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The purpose of this paper is to identify food and health services desired by baby boomers and to examine their likely antecedents.

A random sample of baby boomers in Victoria, Australia (n=1,108) completed a postal survey and rated the desirability of 13 post retirement food and health services.

The strongest demand was expressed for low cost fruit and vegetables, 24‐hour GP services, environmentally friendly foods, and friendly places to meet friends and exercise, among others. Generally, psychographic variables were key predictors of demand for social (health) services, food services, and vitamin pills and herbal remedies. Demand for food services was associated with universalism values.

The cross‐sectional design prevents causal attributions; however, the findings suggest that baby boomers' demand for services falls into three groups, which are related to their psychographic characteristics.

Consideration of these desired services may facilitate the planning of future health and food services for this broad age group.

The growing interest in food safety has led to food‐testing services becoming an issue of increasing importance. The demand for outsourced food‐testing services is growing. One of the results of these developments has been the internationalisation of such firms. This paper analyses the internationalisation of food‐testing services in the light of developments in the Nordic food‐testing market. The focus is on the external elements. These include development of the market to allow food‐testing firms to overcome problems and exploit opportunities arising from the fundamental changes in the nature of the market. The adopted internationalisation strategies of the Nordic food‐testing companies are studied. The key driver for internationalisation of firms is growth. Successful firms also need to maintain high levels of quality, speed of delivery, and competitive pricing.

The provision of information about food to consumers is well recognized to be problematic and complex. Novel approaches tend to adopt app-based services as a way for consumers to get better food information. Potentially, these services could provide relevant information to consumers because they could address particular needs by leveraging on context-awareness, ubiquity and pervasiveness. Do current app-based services actualize these potentialities? The purpose of this paper is twofold: to propose a methodological approach that can be easily adapted to conduct reviews of app-based services and provide consumers with information about food and to answer this question on a specified food information domain (namely, olive oil).

A literature review was performed to investigate characteristics of food information services under a consumer’s value perspective. Then, a qualitative framework was built, which allowed a multidimensional analysis of the food information provided by a service through a mobile app. Moreover, an application of that framework on “olive oil” mobile apps was carried out, with the twofold objective of providing an example of application of the proposed framework in a real context and analyzing the role of mobile apps in reducing consumers’ information and knowledge gap in this particular domain. The review covers commercial applications on “olive oil,” available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

A framework of multidimensional analysis of the two-way information flow in the interaction between a consumer/user and a food app-based service is proposed. The framework represents a useful tool to analyze the offer of mobile-based services in a given sector. The framework is then applied to perform a situation analysis of app-based services in the olive oil market. The analysis highlights that olive oil information providers do not seem to fully exploit recent advances in “Internet of food” technologies. Hence, results from our survey suggest some direction to conceive and develop innovative mobile olive oil apps that better exploit mobiquitous technology features.

Consumers perceive a growing need of information about food. This need is mainly due to recent cases of adulterations, allegations of fraud and subterfuges that have invested food sector (in particular, olive oil sector). This research provides a useful framework to analyze some aspects of management of food information provision through mobile apps. Such a framework represents a practical tool that provides fruitful insights for the design of a new generation of food-app based services within the so-called “internet of food” domain.

Although there are countless mobile apps aimed to assist consumers with their everyday food practices, little research has been devoted to investigate the impact of mobiquitous technologies on the management of food information provision to consumers. The available research lacks in defining an approach capable to analyze the relevance of information provided to targeted audiences by mobile food apps. This paper tries to fill this knowledge gap by proposing a framework that is based on a characterization of food information flows in terms of categorization, source and service features.

The growth of the internet has transformed digital infrastructure in Thailand over the past two decades, with the widespread use of e-commerce, digital money and online services becoming a daily norm for all ages. The COVID-19 restrictions, which limited in-person business operations, boosted demand for takeout and delivery services and fueled the expected steady growth of the online food delivery market in Thailand. The pandemic also resulted in a shift towards online ordering and delivery, reflecting changes in customer behavior. This study focuses on exploring the factors that have driven Bangkokians to use online food delivery services after the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in June 2022.

Data were collected from 398 participants who had ordered food delivery services after the announcement.

The findings showed that perceived usefulness, time saving benefit and price saving benefit have a significant impact on the intention of customers to use online food delivery services, while food safety risk perception had no effect.

Bangkokians favor online food delivery services due to convenience and time-saving, indicating high demand post-pandemic. Businesses should invest in improving their platforms to meet evolving consumer behavior.

The result of this study offers valuable insights into the attitudes and behaviors of Bangkokians towards online food delivery services and could be beneficial for businesses in the industry to improve their services, enhance customer satisfaction as well as increase their competitiveness.

This paper aims to explore the types of perceived risks involved with using drone food delivery services. Furthermore, this study investigates the relationship between perceived risk and image of drone food delivery services. Lastly, this study examines the effect of image of drone food delivery services on desire, intentions to use and willingness to pay more.

This study collected data from 331 respondents in Korea. Before the start of the survey, the respondents were given a video, which made it easier for them to understand drone food delivery services.

The three types of perceived risks (i.e. time risk, performance risk and psychological risk) have a negative influence on image of drone food delivery services and, thus, aids in increasing desire, intentions to use and willingness to pay more.

The concept of perceived risk was applied to the context of drone food delivery services in this study in combination with other understudied concepts, image, desire, intentions to use and willingness to pay more. This study is one of the first studies that applied those significant concepts to the context of drone food delivery services, even though there are a large number of papers in the technology field. Thus, the findings of this study will be important to foodservice companies when building successful drone food delivery services.

To gain strategic insights for promoting sustainable food services, especially in a business and industry (B&I) setting, the purpose of this paper is to investigate decisional factors affecting consumers’ patronage intention based on the extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) including two additional constructs of perceived quality and personal moral norm.

An online survey was employed. Out of 978 responses, 548 (70 percent) responses which reported to have visited B&I food services more than five times a month on an average were analyzed by using structural equation modeling.

The study results revealed that consumers’ patronage intention toward sustainable B&I food services was well explained by the alternative extended TPB adding a new path from subjective norm to perceived behavioral control. The impact of personal moral norm on consumers’ patronage intention was the highest followed by subjective norm, attitude, and perceived behavioral control.

This study is one of the few attempts to clarify the underlying motives for patronizing sustainable food services. The study results may give insights into the mechanisms of consumers’ patronage intention formation toward sustainable B&I food services and provide useful implications for strategic measures to promote sustainable B&I food services in Korea as well as other countries sharing similar concerns and interests.

Given the premise of de facto universal standards for FM, this paper aims to investigate development of facilities management (FM) at an Albanian and a Norwegian university hospital through examination of two hypotheses: the university hospital has recognised FM and established a designated FM organisation (H1) and the university hospital provides adequate food and catering services at ward kitchens and buffets (H2).

This is an exploratory and descriptive comparative case study based on a diverse cases’ designs.

There is limited and strong support for H1 at the Albanian and Norwegian university hospitals, respectively. Both the Albanian and the Norwegian university hospitals rely on in-house production of facilities services, but the Albanian university hospital has outsourced food and catering services. FM and provision of facilities services are deeply integrated within the Norwegian university hospital’s core activities. There is also limited and strong support for H2 at the Albanian and Norwegian university hospitals, respectively. Hence, the Albanian Ministry of Health and the Albanian university hospital’s top management have a comprehensive, but not impossible, task, if the aim is to catch up with the Norwegian university hospital concerning FM.

This is an exploratory and descriptive comparative case study. Large N studies should be carried out both in Albania and Norway and preferably also in other countries to corroborate and develop the findings.

This is the first comparative study of FM at an Albanian and a Norwegian university hospital.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the decision to contract school meal services and the associated nutritional and financial impacts on school districts. Given the increase in the use of competitive contracting of public school meal services and the critical role that school meal services play in public health, this is an important subject to investigate.

A case study was performed using one US school district with privatized food service. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with school food service decision makers. Other data collection included the analysis of public documents such as the school district’s budgets and financial statement reports (the cost per lunch and breakfast meals, the cost for labor, contract, transport, supplies and food expenses) and school food service policies (contract policies). Supplementary data pertaining to district social-demographic profiles and full-time equivalent enrollment figures were also collected from state departments.

Analysis of interviews revealed that positive financial motivations and impacts were dominant factors related to contracting food services in the district. A significant finding was the relatively short turnaround in the district’s negative financial situation as a result of contracting out the food services. These findings provide valuable insight and support for rural school districts in similar negative financial situations seeking to contract out food services.

Many studies have examined contracting out of technical services, such as transport and waste management, and social services, such as correctional services and health; however, there is a lack of studies documenting the effects of contracting out of school meal services.

The aim of this study is to identify the methods used by providers to evaluate their food services and identify elements of their service that would benefit from adopting a benchmarking system.

In‐depth interviews were conducted with 26 food services providers and key informants in day‐care settings in Surrey.

Few providers formally evaluated their service provision and most had not considered benchmarking their services against other food service providers. Factors such as food variety, food quality, cost and environment have been identified as issues that could be benchmarked and may benefit from the adoption of this process.

The study was conducted only in one country – in the UK – further research is needed into the evaluation practices of other local authorities. The benchmarking model that has been developed by the authors needs to be applied in a food service setting to establish its usefulness to food service managers.

A model has been developed from the outcome of this research, which could aid evaluation processes for food service providers to identify aspects of the service in need of improvement.

There has been little research conducted on the evaluation of food service provision for older people, especially for congregate meals. This paper provides a model, that food service providers may find useful, to identify areas of their food services that are suitable for benchmarking.

This study aims to assess Brazilian adult consumers’ behavior, aged 18–70, when purchasing ready-to-eat food during the first months of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Participants answered an online questionnaire about behaviors related to the purchase of ready-to-eat food from food services: changes in usage frequency during the pandemic, reasons for altering purchase habits, types of food and beverages bought before and during the pandemic and the frequency of on-site (consumption in food services) and off-site (delivery, take-away and drive-through) service utilization at lunch and dinner.

Out of 970 individuals who participated in the study, during the pandemic, 38% of participants reduced their food service usage, whereas 18% stopped using it. The main reasons given by participants who reduced and stopped food service usage were cooking at home (52% and 59%, respectively) and feeling afraid of contracting COVID-19 (26% and 22%, respectively). The reduction was more frequent among divorced/widowed/single individuals (p = 0.001) and in total social distancing, that is, all day long (p = 0.03). A significant reduction in on-site consumption frequency occurred for lunch and dinner (p < 0.001), whereas an increase in the off-site consumption frequency service for lunch (p = 0.016) and a reduction for dinner (p = 0.01) occurred compared to pre-COVID-19. However, 48% of participants used these services at least once a week in both periods. Most consumed foods and drinks before and during the pandemic were pasta/pizza (74% and 64%, respectively), snack/burgers (66% and 59%, respectively), soft drinks (41% and 37%, respectively) and alcoholic beverages (37% and 25%, respectively).

Knowledge about food choices away from home during the pandemic is scarce. High consumption of food away from home has been associated with a greater risk of developing chronic non-communicable diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and others. Eating behavior is influenced by the cultural, social, economic and personal characteristics of each individual. Understanding the main changes related to the consumption of ready-to-eat food and what the affected consumers profile in a time of unprecedented crisis, it is important to provide scientific knowledge that allows one to anticipate the implications for the future of individuals’ health and food systems and, consequently, to develop public policy or awareness and promotion actions of public health that encourage adopting healthier and balanced eating habits.