To Örebro University

Our food choice is dependent upon our beliefs about both the products and those who consume them. In this study beliefs about the prototypical attributes of ready meal consumers have been investigated to establish which beliefs exist and whether they have any actual basis when compared with self-reported behaviours of ready meal consumers. In a survey, respondents described what they considered to be common attributes of ready meal consumers. Some of these attributes were supported by the data provided by the ready meal consuming respondents, while many were not. Most interesting was the fact that two frequently mentioned attributes, being alone and no interest in cooking or food, were confirmed by the ready meal consuming respondents in the actual eating situation but not by their life-style and beliefs in general. The results support the call for more situation-oriented food research.

The ready-meal market in Sweden is increasing rapidly, and in the last 10 years has nearly doubled. The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of the demand buyers have for ready meals, both when buying for themselves and for others. A postal survey was completed by 249 residents of Gothenburg, Sweden. Results show that the demand when buying ready meals is dependent on both gender and whether or not the buyer is the end consumer. In general, the buyers' demands for sensory and convenience aspects were the most important. Female respondents were more demanding buyers than males, and their priorities were different. The implications of the findings are that foodservice operators and producers of ready meals must pay attention to the different demands of buyers, their gender and who will be the end consumer.

The context in which a meal is eaten is known to affect intake and choice of food. The purpose of this study was to investigate in what typical situations ready meals are consumed and if consumer demands vary according to different situations. With a market survey four typical ready meal eating situations were identified, and the respondent's ready meal consumption was shown to be affected by situational factors. In the different eating situations there were dissimilar reasons for consumption. Two ready meal eating situations were investigated in greater detail in order to establish what triggered the ready meal consumption in these situations. One of these meal situations proved to be convenience driven and the other time driven. A situation-oriented approach is suggested for further ready meal product development.

Norovirus är den mikroorganism som orsakar flest matförgiftningar i Sverige. Tårtor, frysta importerade hallon, ostron och fekalt förorenat dricksvatten är några av de livsmedel som varit involverade i utbrott. Infektionsdosen är låg varför person-till-person-smitta är vanlig. Människan är den ända kända värden och smittvägen är fekal-oral eller vomitus-oral. God livsmedelshygien och värmebehandling är den bästa profylaxen.

The consumption of food takes place within what can loosely be termed ‘the room’, although in reality, this could be a variety of settings, both indoors and outside. Aspects and features within that room contribute towards and make up the atmosphere, something that is relatively easy to appreciate but rather more difficult to quantify and describe. This review considers selected aspects under the headings of interior variables, background music and noise,and odour; layout and design variables, table layout and seating; and human variables, density and crowding, and social facilitation, which contribute towards the room's atmosphere. It is important to recognise and appreciate that other attributes, of similar if not equal or more importance, also exist.

Tre parallella förlopp undersöks, dels den förändring som skett med köksrummet i nyproducerade privata kök i stadsbebyggelse under tiden 1960-2000, dels de tekniska hjälpmedlens och livsstilens betydelse för matlagningen under samma period.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur köksrummet, dess utrustning och livsstilen påverkat matlagningen mellan 1960 – 2000.

Två metoder har använts nämligen litteraturstudier och en intervju. Litteraturstudierna är av två slag, dels litteratur om kökets förändring livsstilen och dels en sammanställning och analys av fyra årgångar av vår kokbok. Intervjun har skett per mail.

Resultatet av undersökningen visar att människornas livsstil och trenderna omkring dom har påverkat matlagningen och även nya tekniska köksapparater. Däremot torde köksrummets utseende han spelat en mindre roll för matlagningen.

Slutsatsen är att de nyproducerade köken, under den period som undersökningen behandlat, har varit så stora och välplanerade att de inte kan ha hindrat för matlagningen. Däremot kan de moderna köken ha bidragit till att öka intresset för gastronomi och matlagning. De tekniska hjälpmedlen har haft viss betydelse som inspirationskälla och har underlättat köksarbetet. Livsstilen tycks ha haft stor betydelse för valet av mat och därmed matlagningen.

The purpose of this doctoral dissertation has been to increase the knowledge of customers’ view on relation to commercial restaurant meals and thereby to increase the knowledge within the restaurant industry about customers’ perspectives about meals. The dissertation is based on four studies of customers’ meal experiences in á la Carte restaurants in Norway. In addition, a methodological paper has been written to illuminate central aspects of the method used in the dissertation.

An explorative and qualitative approach was selected in the data collection, focus group interviews and semi-structured interviews of experienced restaurant customers from à la Carte restaurants were used and analysed within a modified grounded theory approach. The participants were from the cities of Oslo and Stavanger in Norway. The conceptual models in the four studies are first of all the result of the analysis of the data collected. The first study includes a conceptual model illustrating different aspects of the payment process of the bill; important aspects were expectations, sensibility, and reactions. It was demonstrated how a delay in the payment process had negative affects on the customers meal experiences. In the second study, the five important elements of customers’ meal experiences were: The core product, the restaurant interior, the personal social meeting, the company, and the restaurant atmosphere. These five aspects were woven tightly together and the restaurant atmosphere occurred as the “glue” that connected the different meal experience aspects into a whole. The third study focused on the customers’ choices of restaurants, and the occasion occurred as an important element in the decision-making process of choosing a restaurant. The fourth study revealed which consumer values were important by restaurant visits, and identified 13 single values that were integrated into five consumer value categories: Excellence, harmony, emotional stimulation, acknowledgement, and circumstance value. The fifth paper provides a thorough discussion of the usefulness of the modified grounded theory applied in the studies.

When an overall comparison of the different studies is made, there are several indications that the restaurant employees, and especially the waiting staff, represent the restaurant’s most important assets in the meetings with customers. Increasing the knowledge level of the staff about the customers seems to be an actual element, and thus education and training will be of great importance for development of the restaurant field.

The research presented in this paper focuses on the service performance of the staff in à la Carte restaurants, and how this could influence the meal experience from the customers’ point of view. Following a mainly grounded theory approach, the empirical material that formed the background for this article was five focus group interviews of restaurant customers from the cities of Oslo and Stavanger in Norway. The participants represented persons from different lines of work. Payment is initially considered here as a component of the meal, and the results indicate that payment represents an important part of the service aspect. Hence, payment operations represent the main component within the last stage of the meal experience. When customers experience the payment process in an unsatisfactory way, it can have a negative effect on their meal experiences as a whole. This could in turn have a negative impact on the customers’ incentive to revisit the particular restaurant or even other restaurants. Payment ‘just in time’ as perceived by the customers can have a positive effect on the number of customers in the restaurant in the long term. The data analysis uncovers nine specific aspects of payment that are important to the customers. A conceptual model is developed to show the process from raw data to results.

The research presented in this article focuses on factors that form customers' meal experiences in á la Carte restaurants. The intention of the study is to reveal new aspects of the meal experience from the customers' points of view based on empirical data. Following a modified version of grounded theory approach, empirical data are based on seven semi-structured interviews of experienced restaurant customers in two Norwegian cities. A main result of the study is the development of an overall conceptual model that integrates the most important meal experience categories revealed. The five main categories are the core product, the restaurant interior, the personal social meeting, the company, and the restaurant atmosphere. The study generally offers an increased understanding of the complexity of customers' meal experiences. The knowledge gained from this study may give restaurateurs a better understanding of and insight into important factors about the customers' choices of restaurants. It also offers indications of what to focus on in the desire to influence the perceived service quality of restaurant visits. Finally, it could be useful as a basis for a future quantitative study to test the validity of the categories developed.

Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ litteraturstudie där fem vetenskapliga artiklar uppsökta i vetenskapliga databaser ligger som grund. Syftet är att ta reda på skillnaderna mellan olika förslutningsmaterial för vinflaskors inverkan på vinets sensoriska egenskaper efter lagring på flaska. De förslutningsmaterial som mest fokuseras på är syntetkorkar, naturkorkar, tekniska korkar och skruvkorkar. Det konstateras att förändringarna hos vinet tycks ligga i relation till den mängd syre som kommer in genom förslutningen och den mängd svaveldioxid som slipper ut. Förändringarna beror till stor del på oxidation men även på andra kemiska reaktioner i vinet. Vinflaskor förslutna med syntetkork förändras i högst takt medan de andra förslutningarna uppvisar goda resultat men har andra problem. Hos skruvkorken kan man efter lång lagring finna en speciell karaktär kallad reducerad som upplevs som en rökighet eller svavelliknande karaktär hos vinet. Naturkorkar och tekniska korkar kan istället ge variabla resultat som är svåra att förutse eller kontamineras av 2,4,6-trichloranisole och upplevas som korkdefekta.förslutning, förslutningsmaterial, naturkork, oxiderad, reducerad, skruvkork, syntetkork.

This thesis consists of four studies reflecting information and education on food and meals at different levels of society. The educational efforts are directed towards everyday family practices. The overall aim of this thesis, therefore, was to obtain a grasp of the way children and families think of food and meals in a cultural perspective, in order to understand the areas where food information and education appears to take root. Further, the thesis aims to study the potential of tasting lessons as an educational tool in compulsory school. The methods used were qualitative:repeated focus groups with immigrant women from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Somalia, focus groups with pupils and school staaf, and telephone interviews with school heads. Further it were semi-structured life world interviews and groupinterviews with Swedish children and their families. The analytical methods were based on grounded theory, and systematic and reflexive analysis. The results generated a model showing immigrant women struggling for their cultural identity, oscillating between remining Somalian and becoming part of Swedish society in their food and meal choices. The Swedish families described coping with the past and the present, and their children the different food and taste worlds at school and at home. The study of an educational tool for educationused in the fifth class at compulsory school showed both pupils and staff were prepared to be exposed to new tastes and new educational work and co-operation at school. In conclusion, the studies showed the imortance of culture for family identity, aswell as ideas and practices whithin family meal experiences in both immigrant and Swedish families. Further, an educational tool using children's senses might be a valuable practical contribution in food education. Neither food and meal information nor education and learning should, therefore, be separated from their practical and cultural components. Such factors should be taken into account in official guidelines for applied learning.

The aim of this study was to provide increased understanding of what 'feeding the family' means to Somalian women in Sweden. Focus group interviews were carried out with Somalian women, analysed by means of the Grounded theory method. The results show that factors both in the family and in the outside world influenced their food choice and traditions, both in their home country of Somalia and in their new country, Sweden, after migration. The categories generated in the analysis were brought together in a model showing the women 'struggling for their own cultural identity' and oscillating between 'remaining Somalian' and 'becoming part of Swedish society', food being an important instrument in maintaining the cultural identity of their families. Cultural identity in this respect is a matter of the wishes of the husband, followed by those of the women and children and, at the same time, the strong pressure of the Swedish host country. This indicates how important it is for professionals to be aware of the trust people have in their own cultural food and therefore also how necessary it is to give culturally adapted food advice through public health work, in this case to Somalian families.

The word taste has several meanings: biopsychological, and cultural and social. Taste also influences food choice, though there is a widespread belief that tasty food is not synonymous with healthy eating patterns. In Sweden compulsory school daily meals are provided and Home Economics is a compulsory subject, while tasting lessons form an additional experimental form of education. The aim of this study has been to make a general evaluation of tasting lessons in four fifth-year classes. The focus of the results is on pupils’ learning about, and interest in, food, and the opinions and reflections of teachers, catering staff and school heads. The participants were three professional focus groups comprising staff from four schools, and 48 pupils (eight groups with boys and girls in separate groups) from the same schools. Results showed that the children were prepared to be exposed to different foodstuffs, and the adults were prepared to be exposed to new educational methods. Two stages of children's learning have been described in connection with tasting: practice and experience, and verbalization and reflection.

Objectives: Immigrants in Sweden have on average poorer health than native Swedes, including the risk of nutritional problems. In Sweden's multicultural society there is a need for increased knowledge about eating habits in public health work within health and education. A survey of refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina living in Sweden was undertaken to describe the choice of food and food traditions in pre-war Bosnia. The purpose was to introduce the subject of food, health and migration into public health work and develop culture-adapted food and health advice.

Design: Focus-group interviews were undertaken with a total of 20 women refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Results: Qualitative data analysis identified a large consumption of bread as a staple food with meat, vegetables, milk, cheese, legumes, egg and fish as additions. Self-sufficiency was noted with milk souring, jam making and the production of sweet fruit drinks. Home made cheese and drying or smoking of meat were common methods of food storage. In child rearing, breast-feeding for 6-8 months was most common. Home made breast milk replacements were made from semolina, rice and 'petit biscuits'.

Conclusion: Several important factors need to be taken into account when giving culturally adapted food and health advice to Bosnian families, such as encouraging bread, vegetable and legume consumption and giving advice on substituting sweet fruit drinks for natural fruit. One should be conscious of how religious beliefs as well as socio-cultural, historical, ecological, economical and psychological influences may guide food choices.

Detta arbete kommer att ta upp området muntlig marknadsföring, eller som det kallas internationellt ”word of mouth”, som en metod för att beskriva kunders medverkan till att marknadsföra ett tjänsteföretag, som t.ex. hotell. Begreppet marknadsföring innebär en rad aktiviteter som ett företag utför, för att locka kunder. En del av dessa aktiviteter kan vara annonsering, eller broschyrer, som hotellet delar ut.

Syftet med undersökningen är att se hur ett hotells gäster har fått kunskap om hotellet och hur ”word of mouth” (WOM) har påverkat dem i sitt val.

Den metod och det material som har använts är en enkät som har delats ut och besvarats av gäster på ett hotell vilket är beläget i Eskilstuna.

Resultatet av undersökningen visar att de flesta av de personer som deltog var positiva till ”word of mouth”.

Slutsatsen av denna undersökning är att ”word of mouth” påverkar kunder som bor, eller ska bo, på ett hotell. Men även blivande kunder påverkas, i och med att de får rekommendationer av andra. Därför kan det vara klokt av hotell som vill ha fler kunder att satsa på ”word of mouth” marknadsföring.

A gas chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry (GC-HRMS) method using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) for the determination of 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA) and 2,4,6-tribromoanisole (TBA) in wine at low ng L⁻¹ levels was developed. A robust SPME method was developed by optimizing several different parameters, including type of fiber, salt addition, sample volume, extraction and desorption time. The quantification limit for TCA and TBA in wine was lowered substantially using GC-HRMS in combination with the optimized SPME method and allowed the detection of low analyte concentrations (ng L⁻¹) with good accuracy. Limits of quantification for red wine of 0.3 ng L⁻¹ for TCA and 0.2 ng L⁻¹ for TBA with gas chromatography-negative chemical ionization mass spectrometry and 0.03 ng L⁻¹ for TCA and TBA were achieved using GC-HRMS. The method was applied to 30 wines of which 4 wines were sensorically qualified as cork defected. TCA was found in three of these wines with concentrations in the range 2–25 ng L⁻¹. TBA was not detected in any of the samples.