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While there is considerable anecdotal evidence and some research indicating poor nutritional intake and high levels of food wastage in hospitals, there have been no studies relating these issues to the catering system used. The overall purpose of this study was, therefore, to measure food wastage and nutritional intake in selected hospital catering systems. Data were collected from three types of ward (elderly, medical and surgical) in four hospitals (nine wards), two in London and two in Southern England. Three wards used food cooked mainly in the hospital kitchen, six used cook‐chill and cook‐freeze dishes bought in ready prepared. Five of the wards used a bulk system where food is transported to the ward and plated, in the others, food is plated in the hospital kitchen then transported to the ward. Food sent to the ward, served to patients, and that which remained uneaten or left on the service trolley was weighed for a minimum of 24 hours in each ward; 966 patient‐meal‐days. This data enabled food wastage and nutritional intake to be calculated. Results indicate that food wastage was lower at the breakfast meal, than the midday and evening meal, 23.10 per cent, 39.99 per cent and 42.35 per cent, respectively; female wastage was higher than male, 33.91 per cent and 27.26 per cent, respectively; wastage was higher where food was plated in wards rather than in the kitchen, 57.75 per cent and 35.28 per cent, respectively; and wastage was higher where food was purchased‐in ready prepared, rather than prime cooked in the hospital kitchen. Nutritional intake was calculated for five wards and in all, energy intake was below the recommendations, the highest deficit being 58 per cent. Deficiencies were also noted for other nutrients.

The first of two articles provides an overview of employee feeding (one of the largest components in the catering sector), and some of the challenges currently being faced. The economic climate will undoubtedly mean that the days of the subsidized canteen are numbered. Employee feeding will continue to be squeezed economically with pressure being applied from the workforce and management to keep costs to a minimum, reduce subsidies and above all provide value for money. Employee feeding will have to become more professional and several innovative ideas and technologies will need to be tried and, where appropriate introduced, if this is to be achieved.

The second of two articles, the first providing an overview of employee feeding and current issues facing this sector. Addressed specifically at the catering sector, outlines the importance of providing sustenance in the workplace with particular reference to productivity and performance.

The purpose of this research is to establish whether the meals provided by the prison service enable prisoners to follow government guidelines on nutrition and healthy eating, and the extent to which they do so.

A total of eight prisons, four male (category A, B and C), two female and two young offenders' institutes were randomly identified and visited. Data collection involved taking three days of cyclical menus, the institution's recipes and methods and standard or average portion sizes to calculate the mean nutrient composition of standard, healthy, vegetarian/vegan and Halal menus. Menus were also analysed to establish how well they conformed to the “Balance of Good Health”.

Results show that, with the exception of some nutrients, prisoners have access to and are able to choose a nutritionally balanced diet and in the main do so. All prisons have attempted to make available menus that conform to the Balance of Good Health model; however, in some cases, choice is hampered, primarily because menus have not been annotated accurately; some dishes are not always as healthy as they might or could be; and prisoners in most cases do not actually understand what constitutes a healthy balanced diet.

There is a paucity of data on prison food service and as such this original work adds to the body of knowledge in the field.

Summarises the results of two reports on hospital patients’ food intake and wastage. Identifies the issues to be addressed and rectified.

There is limited research on international students' acculturation with respect to food habits and the food environment. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the extent of international (European and Asian) students' food acculturation in the United Kingdom. The paper seeks to report the findings from a qualitative study of the adjustment experience of a group of postgraduate international students at a university in the South of England.

Semi‐structured in‐depth interviews were conducted with a group of postgraduate international students (European and Asian) (n=10) at a university in southern England.

A “push‐pull” model towards food choice is proposed where adjustment is described as a dynamic and multifaceted process fluctuating as a result of individual, cultural and external factors. A longing for home was apparent which could be alleviated by paying greater attention to food orientation.

If adjustment is to be assisted, understanding the complexity of the process will help determine intervention strategies to support international students such as organising extracurricular activities in the form of tasting sessions or cooking clubs during orientation week which coincidently will also allow opportunity for group interaction and familiarisation. There should be an understanding on the part of all service providers and in so doing provide a climate for positive learning.

The paper shows that adjustment can be a stressful experience, where the role of food in student acculturation is under researched. Understanding the complexity of the process will help to determine the intervention strategies to be used by those offering pastoral or social support.

Organizations, particularly in the hospitality industry, are infinitely variable and because of this, there is not only a tendency to view the industry as a number of discrete units but also to consider catering as a separate function to hotel keeping. However, this stance is considered to be flawed and if a more accurate picture is to be gained, a holistic approach is needed and the industry should be considered as a whole. Argues that many of the techniques in operations management normally associated with manufacturing industries can be just as easily applied to the hospitality industry. Considers a number of these, for example, capacity, forecasting, managing demand and scheduling.

This research aims to explore the scope of the food neophobia scale (FNS) as a means of identifying classes of adopters in the market diffusion of new food products.

A questionnaire incorporating the FNS, together with a number of demographics questions, was administered to 226 postgraduate students. Data from the questionnaire were analysed using t‐testing, one‐way analysis of variance, cluster and discriminant analysis.

There were small differences between recently arrived and long‐term residents, between men and women, and, more significantly, between Europeans and East Asians, although not between other groups. A two‐cluster structure was revealed within the data which broadly conformed to the expected pattern of adopters, but did not provide a more precise discrimination. This suggests that the FNS is dichotomous rather than continuous.

The FNS provides a potential tool for marketers of food products, but it would need to be used with other measures to identify all five classes of adopters.

This study addresses a gap in current knowledge, since food neophobia and the FNS have not been considered before in the context of market diffusion of new food products.

The International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management is a leading international journal in the field of hospitality and tourism management. It was started in 1989, and it turns 30 years old this year. To celebrate this anniversary, this paper presents a bibliometric overview of the publication and citation structure of the journal over the past 30 years. The purpose of this paper is to identify the relevant issues in terms of keywords and topics and who is achieving better results in terms of authors, universities and countries.

The Scopus database is used to collect the bibliographical material. A graphical mapping of the bibliographic data is developed by using VOSviewer software. It produces graphical maps with several bibliometric techniques, including co-citation, bibliographic coupling and co-occurrence of keywords.

The results indicate that English-speaking countries are producing the highest number of articles in the journal, followed by Asian institutions, with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University as the most productive institution.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are no papers that present a general overview of the publication and citation structure of this journal. Its 30th anniversary is a good moment to develop this study.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the key determinants of back-of-house-based food waste in food service outlets. This case study focuses on Delish restaurants, a well-known restaurant chain in Canada, and aims to provide a clear understanding of food service procurement, kitchen practices, cost management, risk mitigation, menu design and technical literacy needs in hospitality. Some recommendations for future studies are also provided.

The authors chose an exploratory case study design to guide our investigation on restaurants and food waste, based on Yin’s (1994) argument that case studies are the preferred strategy when the “why” questions is being posed and when the focus is on a modern occurrence within a real-life context. Such a design is particularly appropriate for understanding the details and complexity of a phenomenon and its design (Stake, 1995). In this study, research data were collected through multiple points. A semi-structured questionnaire was designed and adopted to collect primary data. The objective of the empirical segment is not to test the applicability of the existing approaches, but rather to study conceptual nuances related to the presented model. A survey study was focused on formal interviews onsite, in two different food service facilities (Restaurant A and B).

When considering food procurement, supplier relationships were found to not be significant for food waste prevention. Company-wide agreements with specific suppliers prevented individual chefs from creating alterations in their ordering to prevent waste. Order shorting was a somewhat common occurrence. However, most employees did not identify portion size as a large driver of waste. This conclusion conflicts somewhat with studies in this area (Kantor et al., 1997). If there was waste on a plate, it is much more likely to be the starches, which are low-cost items as opposed to high-cost proteins.

This research has its limitations, which present opportunities for future research. First, this case study is based on two case studies which have their weaknesses, especially in the reliability of data collection. In future, even though both restaurants had access to an earlier version of this case, a more structured analysis with performance indicators related to food waste would contribute to the internal validity of the study. The external validity of the proposed back-of-house-based determinant framework would benefit from being empirically tested with a larger sample, as the author cannot imply that this study’s findings are transferable to other food service operations.

From a managerial perspective, this study has merit. Arguably, the restaurant industry has a cumulative impact on the environment, economy and society as a whole. As more consumers in the Western world eat away from home, proper food management practices are desirable. Currently, few governments regulate or mandate measures to monitor restaurants’ sustainability claims and waste management. As consumer expectations change, the onus falls on food operations to validate and inform patrons on practices behind the scenes. Culinary kitchens are often not visible or accessible for some customers, or even obscure for others.

Strategies undertaken by management and chefs are reactive as opposed to proactive strategies. The reactive strategies are only able to identify waste a week after it has occurred through inventory checks. From this point, it may be impossible to identify the cause of the waste to prevent it from happening in the future. In addition, attribution to the cause may be laid on the incorrect individual, which will further exacerbate the social learning of the staff as a whole. Proactive strategies undertaken before waste occurs are more effective.

It must be noted that most of the literature on food waste management in casual-dining restaurants does not cover the key challenges found in the food industry. Most noticeable in the review is that there are very few studies in the literature that include food waste management practices linked to distribution management. This area of interest within the hospitality industry has not been well-developed in recent years and requires more attention.