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The plate model is widely used to promote healthy eating. Despite extensive adoption in dietary guidelines, the model’s role in food educational practices is scarcely studied. The present study aimed to explore the plate model as a food educational tool in the school subject Home Economics (HE). Use of the plate model was investi-gated with Rogoff’s three planes of analysis as a framework. The research question was: “How is the plate model used in a food educational practice, considering institutional, interpersonal, and personal planes?” Data from video-recorded classroom observa-tions, focus groups, interviews, and text documents were analyzed. The data were generated through a case study, with twelve stu-dents and two HE-teachers followed over the course of a school year. Results show how the plate model was framed as the right way of eating. Nutritionally “proper” food was described, with the model functioning as a bridge linking (abstract) nutritional content with (concrete) dishes. This way of using the model might hamper understandings of fundamental principles for nutritional classifica-tion. Moreover, those who do not eat plate model-type dishes may be wrongly judged. Supported by empirical events, this study shows how the plate model can be useful – but also overused – in food education.

Background Eating is fundamental not only to survival and health, but also to how humans organise their social lives. Eating together with others is often seen as the healthy ideal, while eating alone is highlighted as a risk factor for negative health outcomes, especially among older adults. This paper, therefore, investigates the relationship between the frequency and subjective experience of eating alone and food-related outcomes among 70- to 75-year-olds in Sweden. Methods A survey was distributed to a nationally representative random sample of 1500 community-living in Sweden, aged 70–75 years. Two different constructs of eating alone (objective and subjective) were measured, along with the following food-related outcomes: a food index, intake of food groups, consumption of ready-made meals, number of main meals per day, and body mass index (BMI). Results In total, 695 respondents were included in the final sample. A quarter of the respondents were categorised as eating alone, of which a small proportion reported that doing so bothered them. There were no associations between eating alone and food index scores, BMI, or intake frequencies of fruits and berries, or fish and shellfish. However, people eating alone were less likely to report eating three meals per day (OR: 0.53, CI: 0.37–0.76, p = 0.006), less likely to report higher intake frequencies of vegetables and snacks, sugary foods, and sweet drinks (adjusted OR: 0.68, CI: 0.48–0.95, p = 0.023 resp. OR: 0.59, CI: 0.43–0.81, p = 0.001), and more likely to report higher intake frequencies of ready-made meals (adjusted OR: 3.71, CI: 2.02–6.84, p < 0.001) compared to those eating together with others. The subjective experience of eating alone did not have an impact on food-related outcomes. Conclusion Eating alone or with others played a role in participants’ food intake, and seemed to influence aspects of the organisation of everyday eating routines rather than overall dietary healthiness or weight status.

This study aims to contribute to the understanding of food for health as educational content in Home and Consumer Studies (HCS), specifically targeting three educational functions: (i) qualification, (ii) socialization, and (iii) subjectification. Data came from a comprehensive case study, where one school class and two HCS teachers were followed during one school year. Fourteen classroom observations and eight teacher interviews were included. It is shown how qualification functions comprise nutrition knowledge and cooking skills, how socialization functions entail, e.g., dichotomous values of food as “good” or “bad,” and how conscious consumers who take personal responsibility for themselves and the environment become promoted subjects. Taken together, the results illustrate how educational content can have consequences beyond those intended. Based on the results, an argument is made about the relevance for HCS teachers to critically reflect on their teaching and its potential educational consequences.

Food is a part of everyday life, and formal food education is included in compulsory education in many countries, for example through the subject Home and Consumer Studies (HCS). While food education is often underpinned by public health concerns such as preventing non-communicable diseases and promoting cooking skills, there has been little focus on aesthetic aspects of teaching and learning about food. This study therefore aims to gain understanding of aesthetic values as a part of HCS food educational practices. Aesthetic values are here regarded as socially and culturally shared, and related to notions of pleasure and taste. As this study uses a pragmatist approach, aesthetic values are seen as constituted in encounters, encompassing experiencing individual(s), artifacts, and context. By thematically analyzing empirical data from an exploratory case study, including classroom observations, student focus groups, and teacher interviews, we show how values are constituted as culinary, production, and bodily aesthetics. Culinary aesthetics involved cooking processes, cooking skills, and presentation of food and meals. Production aesthetics involved foods’ origin and degree of pre-processing, whereas bodily aesthetics related to bodily consequences of eating. Aesthetic values were vital features of the educational practices studied and played a key role in bringing the practices forward. They also indicated what counted as valid, or desired, outcomes and thereby steered events in certain directions. The study highlights the significance of aesthetic values and argues in favor of acknowledging aesthetics in planning, undertaking, and evaluating HCS food education.

Aim:The aim of this study was to explore patient satisfaction with hospitalfoodservice in the Swedish setting, using a validated instrument, adding thiscontext to the existing body of research. Methods:The study was carried out at three hospitals employing cyclicmenus and conventional cook-serve foodservice systems with centralised trayassemblies and hot-trolley distributions to the wards for service. Patient satis-faction was explored using a translated version of the validated Acute CareHospital Foodservice Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire. Groups were com-pared with Mann-WhitneyU-test and Kruskal Wallis test with a set signifi-cance level ofP< .05. Results:Questionnaires from 439 patients were included in the analysis. Themajority (80%) reported an overall satisfaction of“good”or“very good.”Questionsrelated to Staff and Service received mostly the highest possible ratings, while ques-tions related to Food Quality and Meal Size had slightly lower ratings and highervariation. Comparisons between groups showed that differences were small evenwhen statistically significant. Low appetite and a long hospital stay had an adverseeffect on overall satisfaction and food quality-related questions. Men and youngerpatients reported more often beinghungry after and between meals. Conclusions:Hospital foodservice faces the challenge of catering to multiplepatient needs. Monitoring patient satisfaction is crucial to ensure thatfoodservice operations remain evidence based. The Acute Care HospitalFoodservice Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire provided a general overviewthat indicated foodservice areas with potential for improvement, althoughpatient satisfaction overall was high. However, patient satisfaction is a complexmeasure and reflexivity is required when interpreting empirical results.

Research on healthy aging commonly concerns problems related to loneliness and food intake. These are not independent aspects of health since eating, beyond its biological necessity, is a central part of social life. This scoping review aimed to map scientific articles on eating alone or together among community-living older people, and to identify relevant research gaps. Four databases were searched, 989 articles were identified and 98 fulfilled the inclusion criteria. In the first theme, eating alone or together are treated as central topics of interest, isolated from adjoining, broader concepts such as social participation. In the second, eating alone or together are one aspect of the findings, e.g., one of several risk factors for malnutrition. Findings confirm the significance of commensality in older peoples’ life. We recommend future research designs allowing identification of causal relationships, using refined ways of measuring meals alone or together, and qualitative methods adding complexity.

The present article concerns meals from the point of view of children, focusing on structural and sociocultural aspects of meals in a Western context in general, and Sweden in particular. The aim was to study children's perceptions of meals with regard to what, where and with whom meals are eaten and how meals are made. The method used was an internet‐based, ethnological questionnaire, which is a qualitative method in which participants share their experiences and values regarding a certain topic of interest in writing. A hundred and twelve Swedish children were included. The children almost exclusively chose to write about family meals. These meals were described as well‐structured and organized, and were often portrayed in an idealized way, with family members sharing proper meals at home, spending an enjoyable time together with a nice atmosphere and good conversation. The children made a distinction between everyday meals and festive meals, where the main differences were that festive meals were more prone to include extended family and friends besides the nuclear family, and were described in a more exceptional way with regard to what is served and mealtime conditions. The article concludes that the family meal functioned as a way to construct the family and as a site where children acquire norms and values about meals and family identity, but they did so in an active way, by breaking rules and by challenging norms, thereby also contributing to change. The changing nature of the family meal was also seen in an extended proper meal and the commensal aspects surrounding mealtime, as commensality included both commensal eating and commensal foodwork.

In Swedish home and consumer studies (HCS), cooking forms apart of the core content, and students often experience the results in a sensuous way–by eating the food. Sensuous, or aesthetic, experiences may affect students’ meaning-making and thus what is learned within the subject. There is a lack of research concerning the aesthetic aspects of cooking in a learning context; therefore, this study aims to explore HCS students’ meaning-making by focusing on aesthetic judgments during formalized cooking practices. The research question is, in what ways do students use aesthetic judgments in meaning-making processes during cooking? The data comes from video-documented classroom observations where the students cook together. Using a pragmatic approach and practical epistemology analysis (PEA), three ways in which the students use aesthetic judgments are illustrated: as arguments in negotiations, as reference points when reactualizing experiences, and as nonverbal actions evaluating sensory qualities. Empirical examples exemplify how aesthetic judgments play a role in establishing power relations, entail social/normative values, and influence the “tacit knowing” of cooking. The study found that aesthetic experiences are integral and important in students’ meaning-making during cooking practices. Moreover, by adding a new classroom context to the methodology used, its applicability for investigating aesthetic experiences and meaning-making is confirmed and widened.

Swedish school meals are provided free of charge as a welfare service. Lately, requests for religiously sanctioned school meals have increased, and this has led to debate in society. This chapter aims to illuminate what is expressed on social media about religiously sanctioned school meals. Twelve blogs and seven internet forums were analysed using thematic analysis. Two themes were found: traditional school meals, which entailed a collective, secular school meal where religiously sanctioned food is not provided for, and cultural relativist school meals, which acknowledged individual differences and favoured catering for religiously sanctioned food. The latter theme also comprised secular requests based on modern food ideologies, which in some cases could be characterised as quasi-religious. In both themes, equality, a traditional value of the welfare state, was prominent. From a traditional standpoint, equality was assured by serving the same meal to everyone, and from a cultural relativist point of view, equality was ensured when the food served was catered to everyone’s individual needs and wishes. How the welfare state manages to bring together the traditional and cultural relativist standpoints might lead to either integration or tension in society as a whole and in institutions such as schools.

Guided by the i-PARIHS framework, this study investigates perceived facilitators in the process of adopting a new regulation launched in 2015 which aims to prevent and treat malnutrition. In May 2016, a national web-based questionnaire was emailed to chief medical nurses in elderly care in all Swedish municipalities (n = 290). The response rate in this cross-sectional study was 75% (n = 217). Fifty per cent of the municipalities had adopted new routines, 42% had started and 8% had not. One third of the respondents considered malnutrition to be a major problem in elderly care and about half considered the new national regulation to have strengthened local work. A logistic regression showed that the odds for having adopted new routines were higher for CMNs with long experience in elderly care and who had previously worked to prevent malnutrition, and for those who considered the new national regulation helpful. To extract underlying factors in the adoption process, two principal component analyses were performed for key actors and support. For key actors, the analysis yielded four factors, explaining 67% of the total variance; (a) first line team, (b) expert team, (c) management team and (d) surrounding resources. For support, the analysis yielded three factors, which explained 65% of the total variance; (a) agile teamwork, (b) management and leadership and (c) acceptance. The slow adoption rate of the regulation raises questions about its impact; this might be an effect of the general trend of decentralisation in the Swedish welfare sector, and in elderly care in particular, making it hard to attain change that is steered centrally. However, malnutrition is a pronounced problem in elderly care and the mandatory nature of the new regulation therefore warrants further investigation of whether its launch has contributed to a reduction of malnutrition by investigating outcomes and preventive actions carried out in practice.

Presentationen baseras på en pågående fallstudie inom ämnet hem- och konsumentkunskap (HK), som genomförs i samverkan med två HK-lärare. Den del som presenteras här innefattar en praktisk epistemologisk analys (PEA) av filmade klassrumsobservationer där elever lagar mat i par. Under aktiviteten uppstår situationer som utgör hinder i matlagningsprocessen. Dessa blir särskilt synliga under moment som kräver en subjektiv bedömning baserad på sensoriska erfarenheter, exempelvis när eleverna ska bedöma om livsmedel är färdigtillagade. För att ta sig vidare i aktiviteten genomför eleverna repetitiva handlingar och söker bekräftelse från kamrater och lärare. Dessa processer synliggörs och ligger till grund för en vidare didaktisk diskussion kring lärares val av innehåll och metoder för undervisning i ämnet.

The aim of this study was to explore what arithmetical understanding is needed when students with mild intellectual disabilities use recipes during practical cooking lessons in Home Economics. The settings were compulsory schools in Sweden attended by students with intellectual disabilities. Sixteen lessons in Home Economics during which cooking took place were observed. In total, 37 students and three teachers participated. All students had a mild intellectual disability. Their ages varied, but most were between 13 and 14 years old. The sociocultural perspective on learning, combined with a literacy framework, was used as a theoretical foundation for the study. Main findings are that students need an arithmetical understanding of (i) how to interpret numbers, (ii) how to interpret and use units, and (iii) how to compute when using recipes. The knowledge and skills needed to be able to use a recipe are featured in the concept recipe literacy, capturing both theoretical, declarative knowledge and the more practical, procedural knowledge. Recipe literacy can be used to theorize the use of recipes when learning to cook, as in Home Economics.

Objectives: The aim is to explore the effects of antecedent, structural and process quality indicators of nutritional care practice on meal satisfaction and screened nutritional status among older adults in residential care homes. Design: Data for this Swedish cross-sectional study regarding older adults living in residential care homes were collected by i) a national questionnaire, ii) records from the quality registry Senior Alert, iii) data from an Open Comparison survey of elderly care in 2013/2014. The data represented 1154 individuals in 117 of 290 Swedish municipalities. Measurements: Meal satisfaction (%) and adequate nutritional status, screened by the Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form (MNA-SF), were the two outcome variables assessed through their association with population density of municipalities and residents’ age, together with 12 quality indicators pertaining to structure and process domains in the Donabedian model of care. Results: Meal satisfaction was associated with rural and urban municipalities, with the structure quality indicators: local food policies, private meal providers, on-site cooking, availability of clinical/community dietitians, foodservice dietitians, and with the process quality indicators: meal choice, satisfaction surveys, and ‘meal councils’. Adequate nutritional status was positively associated with availability of clinical/community dietitians, and energy and nutrient calculated menus, and negatively associated with chilled food production systems. Conclusion: Municipality characteristics and structure quality indicators had the strongest associations with meal satisfaction, and quality indicators with local characteristics emerge as important for meal satisfaction. Nutritional competence appears vital for residents to be well-nourished.

Meals in everyday life, including selection of food, commensality, and culinary rules are important for people’s identity. The complexity of meals is multifaceted and includes several dimensions. Growing old and being dependent may alter an individual’s food habits, which could affect the social significance of meals in everyday life. To manage food provision in old age and the well-known problems related to this scope of organization policymaking is a common approach. However, applying policies in reality is difficult and can cause dilemmas in everyday life, which is referred to as the policy–practice gap. Adaptive strategies must be used to manage this gap and thereby to reach food security, which is a human right.

Studies of organizational prerequisites for nutritional care practice and their effect on meal satisfaction and nutritional status of older adults in residential care homes are scarce. Guided by Donabedians’ model of quality of care, the aim was to explore structure and process quality indicators of nutritional care practice that predict residents’ meal satisfaction and adequate nutritional status according to MNA-SF, in Swedish elderly care. Data at municipal level from i) a national questionnaire, ii) records from a quality registry and iii) a benchmarking survey, were merged. Logistic and multiple regression analyses included 117 municipalities (of 290 in Sweden). Residence in rural and urban municipalities predicted meal satisfaction over city municipalities. Independent structure indicators of meal satisfaction were local food policy, cooking on-site and private meal providers, and independent process indicators were choice of meals and residents’ possibility to influence the menu. Adequate nutritional status was positively predicted by the structure indicator availability of clinical/community dietitian and the process indicator calculation of nutritional content of meals. To conclude, a locally adapted organization adjusted to residents’ choices, and availability of dietitians, benefit meal satisfaction and nutritional status among older adults in residential care homes. This study provides insights into: quality indicators for nutritional care practice significant for older adults’ well-being the significance of dietitians The results from this study can benefit future interventions aiming to improve nutritional care practice and serve as guidance for leaders in elderly care organizations.

Introduction The school subject Home Economics is a potential context for children to learn how to cook and to master artefacts in the cooking practice. Recipes, used as leaning tools, are part of the Swedish syllabus of Home Economics and an integral part of today’s cooking culture. Despite being a central artefact during cooking lessons, it is known that children have various difficulties using recipes. Aim The aim of this study is to investigate what kind of barriers that occur when children with mild intellectual disabilities (ID) use recipes in order to learn how to cook in Home Economics. Methods With an ethnographic inspired design, sixteen accompanying observations were used at lessons in Home Economics. The observations were carried out in kitchen classroom settings where teaching and learning about cooking took place. The field notes were thematically analyzed. Result The findings reveal that there were many barriers in the children´s use of recipes. Foremost, attention was drawn to the complex set of knowledge needed to be able to use and understand a recipe in order to learn how to cook. The design and the purport of the recipe has to be comprehended, and in addition, it´s interpretation requires arithmetical knowledge. We therefore suggest that the knowledge needed to make use of a recipe can be conceptualized in the novel concept of recipe literacy. Conclusion Recipes turned out to be difficult for the children to use and this must be taken in consideration by the teachers. The concept of recipe literacy can be useable when discussing the use of recipes as learning tools in cooking in Home Economics.

Introduction: In Sweden, provision of food and meals to older people is a welfare service within eldercare, grounded on national frame laws but in practice affected by high local autonomy. The aim of this study was to explore municipality-based steering, organization and practice of the provision of food and meals within Swedish eldercare in terms of trends and local uniformity or differences. To our knowledge, no prior studies have investigated this. Material and methods: A national study on Swedish municipalities (n=290) based on a repeated questionnaire conducted in 2006 and 2013/14. Municipalities were divided into groups based on population density: rural, urban, and city. The response rate was 80% in 2006 and 56% in 2013/14. Results: Overall, provision of food and meals in Swedish eldercare is dominated by a traditional organization still relying on the public food service organization as the main provider. Conventional food technology is still practiced, but with increased use of private food service organizations and changing practice of food technology led by city municipalities. Large discrepancies in modes of provision were found between rural and city municipalities. City municipalities had progressed further in terms of private food service organization (p<0.001), reduced use of cook-serve (p=0.039) in favour for chilled food technology systems (p=0.022), and extensive practice of menu choices (p<0.001). Conclusion: Different conditions in municipalities seem to be decisive for the provision of food and meals, with benchmarking devices and New Public Management as incentives for steering and efficiency appearing to be more achievable for city municipalities.