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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the energy density (ED) of workers' diets and examine their relationship with nutrient intake, diet quality, socio‐demographic and anthropometric factors.

Dietary data were collected by a 24‐hour recall. ED, defined as energy per unit weight of diet, included all food and excluded all beverages. Diet quality was evaluated using the Brazilian version of the health eating index. The associations between ED and socio‐demographic variables and body mass index were examined using regression models.

The study evaluated 201 individuals: 51 percent male; mean age 33.4 years (SD=9.5); 43 percent overweight. Women and men presented similar mean ED: 1.99 (95 percent CI: 1.90‐2.09) and 1.95 (95 percent CI: 1.89‐201). ED was inversely associated with age (β: −0.009; 95 percent CI: −0.015; −0.002) and with leisure physical activity (β: −0.049; 95 percent CI: −0.096; −0.002) and directly associated with liquid intake during meals (β: 0.159; 95 percent CI: 0.003; 0.285). Diets with higher ED were of lower quality: richer in total fat, saturated fat, trans fatty acids and added sugars, and concomitantly providing less vitamin C and less fiber. There was no association between ED and anthropometric variables.

The high ED diets consumed by these workers might represent a risk, because of the relationship between low quality diets and chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, obesity and cancer.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effects of an intervention to reduce the energy density of meals in the workplace food environment.

This study was conducted on a cosmetics manufacturer that employed 243 people, and was divided into three phases: diagnostic evaluation; development and testing of modifications to the energy density of the preparations; and evaluation of the results obtained. To evaluate the menus, the Meal Quality Index was used. This index consists of five components ranging from 0 to 20 points: “Adequacy of availability of vegetable and fruit”, “Carbohydrate availability”, “Total fat availability”, “Saturated fat availability” and “Menu variability”. The Kruskal‐Wallis test was used to evaluate differences in phases 1 and 3.

The classification, according to the scores for the Meal Quality Index, showed that there was an improvement in the menus, with a decrease in inadequate menus from 31 per cent to 5 per cent and in menus needing improvement from 44 per cent to 29 per cent.

Changes that are relatively simple to implement and reproduce regarding meal production may contribute towards controlling the obesity epidemic, through discouraging the obesogenic environment, especially among captive healthy customers such as workers who use the food services in their workplaces.

The purpose of this paper is to present a first proposal of a healthy dietary diversity index to evaluate meals in self-service restaurants.

This was a cross-sectional, descriptive pilot study in a Brazilian buffet-style restaurant. The study group was selected by systematic sampling and consisted of 678 individuals aged 16-81 years, who were regular diners at a selected restaurant during lunchtime. Photographs were used to assess food choices and a sociodemographic questionnaire was administered to the subjects. A healthy dietary diversity model was created following WHO recommendations and the Brazilian Food Guide. A consensus workshop was conducted with experts to discuss and classify certain dishes as more or less healthy (high/low energy density). The model attributed negative (−3.0-0.0) and positive (0.0-12.0) scores to different food groups. Higher scores meant greater diversity on the plate, and therefore a greater chance of a healthy meal (=9.0), while a lower score reflected a higher variety of energy-dense foods, such as fried dishes (=6.0).

Most diner’s plates (65.3 per cent) obtained low diversity score indexes (=6) and were considered inadequate, represented the dishes where intake should be controlled from a nutritional viewpoint (over caloric meal). There was a significant association between healthy diversity scores (=9.0) and low variety of high energy density dishes on the plates.

This method of assessing the healthy dietary diversity of a main meal could be tested as an innovative model for investigating the food choices of individuals who eat away from home.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of a worksite nutritional intervention on the dietary quality of adult workers from the city of São Paulo, Brazil.

A 6-month controlled community trial was performed involving 236 workers from São Paulo, Brazil. The intervention was implemented through interactive software that sends recommendations about diet and physical activity by e-mail. Data were collected for all participants using a 24-hour dietary recall and also for a sub-sample containing 25.4 per cent of the participants. Diet quality was assessed by the diet quality index adjusted (DQIa) comprising 10 components (grains and tubers; vegetables; fruits; milk and dairy products; meat and eggs; beans and legumes; total fat; saturated fat; sodium; and variety), scored from 0 (inadequate consumption) to 10 (recommended consumption). Intragroup impact of the intervention was assessed according to variation in total DQIa, its components and energy consumption. Impact adjusted between groups was also determined.

The intervention yielded improvements in DQIa and for the components cereals and tubers, vegetables, milk and dairy products and total fat. The workers who had a worst diet quality before the study were more susceptible to the intervention, which improved significantly the diet quality, with an adjusted impact of +6.4 points.

Few behavioral interventions have been performed using technologies, like e-mail, to encourage a healthy lifestyle. This study shows the importance of the counseling to promote a higher-quality diet, which can result in control of the obesity.

This paper aims to investigate whether the interaction between vitamin D receptor (VDR) FokI polymorphism and dietary patterns is associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components.

In total, 304 Iranians were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Dietary patterns were identified using factor analysis. Fasting serum glucose and lipid profile were also assessed. FokI polymorphism of the VDR gene was genotyped using the restriction fragment length polymorphism method.

Individuals in third tertile of “Unhealthy Patterns had greater odds for MetS (odds ratio: 2.9; 95 per cent CI: 1.3, 6.1; P for trend = 0.03) compared to those in first tertile. Significant results disappeared after controlling for covariates (p = 0.09). There was no significant relationship between adherence to ‘Healthy Pattern’ and odds of MetS (p = 0.55). There were not any interactions between FokI polymorphism and major dietary patterns associated with MetS.

No evidence found for the interaction between polymorphism FokI and major dietary patterns associated with MetS and its components in Iranian subjects. Genome-wide association techniques are needed to assess the direct effect of this polymorphism on MetS.

This study aims to assess the association of Healthy Eating Index (HEI) with levels of fasting blood sugar (FBS) and lipid profile in normoglycemic and elevated FBS patients.

This case-control study was conducted on 144 participants, namely, 72 normoglycemic subjects (FBS < 100 mg/dl) and 72 high-glycemic patients (FBS ≥ 100 mg/dl) aged 20–60 years of age, who were selected from the nutrition and diet clinics in Tehran city. The dietary intake was collected by using a validated food frequency questionnaire to determine the HEI score.

The mean±SD age and body mass index of participants were 47.1 ± 12.7 years and 29.6 ± 6.0 kg/m², respectively. The median (interquartile range) of HEI scores in the normoglycemic group and the high-glycemia group were 19.34 (15.24–24.31) and 16.53 (13.35–24.07), respectively. In the overall population, the findings of the multi-variable linear regression model indicated a positive association between the HEI score and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) (ß = 0.34; 95%CI: 0.05–0.64, P = 0.01). However, there is no significant association between HEI and HDL-C in normoglycemic (ß = 0.19; 95%CI: −0.31, 0.69, P = 0.45) and hyperglycemic subjects (ß = 0.28; 95%CI: −0.10–0.66, P = 0.15). Furthermore, the association of HEI with levels of FBS, triglycerides (TGs) and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) was not significant in any of the analyzed groups, including the total population, normoglycemic individuals and hyperglycemic subjects.

This study was the first study to assess the role of HEI and its components with levels of FBS and lipid profile in normoglycemic and hyperglycemic individuals in Iran. The findings suggested that higher adherence to HEI may be associated with an increase in the HDL-C level. However, HEI could not predict FBS, TGs and LDL-C levels in the adult population.

Employees eat at least one meal per day in the workplace on a regular basis, carrying implications for their physical and emotional well-being. For migrants, this can be challenging, owing to food culture differences. This study explores migrant workers’ perceptions of the food eaten in the hospitality workplace.

Eleven in-depth, face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were carried out with migrant workers in three- and four-star hotels in the southwest of England.

The findings show that the food eaten in the workplace is perceived as unhealthy and fattening and therefore unappealing. This partly informs a decision to eat home country food away from work.

Further research is needed across many more organisations to investigate whether this would actually have the positive impact on employee well-being (migrant or home national) and employer reputation.

Providing additional “off-menu” meals for migrant employees is recognised. However, staff turnover within the hotel environment may mean that dishes acceptable to one nationality may not be acceptable to another. Alternatively, it may be that attention to such details and the provision of a food offering that is seen as fit for purpose by staff may reduce turnover and demonstrate “care” on the part of the employer. An annual staff survey could be conducted to gauge employee opinion.

This study helps to show the significance of food for migrant well-being. It highlights that in increasingly globalised workplaces, food provision is important for both emotional and physical health. The study's findings have relevance to other multicultural workplaces where the food provided to staff may have consequences for employee well-being.

Little research has focused on the link between the food consumed in the hospitality workplace and migrant worker well-being. This study therefore makes an important contribution to knowledge by exploring feelings about the food eaten at work from the perspective of migrant workers themselves.

Traceability is an increasingly important tool for reducing food safety risks and managing supply logistics. Given the costs of implementing and maintaining traceability systems, it is crucial to understand consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for traceable products.

The authors conducted a scoping review to collate the existing literature on consumer WTP for traceability in food products to determine the nature of the evidence base and to identify research gaps.

A total of 77 articles were included in the review. The number of studies published per year generally increased over the review period, and China and the United States were the most common countries in which studies were conducted (43.6 and 14.1% of total studies, respectively). All but one of the studies investigated at least one factor that might influence consumer WTP for traceability, the most common of which was socio-demographic characteristics (72.7%). Three-quarters of studies used hypothetical methods to elicit WTP values (75.3%), whereas one-quarter used non-hypothetical methods (24.7%). Most studies included some measure of preference heterogeneity (83.1%).

There is some potential for systematic bias in the evidence due to the predominance of studies from only a few countries and the possible presence of hypothetical bias. These potential biases could be corrected through future research.

To the authors’ knowledge, no previous study systematically and comprehensively identifies and summarizes the evidence base on consumer WTP for traceable food products.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the associations of dietary patterns with sociodemographic and lifestyle characteristics in a cardiometabolic risk population.

In this cross-sectional study data from 295 (n=123 men/172 women, 42±16 years) participants in a Cardiovascular Health Care Program were included. After a 24-hour recall interview the dietary patterns were determined using principal component analysis. Sociodemographic, clinical and lifestyle data were collected by medical records.

Subjects with diabetes and hypertension had a higher adherence in the “traditional” pattern (rice, beans, tubers, oils and meats). Poisson regression models showed that male subjects with low schooling and smokers had greater adherence to the “traditional” pattern. Also, students, women, and those with higher schooling and sleeping =7 h/night showed higher adherence to healthy patterns (whole grains, nuts, fruits and dairy). Women, young adults and those with higher schooling and fewer sleep hours had greater adherence to healthy dietary patterns. Those with low schooling and unhealthy lifestyle showed more adherence to the “traditional” pattern.

The results indicate the importance to personalized nutritional therapy and education against cardiometabolic risk, considering the dietary patterns specific to each population.

Socioeconomic and lifestyle characteristics can influence dietary patterns and this is one of the few studies that investigated this relationship performing principal component analysis.

This paper aims to evaluate the association between carbohydrate quality index (CQI) and nutrient adequacy in Iranian adults.

A total of 268 men and women with ages ranged from 18 to 70 years were evaluated in a cross-sectional study. The CQI was calculated by adding together the three components, namely, the ratio of solid to total carbohydrate, dietary fiber and glycemic index. The scores of three components were summed to calculate the CQI, with a higher score indicating a higher dietary carbohydrate quality. The odds ratios (ORs) of nutrient adequacy ratio (NAR), defined as the ratio of intake of a nutrient to the age- and gender-specific recommended dietary allowance, for the intake of energy and 10 nutrients across quartiles of the CQI were calculated by logistic regression analysis and expressed with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

CQI ranged between 3 to 15 (mean ± SD: 9 ± 1.9). Being in top versus bottom quartile of the CQI was associated with a higher NAR of folic acid (OR: 3.20, 95% CI: 1.06–9.62; P-trend: <0.001), vitamin A (OR: 3.66; 95% CI: 1.46–9.17; P-trend: <0.001), magnesium (OR: 5.94; 95% CI; 1.71–20.53; P-trend: <0.001), vitamin C (OR: 7.85; 95% CI; 2.99–20.59; P-trend: <0.001).

A higher CQI was associated with greater micronutrient consumption adequacy in Iranian adults. The results suggest that increasing the consumption of total fiber and solid carbohydrates and decreasing the glycemic index of the diet and liquid carbohydrates can improve micronutrient intake adequacy.