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Gillian Lockie continues her account of a healthy catering campaign for oil rig workers

An increase in dietary fibre intakes and decreased intakes of fat, particularly saturated fat, as well as sugar and salt are recommended in the NACNE Report. If these recommendations are followed, increased intakes of starch will be required to maintain the calorific value of the diet. Implementation of these recommendations in the schools' home economics curriculum involves changes in both the theoretical science taught and in the recipes used.

Over the last ten years the number of meals eaten out of the home by each person each week has increased. It has been estimated that caterers provide at least twenty per cent of the food eaten in the United Kingdom and it has been reported that the fat content of many of the meals they prepare is high. Caterers should therefore be involved in health promotion programmes. The Look After Your Heart campaign offers a certificate to caterers who meet the scheme's requirements for hygiene, smoking restriction and healthy food choices. The award is not offered in Scotland at the moment.

You Are What You Eat was an educational programme produced by Anna Jackson and first transmitted on BBC 1 during January and February 1986. It occupied six ten‐minute Sunday evening slots, from 1820–1830 hours. The media regard 1915 hours as the start of Sunday prime‐time so the programme immediately preceded peak viewing. Mass audience educational topics have been successful in the 1820–1830 slot before and managers agreed that the connection between food and health was likely to be a popular topic. You Are What You Eat was therefore designed both to inform and entertain.

The food consumption has always received a lot of attention in the marketing literature, as it tends to reflect and determine the overall consumer behaviour, expression of the individual lifestyle. Nevertheless, less attention has been devoted to the young. This paper aims at analysing how university students, a segment of young people, perceive and evaluate the quality of food and which attributes most influence their food choice and consumption.

An online questionnaire was carried out from March to December 2015 among Italian university students. A sample of 1,138 people took part in the survey. Data were elaborated through SPSS 21.0 statistical software package.

Findings suggest a number of interesting points. First, a high attention of university students towards price and sales promotion was observed. Nevertheless, they are well informed in food products they buy and pay high attention to ingredients, origin and healthiness of food products. Finally, performing a principal component analysis three different components on food store selection were found, namely, “Price saving”, “Convenience” and “Food assortment and quality”.

A more comprehensive understanding of the food behaviour of the young could be useful for marketing researchers and practitioners to define marketing programs aimed at satisfying the food demand of a growing segment of the market.

The food behaviour of young people as a whole has been little addressed in the marketing literature. Existing studies have explored specific topics such as the consumption of organic food, fast-food buying habits or alcohol abuse.