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An Aid to Decision Making Following on from the earlier article in the previous issue of this Journal, when the systems approach to logistics decision making was introduced, this second and final part describes the development of a set of heuristic rules. Using these as a formalised aid to everyday decision making by manufacturing companies, the total logistics analysis may be simplified. The development and testing of these decision rules were carried out as part of a programme of research work amongst a number of pharmaceutical manufacturing companies.

In investigating a principal area of a certain African country's total distribution network, viz the cargo handling operations within its main Port, a logistics systems model was used as a basis of the research design to measure the current cargo handling performance. In this article, the reader is taken step‐by‐step through the research method, data collection and analysis, hopefully to demonstrate the practical application of the model and the implications for its further use.

Primary schoolchildren′s snack food consumption patterns and food preferences were investigated by interview technique in schools in Germany and England and analysed on the basis of culture, sex and social class. There were significant differences in the proportions of children who took chocolate to school in the various social classes in both England and Germany and there were also highly significant differences in the total number of chocolate bars consumed each week by the different social classes in both countries. Food choices from a table display containing a range of snack foods popular in both countries showed highly significant differences between German and English children with German children preferring a much higher proportion of “healthy food options”, e.g. fruit, yogurt, milchschnitte (sponge cake snack), etc. compared with English children who chose four chocolate products out of their five most preferred items. Reasons for such differences could be related to advertising pressures, nutrition education experience, parental attitudes, convenience and availability, income constraints and psychological factors.

A Survey among schoolchildren shows that while some of them believe we should eat less fat, they are unsure about how to achieve this. B.K.Lund, K. Gregson, R.J. Neals and C.H. Tilston describe their research.

Chairman of the Chemical Industries Economic Development Council and a member and former Chairman of a House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology, The Rt. Hon. the Lord Gregson, has expressed deep concern that the UK is failing badly to keep up with the rapid pace of development of technology around the world.

A questionnaire survey of 157 school children living in three different regions in Scotland was carried out, to identify differences in attitudes to healthy eating. School children aged 11‐13 were asked a series of questions to establish how important they felt a healthy diet to be and what they thought made up a healthy diet. Discusses ways in which healthy eating could be approached in schools, to achieve improvements in diet and health at a local level, with suggestions for further research.

A survey, conducted in ten secondary schools in Nottingham and involving 492 respondents aged 11‐16, examined the relationship between adolescents′ attitudes towards food components such as fat, protein and fibre and their attitudes towards the role of specific food items containing those components in maintaining a healthy diet. The results showed that attitudes towards selected food components tended to be held more strongly than attitudes towards foods containing those components. Thus whilst nearly 80 per cent respondents favoured a reduction in fat intake, only 45.8 per cent favoured a decrease in butter consumption. Attitudes towards specific food components and specific food items are a function of a number of complex inter‐related variables which require further investigation.

A survey of 259 primary school children in England and Germany of varying social background was performed to assess the children′s attitudes to sweet consumption and particularly to their perception (how they make sense of information they receive) of sweets in their food culture. There were highly significant differences in the children′s attitudes to sweet consumption between the two cultures with more children in Germany saying we should eat more (30 per cent) compared with those in England (7 per cent). Children′s perceptions of sweets also differed significantly between cultures. These differences in attitude and perception of sweets, particularly chocolate, between the two cultures imply differences in educational and other influences on the children in their early (primary) years.

As a result of a marketing study to evaluate the consumer characteristics, service provision and degree of satisfaction with meals‐on‐wheels, recipients were found to have different characteristics from the general population, being on average, older, widowed, living alone, having little social contact, in poor health and not very mobile. A large majority received four or more meals per week; a hot meal was more popular than a cold one and the most popular time of delivery was around midday. A large majority of recipients were satisfied with the service.

Presents the results of a self‐completed questionnaire aimed at determining the dietary patterns of all meals on wheels (MOW) for elderly recipients in Leicester which was distributed to 1,500 people in November 1990. A response rate of 75 per cent was achieved (32.8 per cent male and 67.2 per cent female), the greatest proportion being in the 80‐89 age range, with 91.1 per cent of the total number of recipients receiving four or five meals per week from the MOW service. Seventy‐four per cent of all recipients reported consuming other meals or snacks in addition to their MOW. The remaining 26 per cent failed to report eating anything else but their MOW. Of the total who reported eating other meals or snacks, 73.9 per cent reported they had breakfast, 12.8 per cent a mid‐morning snack, 23.4 per cent a mid‐afternoon snack, 58.8 per cent an evening meal/snack and 26 per cent supper. Presents a further breakdown of the main food patterns on each of these eating occasions, the major foods being convenience (bread, biscuits, cake etc) with little evidence of hot meal preparation.