University Cafeteria Research Articles

Environmental service-learning approach in higher education – a descriptive case study on student-led life cycle assessments of university cafeteria meals

PurposeThis study aims to share experiences of an easy to adapt service-learning approach in a graduate course on life cycle assessment (LCA). Specifically, it reports on how students helped the university’s cafeteria to assess meals by conducting an LCA for 25 meals and identifying environmental hotspots.Design/methodology/approachA descriptive case study of a graduate course at Ulm University is presented. The course included lectures and problem-based exercises, both theoretical and software assisted. A course evaluation was conducted during the course and one year after completion to poll improvement potentials, as well as its impacts on students’ everyday life.FindingsIt was found that although it was the first LCA for all students, the resulting LCA information of 25 different meals were homogeneous, comparable to the scientific literature and beneficial to the cafeteria’s sustainable development strategy. The concept of service-learning had a higher impact on students’ motivation than a good grade and active-learning is explicitly requested by students. The course design sensitized students to the real-life problems of LCA and made their consumption patterns more elaborate and ecological. Furthermore, this digitization of higher education could be carried out with only minor changes in the present COVID-19 pandemic situation.Originality/valueAs the subject of service-learning in natural sciences is still expandable, this study presents an easy to adapt case study on how to integrate such an approach into university curricula dominated by traditional learning. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this case study presents the first published LCA university course explicitly describing and evaluating a service-learning approach. The topic touches the everyday lives of students, allows comparisons between different student groups, is easily scalable to different group sizes and credits, and supports learning both how to study in small groups and cooperation between groups to ensure comparability of LCA results.

P24 Effect of a Nudge Intervention for Increasing Vegetable Intake Among University Students in a University Cafeteria

<h3>Background</h3> An intake of ≥350 g of vegetables per day is recommended in Japan. However, the average intake of vegetables among adults ≥20 years is about 280 g in 2019, and the intake of young adults in their 20s, including university students, is low (about 223 g). Recently, the use of nudge strategies for behavioral change has been gaining attention. However, relatively few nudge trials for increasing vegetable intake have been conducted in Japan. <h3>Objective</h3> To evaluate the effectiveness of a nudge intervention for increasing vegetable intake among university students. <h3>Study Design, Setting, Participants</h3> The participants were university students who ate at a university cafeteria in Japan from October to November 2020. The study consisted of baseline (1 week), intervention (2 weeks), and follow-up (2 weeks) periods. As a nudge intervention, a tack board was set at the entrance of the cafeteria and it displayed the number of small bowls of vegetable dishes that were sold by putting magnets on the tack board on a real-time basis. <h3>Measurable Outcome/Analysis</h3> The change in the number of small bowls of vegetable dishes selected by students during the study periods were evaluated by collecting receipts. Friedman's test was used for the analysis. Awareness of the tack board and a conscious change in vegetable intake were also evaluated using self-administered questionnaires. Cochran's Q-test was used for a conscious change in vegetable intake. <h3>Results</h3> A total of 53 students completed the study. Among them, 67.9% students saw the tack board. However, the number of small bowls of vegetable dishes selected (<i>P</i> = 0.811) and consciousness of vegetable intake (<i>P</i> = 0.794) did not change significantly during the study period. <h3>Conclusion</h3> Nudge intervention in this study did not change students' behavior significantly. Developing more attractive nudge tools for behavioral change might be needed.

Implementation of Healthy and Sustainable Dishes in a Multicultural University Cafeteria: A Pilot Study Using Sensory Science

Food choices are closely linked to individual cultural factors. In university students of different nationalities, finding a balance so that their choices are healthy and sustainable is a challenge that can be addressed by working on consumer perception. The aim of this study proposes to evaluate the acceptance of dishes prepared based on the Mediterranean diet, in the student’s cafeteria of a university with students from all over Latin America. An on-place evaluation panel was carried out in the main cafeteria of the university with 71 students from 12 Latin-American countries for three sustainable lunch menus. In each menu evaluation, a six-compartment tray containing the source of carbohydrates, animal protein, plant-based protein, and vegetables was provided. The attributes evaluated for each food group were: appearance, color, odor, flavor, and overall liking, using a 9-point hedonic scale. Moreover, the overall liking, flavor intensity, and the general quality of the menu were evaluated. For overall liking and flavor intensity, a 9-point scale was used, and for quality a 10-point scale. In general, the dishes received fair acceptance, and participants stated they liked them; however, animal protein had a higher acceptance over carbohydrates and vegetables. Most participants would like these foods to be served in place of fast food in the student cafeteria.

Developing sugar-sweetened beverage warning labels for young adults.

There is a lack of qualitative research developing sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) warning labels with their intended end users. We sought to identify promising SSB warning elements for improving label effectiveness and for future testing in policy and institutional settings. Mixed methods design using ten focus groups, a design task and a survey. The design task was used to generate ideas for an icon that would dissuade SSB consumption. The survey and focus group guide assessed participant perceptions of SSB warning label mock-ups of text (loss frame, gain frame and loss frame with attribution), colour and icon options. Three large public universities in California from February to March 2018. Young adult SSB consumers (n 86) enrolled in one of three diverse California public universities. Participants perceived the following elements as most effective for reducing SSB consumption: loss-frame text with attribution to a credible source, yellow and red colour for label background and an image or icon to accompany the text. Preferred images included sugar near or inside of an SSB, intuitive shapes like a triangle with exclamation mark or octagon and a visual indicator of SSB sugar content compared with recommended limits. Support was high for using SSB warning labels in university cafeterias and on bottles/cans. Loss-frame text with a credible source, yellow or red label colour and icons could potentially enhance effectiveness of SSB warning labels and warrant further testing.

Social Tipping Interventions Can Promote the Diffusion or Decay of Sustainable Consumption Norms in the Field. Evidence from a Quasi-Experimental Intervention Study

The diffusion of environmentally sustainable consumption patterns is crucial for reaching net carbon neutrality. As a promising policy tool for reaching this goal, scholars have put forward social tipping interventions (SOTIs). “Social tipping” refers to the phenomenon that a small initial change in a parameter of a social system can create abrupt, nonlinear change via self-reinforcing feedback. If this reduces the burden on the environment, it is of potential interest for environmental policy. SOTIs are attempts to create social tipping intentionally. SOTIs produce rapid norm changes in laboratory experiments. However, little is known about the potential of SOTIs in the field. This research reports on a field intervention promoting the consumption of hot beverages in reusable mugs instead of one-way cups, conducted at Swiss university cafeterias (N = 162,523 consumption decisions). Two SOTIs involved an appeal promoting sustainable consumption with regular feedback about the current prevalence of sustainable consumption. Two control treatments involved either the same appeal without feedback or no intervention. This research offers three key findings. First, SOTIs involving regular normative feedback can transform sustainable consumption from a minority behavior into a social norm within weeks. Second, tipping points in real-world environmental dilemmas may exceed the values found in recent laboratory experiments (≥50% vs. ≥25%). Third, SOTIs can also promote the decay of sustainable consumption. By implication, the risk-free use of SOTIs requires deeper insights into the boundary conditions of these dynamics.

Price of change: Does a small alteration to the price of meat and vegetarian options affect their sales?

Reducing meat and fish consumption in wealthier countries would help mitigate climate change, raising the question of the most effective ways to achieve this. Price influences the food people buy, but to our knowledge no published field study has assessed the impact on sales of experimentally altering the price of meat and vegetarian meal options. We ran an experiment across 106 mealtimes with 13,840 meal selections at a college cafeteria in the University of Cambridge (UK), introducing a small change to the price of vegetarian meals (decreased by 20p from £2.05 to £1.85) and meat meals (increased by 20p from £2.52 to £2.72). Total meal sales did not differ significantly before and after the price change. When controlling for other variables, changing price significantly increased the proportion of vegetarian sales by 3.2 percentage points (p = 0.036). However, there was no significant change in meat sales before and after the price change, although fish sales did decline by 2.8 percentage points (p = 0.010). When analysed by individual diners’ pre-experimental meal choices (N = 325), the price intervention significantly affected only the quartile of diners with the highest prior rates of vegetarian and vegan meal selection (“MostVeg” quartile), who increased their vegetarian meal selection by 13.7 percentage points (p = 0.011). Students mainly pay for meals on their university cards and rarely pay with cash, which may lessen the impact of a price intervention in this context. Our results suggest price changes may be one lever for increasing vegetarian meal consumption. Further field studies are needed to test different price changes, and in non-university populations.

Nudge the Lunch: A Field Experiment Testing Menu-Primacy Effects on Lunch Choices

By way of a field experiment conducted at a university cafeteria this paper finds that placing a vegetarian option instead of a meat option at the top of a menu decreases the share of meat dishes sold by 11%. This translates to a 6% decrease of daily emissions due to food sales. Using data on payment method, we find that the result is most likely driven by non-students responding to the nudge.

Students’ top 10 priorities of research uncertainties on students’ sleep: a pragmatic James Lind Alliance approach

ObjectivesInspired by the James Lind Alliance (JLA) user involvement approach, the aim of the present study was to identify the top 10 uncertainties for sleep research raised by students in...

Design and Implementation of Waste Reduction Intelligent Cafeteria System Based on Raspberry Pi

With the development of higher education in China, the number of college students on campus is increasing, and the number of people eating in college cafeterias also increases. On the one hand, the problem of crowded lines in school cafeterias during peak dining periods is becoming more and more serious, and students have a poor dining experience. On the other hand, it is often difficult to establish an effective communication mechanism between students and cafeterias. The traditional canteen model is difficult to meet the current needs, and the upgrade of the canteen system in universities is urgent. This paper designs a set of waste reduction intelligent cafeteria system based on Raspberry Pi to reduce waste. The whole system effectively solves the problems of traditional canteens, and establishes a certain reward mechanism to encourage students to use up the purchased dishes and reduce waste. The university canteen provides a practical model for improving service quality and reform and transformation.

Üniversite Kafeteryasının Kullanıcı Katılımlı Bir Yaklaşımla Tasarlanması

Üniversite Kafeteryasının Kullanıcı Katılımlı Bir Yaklaşımla Tasarlanması

Objective Assessment of Speech Intelligibility in Crowded Public Spaces.

The objective of this study was to obtain a normative database of speech intelligibility data for young normal-hearing listeners communicating in public spaces. A total of 174 listeners participated in an interactive speech intelligibility task that required four-person groups to conduct a live version of the Modified Rhyme Test in noisy public spaces. The public spaces tested included a college library, a college cafeteria, a casual dining restaurant during lunch hour, and a crowded bar during happy hour. At the start of each trial, one of the participants was randomly selected as the talker, and a tablet computer was used to prompt them to say a word aloud from the Modified Rhyme Test. Then, the other three participants were required to select this word from one of six rhyming alternatives displayed on three other tablet computers. The tablet computers were also used to record the SPL at each listener location during and after the interval where the target talker was speaking. These SPL measurements were used to estimate the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in each trial of the experiment. As expected, the results show that speech intelligibility decreases, response time increases, and perceived difficulty increases as the background noise level increases. There was also a systematic decrease in SNR with increasing background noise, with SNR decreasing 0.44 dB for every 1 dB increase in ambient noise level above 60 dB. Overall, the results of this study have demonstrated how low-cost tablet computer-based data collection systems can be used to collect live-talker speech intelligibility data in real-world environments. We believe these techniques could be adapted for use in future studies focused on obtaining ecologically valid assessments of the effects of age, hearing impairment, amplification, and other factors on speech intelligibility performance in real-world environments.

Bacteriology Test to Detect Coliform Bacteria in Beverages Sold at University Cafeteria in Medan

T The World Health Organization standard for clean and safe water is that 95% of the water samples examined do not contain coliform organisms per 100 mL. Contaminated beverages will lead to digestive tract diseases. Food poisoning cases come from contaminated can be sourced from school canteens, street vendors factories, households, family parties, and even hotels. One of the most frequent and sensitive laboratory tests to detect microorganisms contamination in water is a bacteriological examination. This research aimed to determine the microbiological quality of beverages sold in the university canteens in Medan. The microbiological examination is carried out by the Most Probable Number (MPN) method that consists of two stages, presumptive and confirmation test. From 15 samples of beverages tested, the percentage of samples contaminated with coliform bacteria was 100%, based on WHO criteria were low-risk category by 1 sample (6.7%), intermediate-risk by 5 samples (33.3%), and high-risk category by 9 samples (60%). Therefore, beverages sold in the canteen did not meet the condition for appropriateness to be consumed because of contamination by coliform bacteria.

P103 Employing Social Norms to Influence Healthier Food Choices

<h3>Background</h3> To build on prior laboratory studies related to injunctive food norms, the goal of this field-experiment was to explore factors that influence patrons' food choices in a university cafeteria. <h3>Objective</h3> To evaluate the influence of food messaging (ie, injunctive norms) at a designated food station in the cafeteria, with the goal of encouraging healthier food choices and exploring factors that influence patrons' food choices. <h3>Study Design, Setting, Participants</h3> We employed an interrupted time series, quasi-experimental design. During the 10-day baseline phase, patrons were asked to complete a survey. During the intervention, 3 copies of healthy injunctive signs were placed in the cafeteria and patrons were asked about the signage. <h3>Measurable Outcome/Analysis</h3> Within each survey, we collected the patrons' food choices, noting how many and what type of side items each purchased to compare the proportion of patrons purchasing at least 1 healthy side item using a 2-sample proportion test. During the intervention, we asked patrons if they saw the sign and what they remembered. Several items from a modified version of The Eating Motivation Survey was also asked to determine what influenced patrons' food choices. <h3>Results</h3> The 2-sample proportion test for 200 baseline participants and 170 intervention participants (z = −1.55, <i>P</i> = .12) did not indicate a difference in the proportion of patrons purchasing at least 1 healthy side-item during the experimental weeks. Approximately 40% of the patrons during intervention week remembered seeing the signage and 24% recalled some detail of the signage. <h3>Conclusions</h3> This study sought to determine if employing social norms through food signage influenced patron's side-item choice. While the results did not show a significant difference in choosing healthier items, the patrons' recall of the sign shows promise for how colleges can implement and encourage healthier eating habits on their campuses.

Alimentos plant-based: estudo dos critérios de escolha do consumidor

A crescente demanda pela alimentação plant-based já é realidade no mercado global de alimentos. Esses produtos atendem aos anseios de um público de perfil heterogêneo, porém pouco se sabe sobre os fatores que influenciam s suas escolhas. Assim, o objetivo deste trabalho foi investigar os critérios envolvidos na escolha por alimentos à base de plantas de consumidores de Fortaleza-CE e região metropolitana. Foi realizada uma pesquisa de mercado através da aplicação de um questionário inspirado no Food Choice Questionnaire, de forma presencial, em um refeitório universitário e um restaurante vegetariano, e on-line. Os respondentes foram em sua maioria um público de 18 a 35 anos, do gênero feminino e consumidores de produtos vegetais diariamente. O questionário revelou propriedade métrica, com valores de α de Cronbach entre 0,664 e 0,804. Os critérios de escolha considerados mais importantes para os entrevistados em alimentos à base de plantas foram “preço” (6,12±1,24) e “apelo sensorial” (6,03±1,34). Quando comparado os segmentos dos consumidores, o critério “controle de peso” foi de maior relevância para o gênero feminino. A partir das observações e análises realizadas, esta pesquisa apresenta informações importantes para o desenvolvimento de produtos plant-based na indústria de alimentos devido os critérios considerados relevantes para seu consumo.

Quality of indoor air environment and hygienic practices are potential vehicles for bacterial contamination in University cafeteria: case study from Haramaya University, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to investigate the microbial quality of indoor air environment and hygienic practices of food handlers in Haramaya University cafeteria, Ethiopia. A total of 36 air samples were collected from the cafeteria using passive air sampling technique. Furthermore, 42 swab samples were taken from the hands and clothes of food handlers for microbial analysis. The results showed that air quality in the cafeteria is below satisfactory. Total coliform counts from all the swab samples were also above the acceptable microbial target value. Significantly higher microbial load was recorded in food handlers involved in serving food than these deployed in baking and sauce making roles. This study generally showed the importance of indoor air quality, and hands and clothes of food handlers as potential sources of bacterial contamination in the University’s cafeteria. Therefore, improved housing condition, regular training, and close supervision are recommended.

Improving Queuing System with Limited Resources using TRIZ and Arena Simulation

A university cafeteria is a queueing system characterised by non-stationary time of arrival with limited resources where the arrival rate is time dependent and has different pattern of arrival for different time interval. This means at certain time of the day; the arrival rate is much higher than other time. For a university cafeteria, the arrival rate of customer during the lunchtime is higher and the food (resources) is limited. Non-stationary time dependent queueing systems are not easily modelled mathematically hence such queueing systems are modelled using simulation tools such as ARENA. In order to model a non-stationary time dependent queueing system with limited resources and solve queueing problems using ARENA, researchers have to rely on their knowledge and experience to identify the appropriate parameters of the system and make modifications to these parameters of the system to solve queueing problems by means of trial and error. Hence, this research work explores the potentials of applying a systematic problem solving tool, TRIZ to help users to make better decisions in deriving solutions to improve a non-stationary time dependent queueing system with limited resources. A case study was carried out to minimize the waiting time of the customers at the cafeteria of the Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), which has queueing problems for years during lunchtime. TRIZ was applied in this case study and the results showed that TRIZ can assist researchers to derive a solution model that leads to shorter waiting time without incurring additional cost and resources.

Usability of Food Size Aids in Mobile Dietary Reporting Apps for Young Adults: Randomized Controlled Trial.

BackgroundYoung adults are more likely to use self-managed dietary reporting apps. However, there is scant research examining the user experience of different measurement approaches for mobile dietary reporting apps when dealing with a wide variety of food shapes and container sizes.ObjectiveField user experience testing was conducted under actual meal conditions to assess the accuracy, efficiency, and subjective reaction of three food portion measurement methods embedded in a developed mobile app. Key-in–based aid (KBA), commonly used in many current apps, relies on the user’s ability to key in volumes or weights. Photo-based aid (PBA) extends traditional assessment methods, allowing users to scroll, observe, and select a reduced-size image from a set of options. Gesture-based aid (GBA) is a new experimental approach in which the user makes finger movements on the screen to roughly describe food portion boundaries accompanied by a background reference.MethodsA group of 124 young adults aged 19 to 26 years was recruited for a head-to-head randomized comparison and divided into 3 groups: a KBA (n=42) control group and PBA (n=41) and GBA (n=41) experimental groups. In total, 3 meals (ie, breakfast, lunch, and dinner) were served in a university cafeteria. Participants were provided with 25 dishes and beverages for selection, with a variety of food shapes and containers that reflect everyday life conditions. The accuracy of and time spent on realistic interaction during food portion estimation and the subjective reaction of each aid were recorded and analyzed.ResultsParticipants in the KBA group provided the highest accuracy in terms of hash brown weight (P=.004) and outperformed PBA or GBA for many soft drinks in cups. PBA had the best results for a cylindrical hot dog (P<.001), irregularly shaped pork chop (P<.001), and green tea beverage (660 mL; P<.001). GBA outperformed PBA for most drinks, and GBA outperformed KBA for some vegetables. The GBA group spent significantly more time assessing food items than the KBA and PBA groups. For each aid, the overall subjective reaction based on the score of the System Usability Scale was not significantly different.ConclusionsExperimental results show that each aid had some distinguishing advantages. In terms of user acceptance, participants considered all 3 aids to be usable. Furthermore, users’ subjective opinions regarding measurement accuracy contradicted the empirical findings. Future work will consider the use of each aid based on food or container shape and integrate the various advantages of the 3 different aids for better results. Our findings on the use of portion size aids are based on realistic and diverse food items, providing a useful reference for future app improvement of an effective, evidence-based, and acceptable feature.Trial RegistrationInternational Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Registry ISRCTN36710750; http://www.controlled-trials.com/ISRCTN36710750.

수정된 IPA를 활용한 대학 구내식당의 서비스 개선 방안에 관한 연구

수정된 IPA를 활용한 대학 구내식당의 서비스 개선 방안에 관한 연구

Creating a Food Menu Application for Mendel University in Brno

The presented paper describes the creation of a mobile application module for showing a current menu at Mendel University cafeterias. Nowadays, the students and the university staff have the menu accessible through a static webpage. The presented solution serves as a dynamic presentation of the current menu for all Mendel University in Brno cafeterias. Most cafeteria menu applications use the REST architectures for the server backend. The contribution of the paper is in usage of the Google Firebase Realtime database as a server backend. Unlike in traditional REST architecture, the data e.g. the food rating is instantaneously changed and the users have an up to date information. Part of the presented solution is also a mobile application module for both Android and iOS where university students and staff can see the current cafeterias menus.

Microbial evaluation and some proposed good manufacturing practices of locally prepared malted corn drink (“asaana”) and Hibiscus sabdarifa calyxes extract (“sobolo”) beverages sold at a university cafeteria in Ghana

In most developing countries street food vending remains a growing industry providing daily foods for most urban dwellers. Sorrel drink (Sobolo) is a drink made from Hibiscus sabdariffa extract, while ‘‘Asaana’’ is a refreshing drink made from maize. These drinks are mostly produced on a fairly small scale and usually for local consumption at home or vended on the street. These beverages are now widely patronized drinks sold on the streets of Ghana. Despite their high patronage, microbial contamination from the preparation to packaging raises concerns. This study evaluated the microbial quality of these locally prepared beverages ‘‘Asaana’’ and “Sobolo” sold at the cafeterias of two different campuses of a university in Ghana. For sobolo, total plate count of range 7.60 × 106–1.58 × 108 CFU/ml was recorded while a range of 0–4.8 × 107 CFU/ml was recorded for E.coli. A similar trend was observed for asana. Fungal counts also ranged 2.29–4.86 log10 CFU/ml and 2.098–4.23 log10 CFU/ml for sobolo and asana respectively. All samples collected exceeded tolerable limits of 106 for microorganisms in ready to eat foods. samples analyzed were acidic in nature, most bacteria cannot thrive under this condition with the exception of aciduric bacteria such as lactobacillus species and temperatures of these samples ranged from 9.5 °C to 14.5 °C which is conducive for the survival and growth of microorganisms hence, resulting in high counts of microorganisms in these beverages.