Abstract and faculty adviser information are not available for this thesis.

Studies have estimated total daily salt consumption in the U.S. at 10 - 14.5 grams, despite increasing public awareness and decreased usage by the food industry. To avoid excess governmental regulation to modify current salt intake, determination of the amount of salt currently being used in a discretionary manner is needed. This study investigated the feasibility/limitations of a data collection technique to assess discretionary salt intake in in-flight meal service, Discretionary salt use by airline passengers was determined by weighing salt packets remaining on used meal trays. Results showed an average discretionary salt consumption of 167 milligrams/meal among passengers able to add up to one gram of salt to their meal. At least 63% of the passengers used no discretionary salt, Intake was not influenced by sodium content of the menu, different flight days, or inclusion of a salad with the meal. Salt usage appeared to be an "indescriminate" function of habit. The data collection tool proved a feasible method for estimating discretionary salt intake and could be useful in future consumer education studies.

Food-service facilities have high energy intensities compared to other commercial buildings due to their energy use for cooking and refrigeration. Assessing the energy performance of such facilities has two main purposes. The first one is to evaluate how efficient food-service facilities are and to compare the results with other similar facilities. The second objective is to get a deeper analysis of the energy uses, what enables an easier identification of the processes whose energy efficiency can be improved. This thesis gives, in a first part, a general methodology of how such an energy performance assessment could be carried out. In a second part, a Swedish restaurant – Långbro Värdshus – is taken as a case study. This case study consists in an analysis of the cooking appliances' energy use and an energy performance assessment of the whole facility. A first result of this thesis is the importance of the definition of the system before to start the assessment. Lack of information about the considered processes or how energy use is estimated makes comparison and benchmarking difficult and potentially irrelevant. A second important aspect that stands out of the study when dealing with energy efficiency is the choice of a meaningful indicator. In the case of food-service facilities the amount of energy used per meal (typically expressed in kWh/meal) seems to be the most appropriate one. As regards the energy efficiency of Långbro Värdshus, it has been estimated at 5.9 kWh/meal when considering the total energy use of the facility and at 4.1 kWh/meal without HVAC systems' energy use. Concerning the cooking appliances, the monitored data of their electricity consumption have been analysed to identify the influence of the heating technology and behaviours on the energy use. It resulted, for example, that replacing two hot plate range tops by a solid top and an induction range top enabled 38 % energy savings. Moreover, training the personnel reduced by 7 % the total energy use of the monitored cooking appliances.

The relationship between the work attitudes, job satisfaction and organizational commitment has been demonstrated to influence turnover/retirement. This relationship is important due to changing demographic patterns in the 0.3. A food service labor shortage has potential for retarding the long-term growth of the food service industry. However, recruitment and retention of older workers could be a factor in controlling this problem. Therefore the major purpose of this research was to obtain information from current older food service employees to permit the determination of how various aspects of their jobs affect job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and thus intention to remain on the job. The major independent variables in this research postulated to effect the dependent variable, turnover/retirement intention included, intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction, organizational commitment, working conditions, level of pay, and financial security. The sample population consisted of older workers employed in hospital and college/university food services. Data were collected via questionnaire. A 61 % response rate ( N=243) was obtained. The results indicate that older workers demonstrate moderate levels of work satisfaction and relatively high levels of organizational commitment. However a practically meaningful relationship between work satisfaction (measured by the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire) and organizational commitment ( measured by the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire), as correlated with turnover/retirement intention was not found. Although not considered meaningful , a week but statistically significant relationship was found (r=.15, p< .02) between intrinsic satisfaction and turnover/retirement intention. Older workers in this study are generally less satisfied with the chance for advancement in their jobs, and with the pay for the amount of work done. These two items are extrinsic measures of satisfaction. Regression analysis revealed that older worker perceptions of the physical demands of the job (r=.3?), working conditions (r=.33}, and employer communication of retirement options (r=.2l) predicted 39% of the variance in the dependent variable, organizational commitment. Fifty-three percent of older workers in this study would recommend their jobs to others, and 54% of older workers state they would delay retirement past the age they now plan to retire if they could work part—time. The food service industry will see increases in the number of older workers in the near future. This research provides a foundation from which other research involving older workers can emerge. / Ph. D. / incomplete_metadata

No description available.

No description available.

The major purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of strategy and environmental scanning to performance. Porter’s (1980) strategic typology was utilized to classify foodservice firms by strategic orientation; and, an analysis of variance was performed to determine the differences in their performance. Environmental scanning engaged in by the firms was measured utilizing a modified multimethod - multitrait scale developed by Hambrick (1979). A final analysis conducted in this study was the comparison of environmental sectors scanned by high and low performing firms of each strategic group to determine their relationship with the performance variables. The three performance variables used in this study were: (a) Return on Sales, (b) Return on Assets, and (c) Growth in Unit Sales. All foodservice firms surveyed were either independent corporations or strategic business units of larger corporations whose major source of revenue was the foodservice industry. The study was nationwide with 18 national, 32 regional, and 15 local foodservice companies participating. The data was collected from fiscal year 1982 through fiscal year 1986 from both private and public sources. Strategy and environmental scanning were found to have substantial influence on both Return on Sales and Return on Assets. High performing firms in both differentiation and low cost strategies were found to engage in significantly greater amounts of environmental scanning than low performing firms in those two strategic groups. Focus strategy underperformed all other strategic groups in all performance measures. / Ph. D.

No description available.

No description available.

This research was an attempt to identify those financial ratios which are the best predictors of impending failure in the food service industry. This study had two major objectives. The first was to determine which financial statement items and ratios show the greatest magnitude of difference between failed and nonfailed restaurants. The second objective was to determine which ratios show the most significant decline prior to failure and are therefore the best predictors of impending failure. The methodology employed was a univariate approach based upon the work of William H. Beaver (1966, 1968). Data was gathered from the financial statements of failed, nonfailed and total failure restaurants in three food service organizations. A methodology for classifying restaurants as failed or nonfailed is also presented. Data analysis confirmed that differences in financial statement items and ratios do exist between nonfailed and total failure restaurants. Trend analysis showed that certain ratios give more indication of decline prior to failure than others. This research also showed that graph analysis as well as a comparison of each month with the same month from the previous year can be used to predict impending failure. The implications of these findings to a food service manager and the strengths and weaknesses of this study are discussed. Suggestions for future research are also given. / Master of Science