A preliminary study of chefs’ knowledge and attitude towards nutrition during restaurant’s food handling

Abstract

Background: Increasing the frequency of eating out in restaurants contributes to an increase in the prevalence of non-communicable diseases. The quality of restaurant dishes depends on the chef’s ability to process delicious food and the chef’s understanding of nutrition in healthy food processing. Nutritional knowledge and attitudes towards nutrition from chefs are very important if nutrition and health aspects are the basis for consideration of food selection.

Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the chef’s nutrition knowledge and attitudes toward nutrition during the restaurant’s food handling.

Methods: A cross-sectional approach and descriptive design were used in this research. Chef nutritional knowledge and attitudes were measured using a structured questionnaire through three question topics including food preparation, food processing, and food presentation.

Results: Chefs have good nutritional knowledge about food presentation and plating (66.7%) and good attitudes towards nutrition in relation to food preparation, food processing and molecular gastronomy techniques, and food presentation and plating (83.3, 79.3, and 86.1% respectively). Educational background and work experience influence the knowledge and practice of food handling during processing.

Conclusion: There is a significant relationship between a chef’s educational level, years of working experience and nutritional knowledge. But educational levels, years of working experience, and the availability of standard operating procedures in restaurants were not significantly related to the chef's nutritional attitude.