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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the compliance status of prerequisite programs (PRPs) and to determine the feasibility of hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) program in restaurants in different cities of Iran.

In total, 58 great chain restaurants were assessed randomly by observation, interview and questionnaires. The main prerequisites for HACCP implementation in questionnaires were as follows: personal hygiene of employees, rinsing, disinfection and cleaning programs, area and location of the restaurant, design and layout of the tools, building facilities, interior environment of the building, environmental hygiene, storerooms, cold storage, refrigerators and documentation.

Only 17 percent (10) of restaurants were generally assessed in a proper level of compliance and 95 percent (55) of them had not any documentation about hygienic practices. Also, the status of storerooms, cold storage and refrigerators was improper. Although, according to the area and location, the feasibility of HACCP program in the evaluated restaurants was in the highest level.

All of evaluated chain restaurants provided large amounts of food for customers each day and they had relatively more facilities and money resources for the implementation of PRPs. Hence, the findings of this research can be applicable for small and independent restaurants and other food service establishments.

A nutritional analysis of the weekly menus from 24 residential homes was conducted and information gathered by questionnaire on the planning, preparation and service of meals. The nutritional standard of the menus complied with many of the nutritional guidelines in the Caroline Walker Trust (CWT) Report (1995). Meals, if eaten, would provide sufficient energy and nutrients to meet most of the dietary needs of the elderly residents. However, the menus provided an inadequate amount of starch, fibre and Vitamin D and a higher than recommended level of sugar and salt. Menus complied with the recommendations in the CWT Report, with familiar traditional home cooked dishes, a variety of vegetables, different main course items and a selection of puddings. Adequate drinks and snacks were provided between formal meals. However, for many residents there was no choice at meals, meals were pre‐plated and there was a lack of variety with weekly repeated meals.

This paper is aimed at examining and critically analyzing systematical literature on wine and cross-modality between the five senses. In particular, the researchers want to highlight the role of multisensory analysis on wine marketing and consumer behavior studies.

This paper is based on a systematic review of literature conducted on peer-reviewed journals.

Results highlight how multisensory analysis of wine is a growing topic insomuch that research on this kind of topic is exploded in the last years. Nevertheless, wine and cross-modality is more analyzed on food science journals than in marketing ones.

The paper examines a field of research moderately explored in order to shed light to the current status of scientific studies and to propose new research questions to develop.

Reports surveys of managers and environmental health officers (EHOs) carried out at the Food Policy Research Unit between December 1990 and April 1993 to evaluate current food safety monitoring system and relations between the various parties involved in residential care homes. A high degree of consensus existed among EHOs on the potential hygiene risks in homes and their consequences for residents. In up to 60 per cent of homes these risks were more probable than possible, with fundamental defects such as inadequate cleanliness and poor kitchen design being found. Blame did not lie entirely with the management of these homes – when they turned to the local EHOs for help 80 per cent were dismayed to find a high degree of disparity in the advice offered by individual officers and a lack of accord even on basic issues. Greater collaboration with the other agencies responsible for monitoring standards in care homes and nationally agreed standards are essential to improve levels of food safety, protect vulnerable elderly people and maintain the credibility of the environmental health profession.

The purpose of this study is to understand consumers in the emerging wine market of India to ensure the best services. To this end, factors were identified to describe Indian wine consumer behavior and further segments for consumers were created based on the factors identified.

The research design is descriptive in nature and based on primary data. Data was collected by a structured questionnaire from 232 respondents in five major cities of India (Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad). The scale was mainly adopted from wine-related lifestyle approaches.

The principal component factor analysis resulted in six factors, namely, drinking ritual, consumption reason (social), consumption reason (mood, enjoyment and relaxation), consumption practice, consumption planning and quality. Cluster analysis resulted in a three-cluster solution. These clusters were named as cautious social drinker, loner regular drinker and highly engaged drinker based on the attributes possessed.

The segmentation of urban Indian wine consumers will be helpful for marketers to identity and describe the differences in attributes and behaviors, to create customized promotions to match the needs.

Temporal dominance of sensation (TDS) is a sensory method developed by Pineau et al. (2003) which studies the sequence of dominant sensations of a product during its consumption. TDS is believed to be more appropriate to explain consumer responses than static descriptive analysis due to its temporal element. The purpose of this paper is to define the temporal sensory profile of a new product: polenta stick. In particular, TDS method was used to measure the dominance of sensory attributes in polenta stick samples and dynamic consumer tests were performed in order to verify if the acceptability changed over time during sample consumption.

Eight polenta sticks, different in terms of storage conditions, cooking procedures and serving temperatures, were analysed by means of TDS with 13 assessors. During two preliminary sessions, the attributes list, constituted by the nine most cited sensations, was generated. Five replications were carried out. In dynamic consumer tests, 50 subjects were asked to give their liking on a seven-category scale for the frozen samples, in different five moments during the evaluation.

TDS results showed a significant effect of the experimental conditions on dominant attribute perception of polenta sticks. For the oven-cooked samples, more flavour attributes were perceived as dominant, whereas for the fried samples, the attributes crispness and oiliness overcame with a high panel dominance rate and for a long time. For the chilled samples, crispness had the highest panel dominance rate; whereas for the frozen samples, creaminess was the most dominant attribute. Consumer liking scores did not significantly change over time during consumption for all the samples. The fried samples received the highest liking scores, at both serving temperatures.

The chosen sensory methods gave the authors important information about the real perception of the products during consumption. A lot of foodstuffs show several sensory properties that appear in different times during evaluation and/or consumption. These properties could affect overall liking so they should be taken into account.

New dynamic sensory methods were used to characterize a new food product, i.e. polenta-based sticks. The procedure used to evaluate the liking by consumers was completely innovative, whereas the sensory method used to characterize the samples was recently developed. The new food product was developed as an aim of an Italian research project funded by MiSE (Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico) for the valorization of maize flour (MAISFOOD, Industria 2015).

The purpose of this paper was to examine the rheological characterisation of thickened water under different temperature and pH conditions and thickened milk with different fat contents.

Beverages thickened with powdered thickeners are used in the medical management of individuals who suffer swallowing difficulties (dysphagia). Each individual requires a specific level of thickness to best meet the needs of their dysphagia. Although the level of thickness is defined, obtaining the correct consistency of thickened fluids is difficult. This is due to fluctuations associated with temperature and type of fluids to be thickened. Rheological characterisation of commercially available xanthan gum-based thickener was performed under different conditions of temperature, pH and fat contents.

The viscosity and the yield stress of thickened water was found to be unaffected by pH. Similarly, temperature did not affect the viscosity at a high thickener concentration, although it did at lower concentration levels. Conversely, viscosity and yield stress increased as fat levels increased in thickened milk. Furthermore, thickened water took less than 2 minutes to reach equilibrium viscosity, while thickened milk required approximately 15 minutes to reach equilibrium viscosity.

These findings have implications for the standing time required for different beverages before they are thickened to a consistency that has been deemed safe for the patient’s physiological needs. Additionally, it highlights that different liquid base substances required different amounts of thickener to achieve the same level of thickness.

Findings from this study confirms and explores the variability of thickened fluids under different conditions of temperature, pH and fat content for the medical management of dysphagia.

The Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations 1995 stipulate the need for the control of food hazards. One such measure which satisfies this requirement is the use of hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP). Considers some of the problems that occur when HACCP programmes are introduced to catering establishments. Documents risks, hazards and critical control points in the case of a medium‐sized hospital in Northern Ireland. Cites monitoring and control procedures for the control of HACCP and proposes specific recommendations for future education and training.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the food safety knowledge and practices of catering employees in one city in the Southwestern United States.

The researchers administered a 20‐question food safety survey to catering employees and observed their actions while performing catering duties.

The paper finds that employees earned a mean score of 71.5 per cent on the 20‐question survey. They were most knowledgeable about personal hygiene, but did not practise proper hygiene during the catering functions. The most common food safety violations were not wearing gloves when required, not washing hands, not checking food temperatures, and not properly covering foods in warming and/or refrigeration units.

Lack of interest and concern about bad publicity prevented many caterers from participating in the study. The presence of observers during a catering event could have affected employees' performance.

The results showed need for improvement in both knowledge and practice of food safety and sanitation and significant differences in knowledge between English‐ and Spanish‐speaking respondents and employees of independent versus corporate operations.

The paper reveals that the US Food and Drug Administration has a goal of reducing the five risk factors of food‐borne illness by 25 percent by 2010. Catering operations face great challenges in minimizing these risks.

The purpose of this paper is to examine England’s Accident and Emergency (A&E) arm of the National Health Service (NHS). It considers the positive impact that Lean has had and Six-Sigma can have in A&E departments to improve the quality and reliability of the service offered, in an area that is facing performance challenges.

Independent variables average monthly temperature data (degrees Celsius) obtained from the Met Office and weekly A&E data, patient volume is analysed alongside the dependent variable, the percentage of patients seen in 4 h or less.

The model produced a robust positive impact when Lean Six-Sigma is adopted, increasing the likelihood of A&E dependents meeting their performance objective to see and treat patients in 4 h or less.

Further variables such as staffing levels, A&E admission type should be considered in future studies. Additionally, it would add further clarity to analyse hospitals and trusts individually, to gauge which are struggling.

Should the NHS further its understanding and adoption of Lean Six-Sigma, it is believed this could have significant improvements in productivity, patient care and cost reduction.

Productivity improvements will allow the NHS to do more with an equal amount of funding, therefore improving capacity and patient care.

Through observing A&E and its ability to treat patients in a timely fashion it is clear the NHS is struggling to meet its performance objectives, the recommendation of Six-Sigma in A&E should improve the reliability and quality of care offered to patients.