Oakland University School of Health Sciences, 433 Meadow Brook Road, 3102 Human Health Building, Rochester, MI, 48309, USA.
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Room W2041, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2019 Jun 13;19(1):744. doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-7075-8.
Food away from home (FAFH) in the US is associated with adverse health outcomes, and food dollars spent on FAFH continues to increase. FAFH studies have typically focused on restaurants and carryout establishments, but mobile food vendors - popularly known in the US as food trucks - have become more numerous and are an understudied segment of FAFH. The objective of this study was to assess mobile food vendors, their attitudes toward health and nutrition, and the foods they serve.
This was a cross-sectional study of 41 mobile food vendors in Michigan, US. The survey contained questions about food and nutrition attitudes, such as barriers to putting healthy items on menus and perceived agreement with healthy food preparation practices. Participants were classified into a healthy and a less healthy attitude group based on whether they believed healthy menu items could be successful or not. In addition, participant menus were collected and analyzed according to whether menu items were healthy, moderately healthy, or unhealthy. Descriptive, univariate, and bivariate analyses were conducted.
Two-thirds of the participants felt that healthy menu items could be successful, and yet taste and value were the most important menu item success factors, each rated as important by 100% of the participants. Low consumer demand was the biggest barrier to putting healthy items on the menu (76%) whereas lack of chef interest (29%) and need for special training (24%) were the smallest. 72% of the vendors offered at least one healthy menu item, but only 20% of all reviewed menu items were healthy overall. There was no difference in the proportion of menu items that were healthy when comparing those with healthy attitudes (23% of menu items healthy) to those less healthy attitudes (17% of menu items healthy, p = 0.349).
Mobile food vendors had positive views about putting healthy items on menus. However, a low proportion of menu items were classified as healthy. This suggests that mobile food vendors are promising potential public health partners in improving the health profile of FAFH, but that education of vendors is needed to ensure the success of healthier items.
美国的外出就餐（FAFH）与不良健康结果有关，用于 FAFH 的食品支出持续增加。FAFH 的研究通常集中在餐馆和外卖店，但流动食品摊贩 - 在美国通常被称为食品卡车 - 已经变得更加普遍，并且是 FAFH 中一个研究不足的部分。本研究的目的是评估流动食品摊贩、他们对健康和营养的态度以及他们提供的食品。
这是一项在美国密歇根州的 41 名流动食品摊贩的横断面研究。该调查包含有关食物和营养态度的问题，例如在菜单上添加健康食品的障碍以及对健康食品准备实践的看法。参与者根据他们是否认为健康的菜单项目可以成功分为健康和不健康的态度组。此外，根据菜单项目是否健康、中等健康或不健康，收集和分析参与者的菜单。进行了描述性、单变量和双变量分析。
三分之二的参与者认为健康的菜单项目可以成功，然而味道和价值是最重要的菜单项目成功因素，每个因素都被 100%的参与者认为是重要的。将健康食品列入菜单的最大障碍是消费者需求低（76%），而厨师兴趣低（29%）和特殊培训需求（24%）是最小的。72%的摊贩提供至少一种健康的菜单项目，但只有 20%的审查菜单项目总体上是健康的。比较具有健康态度的摊贩（23%的菜单项目健康）和不那么健康态度的摊贩（17%的菜单项目健康，p=0.349），健康菜单项目的比例没有差异。
流动食品摊贩对在菜单上添加健康食品持积极态度。然而，只有一小部分菜单项目被归类为健康。这表明流动食品摊贩是改善 FAFH 健康状况的有前途的潜在公共卫生合作伙伴，但需要对摊贩进行教育，以确保更健康食品的成功。
