Innovative cooking techniques in a hospital food service: Effects on the quality of hospital meals.

OBJECTIVES: The hospital catering service plays a decisive role in responding to clinical and nutritional needs and in providing food that is acceptable to patients. Unfortunately, at the moment, most hospital catering services provide a service deemed insufficient by users and are burdened by a high proportion of food waste that may negatively affect the nutritional and clinical status of patients. The aim of this study was to verify the efficacy of the NI-Nutritional Intelligence project in improving the nutritional and sensorial quality of hospital meals. METHODS: The study was conducted in the Cristo Re Hospital of Rome (Italy), where two different cooking techniques were compared: traditional procedures and the low-aggression gastronomic procedures of the Niko Romito Food Processing Technique. Data were collected on both objective (food waste) and subjective (customer satisfaction) evaluations of the food service. RESULTS: The proportion of participants wasting at least 50% of dishes served dropped from 25.9% to 20% for the first course, from 32.8% to 20% for the main course, and from 29.3% to 20.4% for the side (P < 0.05 in all cases). Regarding customer satisfaction, the percentage of participants who gave a positive opinion on the variety of the menus gradually increased from 74.1% to 95% (P < 0.05). The same happened for opinions concerning the presentation of the dishes (smell, color, flavor): positive judgments went from 51.7% to 76% (P < 0.05). The overall scoring of the food service (0-10) went from 6.38 ± 2.3 to 7.6 ± 2.1 (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The hospital catering service must be able to provide patients with meals with an adequate supply of energy and nutrients to allow them to recover their health and reduce hospital stays. The Nutritional Intelligence project, based on the gastronomic method proposed in the Niko Romito Food Processing Technique, significantly reduces food waste and improves customer satisfaction without imposing service costs related to catering staff and foodstuffs.

Postharvest dehydration of wine white grapes to increase genistein, daidzein and the main carotenoids.

Wine white grape bunches of the Grechetto variety were dehydrated at 10, 20 and 30°C, RH 45% and forced air ventilation of 1.5m/s. Chemical and metabolic changes due to the effect of dehydration were studied at various stages of weight loss: 10%, 20%, 30% and 40%. Berry colour at 10 and 20°C tended to become greener with dehydration but at 30°C, at the final sampling, the colour darkened. Acidity decreased in all samples, while sugars increased. Total phenol content increased at 10°C until 30% weight loss was reached and then declined, while at 20 and 30°C the concentration decreased immediately. The contents of lutein and ß-carotene (respectively 68 and 58mg/kg d.w.), representing the 80% of total carotenoids, did not change significantly until the 30% of weight loss, when at 30°C the value increased above all for lutein while at 10 and 20°C, the contents decreased significantly. Daidzein, at 10°C, rose significantly from about 150µg/kg d.w. to 1434µg/kg d.w. at 20% weight loss and then declined; at the same weight loss percentage, the genistein concentration began to increase. At 20°C both isoflavones rose until the end of the experiment, reaching values similar to the sample at 10°C. A temperature of 30°C was deleterious to grape isoflavones. A discussion on the changes in isoflavones related to temperature and time is reported.