Evaluation of menus in food services provided with centralized and decentralized system in terms of food variety, cost and consumer satisfaction

This study was conducted in order to evaluate the menus in terms of food variety, cost and consumer satisfaction in centralized and decentralized system. The study was carried out with 202 workers (170 (84.2%) males and 32 (15.8%) females) who were between 19-82 years of age and also the average age of the workers was 36.2±10.41 years and receiving service from a catering company in Yenimahalle district in Ankara. The menus offered in the centralized and decentralized system catering services were evaluated in terms of food variety and cost, and satisfaction levels of the menus offered to the workers were determined by satisfaction survey. The frequency of green leafy vegetables and buttermilk, milk, sugar, honey, jams etc. in the menus of decentalized system was higher than the menus centralized system. The energy value of the menus is determined 2598.35 kcal for centralized system and 3465.65 kcal for decentralized system. While Carbohydrate amount was 228.05 g in the centralized and 316.45 g in the decentralized system, The ratios from energy were found %35.6 and %37.29, respectively. The protein amounts of the menus were 86.95 g (%13.83) for the centralized and 104.89 g (%12.43) for the decentralized system. The fat amounts was found 146.72 g (50.6% of the energy) in the centralized and 195.4 g (50.3% of the energy) in the decentralized system. Cholesterol levels of the menus; while it was 355.70 g in the centralized and 501.45 g in the decentralized system. The amount of pomace was 16.4 g in the centralized system and 32.14 g in the decentralized system. Vitamin A was 1003.65µg in the centralized, while it was 2018.16µg in the decentralized system. The amount of vitamin C was 117.31 g in the centralized and 281.29 g in the decentralized system (p<0.05). While the amount of calcium is 858.69 mg in the centralized and 1176.77 mg in the decentralized system, the amount of iron are 13.24 mg and 17.72 mg respectively. The difference between the two systems was significant for all macro and micro nutrients (p<0.05). When the costs of the menus are evaluated, the breakfast offered in the centralized is 2.12 TL and 3.75 TL in the decentralized system. 113 of the workers benefit from centralized system and 89 of them decentralized system. In the study, 65.5% of the beneficiaries of centralized system were bluecollars and 34.5% were whitecollars, while 49.4% of those using decentralized system were bluecollars and 50.6% were whitecollars. Accorging to 70.8% of the workers benefiting from centralized system considered that menus are good, while 31.5% of workers benefiting from decentralized system considered that menus are good, and 50.6% were considered that the menus are average quality. There was no significant difference between BKI (25.6±3.18) of workers using centralized system and BKI (26.0±4.02) of workers using decentralized system. In general, the ratio of satisfaction on menus were different between the two groups. Among the workers who benefit from centralized system, The ratio of satisfaction for the variety of food, soup taste, soup thickness, soup content, meat temperature, meat taste, meat fat ratio; presentation of rice pasta and pastries, the temperature of rice pasta and pastries, the taste of rice pasta and pastries, the oil and content of rice pasta and pastries; presentation, warmth, taste, fat, content of vegetable and legume dishes; presentation and content of cold and olive oil dishes; salads and desserts presentation, taste, freshness, satisfaction for service flow in the cafeteria, cleaning of service containers and cleaning of service trays is significantly higher (p<0.05). It should be applied to the companies considering the advantages and disadvantages of centralized and decentralized system catering services, menu planning should be made considering food variety, cost control and customer satisfaction. Keywords: catering, centralized system, decentralized system, satisfaction This study was approved by Başkent University Medicine and Health Sciences Research Committee and Non-Interventional Clinical Research Ethics Committe with the decision number KA18 / 383 and dated 27.11.2018 and numbered 42119 by Ethics Committee Approval.