Browsing by Author "Reime, Kaisa"

The role of public catering services in nutrition policy and health promotion is of great significance. Local procurement and meal choices that meet dietary recommendations can improve food security. The origin of food in public procurement or the relationship of dietary recommendations and the meals being served have not been examined on a national level. The purpose of this study was to find out how much local food (national produce) is being offered in public catering services. In addition, we wanted to examine how the food being served met dietary recommendations. Factors related to serving local food and to meeting dietary recommendations were examined as well. The cross-sectional study was carried out as an online survey (n=295). In all, 118 representatives of public catering services responded to the survey. The online form was comprised of three parts: Back ground factors, local food procurement rate and dietary recommendations. Numerical results were saved and basic parameters were determined with Excel 2016 and SPSS 23 programs. The dependence of variables was examined with cross tabs and Chi-square test. Open questions and their answers were themed. The amount of local procurement among milk and meat products and eggs was high (> 90 %) in most (75−89 %) of the public catering services. Grains excluding rice were mostly (82 % of respondents) procured locally. The origin of procurement of fresh fish, berries and vegetables varied. High quality, safety, availability, good logistics and procurement contracts enhanced local procurement. Price was not mentioned as the main limiting factor to local procurement. Regarding red meat, 31 % of respondents reported having decreased its use as meal ingredient. The supply of red meat had decreased most in towns (p≤0,05). The average amount of red meat of all procured meat was 46 % (SD 22 %). Supplying red meat was more frequent in countryside public catering units than in towns (p=0,004). In all 66 % of respondents reported having increased serving vegetables at meals. The use of plant-based protein was still rare. Sharing information, product availability and easy-to-use recipes were reported as factors enhancing the use of plant-based protein. Taste preferences, attitudes and low supply of easy-to-use food products were regarded as limiting factors to plant-based protein use. Public catering services value highly local procurement but due to low availability, low supply of easy-to-use products or inefficient procurement contracts achieving high local procurement rate is sometimes challenging. The use of plant-based protein as ingredient in meals can be promoted by effective communicative and instructive measures and improving both product availability and supply of easy-to-use food products.