Workpackage - Satisfaction with food-related services,
University of Surrey, UK

Local authorities must access honest feedback from older people to improve their food services

"In our study, we found that the key factors that really influenced people's use of the food service was the quality of the food. That was really important to them. It has to be well cooked and nicely presented. The portion size has to be right and it has to look and taste like it should do. So sausages have to look nice and brown and sizzling!

If these things are not met, then they become unhappy with the service and this can lead to them refusing to go to the Centre, or choosing to go to an alternative Centre.

The second thing is that eating with other people is very important and they enjoy eating a meal in a social environment. That came out time and time again.

Generally, users are very happy with the service and in fact it's quite difficult to get users to put forward any formal complaints about any food they receive in Day Centres. It tends to be more along the grapevine or a direct informal complaint to management.

But [not] when it comes to filling in survey forms or satisfaction questionnaires. The reason for this appears to be that they are frightened of loosing the service ….if they complain the service will be taken away.

It is very important for Local Authorities to find some way of reassuring users that they will be able to put forward any complaints they may have and that these will be dealt with without the loss of service.

The sort of feedback that most providers currently receive are on food preferences. Users are generally happy to let them know that they like to have a roast dinner or the various meals that they like. So they will receive information on that kind of food choice.

But if the food is poorly cooked, then there is less likely to be a formal complaint about that - there will be more of a grumble!

Some service providers do collect information [though this] does tend to be on an ad-hoc basis. One of the problems that they have is that because users will not complain, they can't take that information further forward to get support from their governing bodies to make changes when needed.

One of the things we found was that many of the Day Care Centres do not use nutritional guidelines when they are preparing their menus. This includes menu planning for the fit and active as well as for the more frail and less mobile people that use these Centres.

If they were to look at guidelines [such as those] provided by the National Association of Care Caterers or the Caroline Walker Trust, not only would this improve the nutritional balance of the menus but it would also provide a training reference point for new and agency staff."

Biography
Wendy completed a PhD at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia in 2002, exploring the relationship the relationship between food choice and health.
She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow on the Food in Later Life - EU Senior Food QoL project.
Her research interests include the determinants of food choice; 'grey' consumers; the shopping patterns of older consumers and the use of food services by older people. Other research includes investigating the effects of 24-hour shopping on the quality of life of consumers, the community and the workforce; measuring older people's ability to determine the sensory properties of foods modified with novel dietary fibres and the determinants of food choices of adolescents.
She has lectured and tutored at undergraduate level in Consumer Behaviour, Family Ecology, Health Promotion and Nutrition and at postgraduate level in Consumer Behaviour and Nutrition through the Lifecourse.