sectional design. The population in this study is the food service industry of class A2 and A3. Determination of respondents in this study was done by purposive sampling. The instrument used in this study was a questionnaire from FAO related to policies regarding the impact of COVID-19 on food safety and nutrition.Results: The results showed that the knowledge of the majority of food handler and presenters was 18 (47.4%) and the application of food hygiene and sanitation was also low 28 (73.8%). Food handlers and presenters with good knowledge have better compliance in implementing food hygiene and sanitation compared to food handlers and presenters who have sufficient and less knowledge (p value 0.05).Conclusions and Implications: Low knowledge of food handlers and presenters is known to be one of the factors not implementing food hygiene and sanitation so that it has the potential to increase the spread of the SAR-CoV-2 virus. One strategy that can be done is to provide continuous socialization and education through various mass media using a cultural approach. Keywords: Hygiene; Sanitation; Food; Pandemic.

Optimization of Rider Scheduling for a Food Delivery Service in O2O Business

Services such as Meituan and Uber Eats have revolutionized the way the customer can find and order from restaurants. Numerous independent restaurants are competing for orders placed by customers via online food ordering platforms. Ordering takeout food on smartphone apps has become more and more prevalent in recent years. There are some operational challenges that takeout food service providers have to deal with, e.g., customer demand fluctuates over time and region. In this sense, the service providers sometimes ignore the fact that some riders may be idle in several periods in regions, while, in contrast, there may be a shortage of riders in other situations. In order to address this problem, we introduce a two-stage model to optimize scheduling of riders for instant food deliveries. A service provider platform expectantly schedules the least quantity of riders to deliver within expected arrival time to satisfy customer demand in different regions and time periods. We introduce a two-stage model that adopts the method of mixed-integer programming (MIP), characterize relevant aspects of the scenario, and propose an optimization algorithm for scheduling riders. We also divide the delivery service region and time into smaller parts in terms of granularity. The large neighborhood search algorithm is validated through numerical experiments and is shown to meet the design objectives. Furthermore, this study reveals that the optimization of rider resource is beneficial to reduce overall cost of the delivery. Takeout food service platforms decide scheduling shifts (start time and duration) of the riders to achieve a service level target at minimum cost. Additional sensitivity analyses, such as the tightness of the order time windows associated with the orders and riders’ familiarity with delivery regions, are also discussed

An autoethnographic exploration of rural travel with a food intolerance

Although travelling with a food intolerance can disrupt the experience, limited academic research has considered the impact of food intolerance on travel behaviour. Considering the notions of inherent, situational, and pathogenic vulnerabilities; and avoidance motivation, this research note uses an autoethnographic approach to explore the experience of travelling with a food intolerance in rural New Zealand. The findings suggest the situational vulnerability experienced by being in a foreign location exacerbates the inherent vulnerabilities of having a food intolerance and exposes the individual to pathogenic vulnerabilities by food service providers attempting to cater for intolerances. In response, multiple avoidance mechanisms are adopted to reduce the impact on the individual; resulting in a low spend within the rural community. Accordingly, signage that identifies appropriate food alternatives and operators who can provide it, could help alleviate the impact of having a food intolerance while travelling. However, this work is limited in that it explores the experience of one traveller visiting rural destinations in a developed nation. Future work may use a larger sample across different geographic areas to determine how rural destinations may better serve travellers with a food intolerance.

Universal free schools meals through the Community Eligibility Provision: Maryland food service provider perspectives

`Since 2014, the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) school meal funding option has enabled high-poverty schools nationwide to serve universal free breakfast and lunch. Evidence suggests that CEP has benefits for student meal participation, behavior, and academic performance. This qualitative study explores perspectives among food service staff (n=28) in CEP-participating school districts in Maryland on (1) implementation barriers, (2) implementation best practices, and (3) impacts on students, school operations, and the broader food system. Perceived benefits of CEP include increased meal participation, reduced student stigma and financial stress among parents, and improved staff morale. Most participants did not report any change in wasted food or relationships with local or regional farms associated with CEP adoption. Implementation barriers, including concerns regarding CEP’s impact on federal, state, and grant education funding, provide insight into potential policy interventions that may promote uptake. Best practices, including strong communication with parents and creative strategies to boost student meal participation, can be adopted by other districts.

A sleeping giant? Food waste in the foodservice sector of Russia

Despite being a major global economy, the challenge of food waste in Russia remains unexplored. In particular, nothing is known about the dynamics of food waste generated within its foodservice sector. The lack of empirical knowledge hampers the design of policy and management interventions for food waste reduction in Russian foodservices. This study adopts a qualitative and descriptive case study approach to provide the first benchmark of food wastage in commercial foodservices of Russia. The study shows that an average restaurant produces circa 14 t of food waste per year and the annual sectoral wastage amounts to at least 1.23 Mt, or 7% of the country’s total. Most food waste occurs due to the over-production of meals and customer plate leftovers. Albeit the patterns of food waste management in Russian foodservices resemble those adopted by foodservice operators in other markets of food consumption, the study identifies a few approaches that can be classed as ‘best practices’ in Russia and beyond. These ‘best practices’ include incentives given to customers for clean plates and partnerships for food waste reduction formed with local farmers. A framework for more effective management of food waste in Russian foodservices is proposed underpinned by the principles of multi-stakeholder collaboration. This framework advocates the need to build ‘collaborative bubbles’ of foodservice providers, farmers and charities supported by targeted policies. Such bubbles will not only reduce food waste, but can also enhance the social and network capital of all stakeholders involved.

Ugostiteljstvo Novog Sada u izazovima COVID-19 pandemije

Sustainable business during the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the key topics in the hospitality and tourism industry with great popularization in scientific and research domains. Therefore, the focus of this research was on the experience of the management of catering facilities in R. Serbia. This qualitative research included collecting data on the operational and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the business of 17 catering facilities for the provision of food and beverage services in Novi Sad (R. Serbia). The research covered the period of work from April 2020 to April 2021, as the most specific for business survival, fighting the challenges of preventing the complete closing down, limited business, and a major re-orientation to delivery and counter sales. Interviews were conducted on the perception and attitudes of the management. The subject of this paper is the sustainability of hospitality during the challenges imposed by the pandemic. The task of the paper was to investigate the experiences of the owners, management, and chefs of various hospitality facilities for providing food and beverage services. The aim of the paper was to obtain data on crisis forecasting and actions taken to survive on the hospitality and tourism market.