Meals on Wheels (MoWs) are critical in enabling adults with care and support needs to live independently. However, many individuals are unaware that the service exists. The aim of this study was to review the websites of local authorities in the UK, and those of 3^rd-party providers they signpost to, to establish the quality of online information available on MoWs services, and the websites’ overall quality. Two data capture forms were used to extract information from local authority and 3^rd-party providers, consisting of 35 items across five domains, and 36 items across five domains, respectively. Items were awarded a score based on whether certain criteria were met or not, resulting in a maximum total score of 50 and 43 points for each local authority, and 3^rd-party provider, website, respectively. A total of 271 websites (223 local authority and 48 3^rd-party provider) were reviewed. The mean total score was 14.9 (SD 10.6, range: 1-40 points) for local authority websites, and 21.4 (SD 5.3, range: 10-35 points) for 3^rd-party provider websites. For all websites combined, online provision of MoWs information was generally poor, with the vast majority of websites (69.4%, n=188) assessed as requiring improvement, whereas only 4.4% of websites (n=12) were assessed as very good. These findings suggest that local authorities and 3^rd-party providers in the UK should seek to improve their online information provision on MoWs to enhance awareness of the service, and ensure that potential service users, and individuals who refer them to the service, can access high-quality information on MoWs.

Meals on Wheels (MoWs) provide access to daily meals and social contact to adults with care and support needs.MoWs could be essential for the increasing rates of an ageing population and adults living with complex needs in England, yet many do not know that the service exists. This study aimed to explore the perceptions of MoWs service users, and people who refer them to MoWs (‘referrers’), with accessing and setting up the service in England, and what information would be valued when considering accessing MoWs services.Semi-structured interviews were conducted in May-July 2022 with seven service users and 21 referrers, recruited from four MoWs providers across England. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Participants indicated various pathways into the service, but referrers (family members) were more likely to be the ones enquiring about, and setting up, MoWs for service users. Once an enquiry about MoWs had been made, the service was perceived as straightforward to set up.However, existing preconceptions and stereotypes about the service (e.g. bringing to mind ‘school meals’, aimed solely at older adults) were perceived to act as barriers to accessing MoWs.Information that participants deemed important to have available when deciding on whether to access MoWs related to the meals (e.g. nutritional value, variety, need for any preparation, catering for individual needs), the specific services provided (e.g. wellbeing checks, daily social contact), the reliability and flexibility of delivery, and the cost of services. These findings could inform MoWs providers’ public awareness strategies about MoWs, in order to facilitate referrals to the service for adults with care and support needs.

School meals can have a key function in promoting children’s health. However, simply providing a free school meal is not a guarantee that pupils will actually eat the food. The purpose of this study was to explore factors influencing pupils’ participation in free school meal schemes in Oslo The study has a qualitative research design, inspired by grounded theory. Data were collected through interviews with pupils, teachers and parents, and participant observations in two schools participating in a pilot project funded by Oslo Municipality. Line-by-line coding, memo writing and a constant comparative technique were used to analyse the data. One primary school and one lower-secondary school in different districts in Oslo that were implementing two different free school meal models. 39 pupils (5th–10th grade), 15 parents and 12 school employees were included. Four main factors related to pupils’ participation to free school meals emerged from the analysis: the popularity of the food served, the attraction to the nearby shopping centre, social aspects and predictability. To promote pupils’ participation in free school meal schemes, schools need to solve the challenges of balancing between healthy food and popular but often unhealthy food. Children and parents involvement, regularity of the meals provision, a good flow of information and the creation of a friendly eating environment are recommended

This study investigated the effects of three oil production methods on the physicochemical properties of dietary fiber from rice bran flour, and the hypolipidemic effects of the dietary fibers were investigated in vitro and in vivo. The particle size results showed that the organic solvent-impregnated rice bran meal dietary fiber (N-RBDF) had the smallest average particle size and the aqueous enzymatic rice bran meal dietary fiber (E-RBDF) had the narrowest particle size distribution. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results demonstrated that all three kinds of rice bran meal dietary fibers (RBDF) were irregularly flaky. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) results revealed that the three RBDFs had similar reactive groups, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicated that all three RBDFs were cellulose type I crystals. The results of thermogravimetric analysis showed that the lignin content of N-RBDF was significantly lower than that of the other two. Among the three kinds of RBDFs, E-RBDF had higher water retention capacity, swelling capacity, oil holding capacity, and adsorption capacity for cholesterol and sodium bile salts. The results of experimental studies in hyperlipidemic rats showed that all three kinds of RBDFs significantly reduced triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and elevated high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) in serum of hyperlipidemic rats; they also significantly lowered malondialdehyde (MDA) and elevated total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activities in liver of rats. In addition, all three kinds of RBDFs decreased aminotransferase (ALT) and aminotransferase (AST) activity in serum and also improved liver steatosis and reduced atherosclerosis index (AI) in rats with hyperlipidemia. Our study provides a reference for the development and utilization of rice bran meal and the application of rice bran meal dietary fiber in food processing.

There is great potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) from public sector meals. This paper aimed to develop a strategy for reducing GHGE in the Swedish school food supply without compromising nutritional adequacy, affordability, and cultural acceptability. Amounts, prices and GHGE-values for all foods and drinks supplied to three schools over one year were gathered. The amounts were optimized by linear programming. Four nutritionally adequate models were developed: Model 1 minimized GHGE while constraining relative deviation (RD) from observed food supply; Model 2 minimized total RD while imposing stepwise GHGE reductions; Model 3 additionally constrained RD for individual foods to an upper and lower limit; and Model 4 further controlled how ratios between food groups could deviate. Models 1 and 2 reduced GHGE by up to 95% but omitted entire food categories or increased the supply of some individual foods by more than 800% and were deemed unfeasible. Model 3 reduced GHGE by up to 60%, excluded no foods, avoided high RDs of individual foods, but resulted in large changes in food group ratios. Model 4 limited changes in food group ratios but resulted in a higher number of foods deviating from the observed supply and limited the potential of reducing GHGE. Cost was reduced in almost all solutions. An omnivorous, nutritionally adequate, and affordable school food supply, with considerably lower GHGE is achievable with moderate changes to the observed food supply. Trade-offs will always have to be made between achieving GHGE reductions and preserving similarity to the current supply.

Sleep timing is one of the dimensions of sleep that refers to the time of day when sleep occurs. It was included in sleep-related research because of the potential associations between overweight and consumption of meals and snacks. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate associations between sleep timing, meal and snack consumption, and weight status in 1333 schoolchildren aged 7-14 years. The midpoint of sleep was used as a sleep timing measure obtained by the midpoint between bedtime and wake-up time and classify as Early, intermediate, and Late. Schoolchildren in the Early group were less likely to be overweight (OR: 0.83, 95% CI 0.69; 0.99), had higher odds of mid-morning snack consumption (OR: 1.95, 95%CI 1.56; 2.44) and lower probability to consume the evening snack (OR: 0.75, 95%CI 0.59; 0.94) compared with the Intermediate group. The Late group had lower odds of mid-morning snack consumption (OR: 0.67, 95%CI 0.55, 0.80) than the Intermediate group. The consumption of mid-morning and evening snacks was associated with the Early and the Late midpoint of sleep. These results suggest that bedtime and wake-up time are relevant to consuming meals and snacks and may also be related to a greater probability of being overweight in children and adolescents.

Individuals with metabolic syndrome have increased risk for developing health conditions, in-cluding cardiovascular diseases and stroke. Modifiable risk factors, such as exercise and diet, are key components in the prevention and control of metabolic syndrome. Specifically, dietary pat-terns and habits are extremely successful in controlling more than one of the metabolic syn-drome risk factors. Meal timing and frequency have been associated with type 2 diabetes, cardi-ovascular diseases, and other chronic conditions. However, there is limited evidence linking metabolic syndrome to meal timing and meal frequency. This review summarizes and discusses how meal timing and frequency impact metabolic outcomes in adults.

Background: School meals represent a significant supply of nutrients for children in Brazil, especially those in conditions of social vulnerability. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the levels of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb) in meals served in public elementary schools in four municipalities in the state of Bahia, Brazil, and assess the risk posed to children's health. Methods: Ninety-six samples were collected from 16 schools, freeze-dried, and subjected to microwave-assisted digestion. The As, Cd, and Pb levels were determined by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. The risk assessment was based on calculating each element's hazard quotient (HQ). Results: None of the samples reached or exceeded the tolerable levels for the elements analyzed. Pb was the metal that obtained the most significant result, reaching maximum levels of 39-157 µg.kg-¹. Conclusions: No element exceeded the PTWI proposed by JECFA; thus, the toxic metal content in school meals poses a negligible risk to children´s health.

Dietary habits, including meal frequency, meal timing, and skipping meals, have been extensively studied due to their association with the development of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This study describes dietary habits, meal timing, meal frequency, skipping meals, and late-night eating in Kuwaiti adults. The Kuwait National Nutrition Surveillance System data was utilized to reach the objectives of this study. The findings reveal that approximately 50% of the adults in Kuwait eat after 10 p.m., 29% skip breakfast, and 9.8% skip dinner. Furthermore, adults in Kuwait consume 4.4 meals per day on average. Women skip breakfast more often and have extended night fasting than men (p<0.001). Married adults skip breakfast and dinner less than unmarried adults (p<0.001). In conclusion, this descriptive study provides valuable insights into the dietary habits of Kuwaiti adults, emphasizing the importance of further investigating the association between meal timing, meal frequency, and the prevalence of NCDs in Kuwait.

School Feeding Programmes are social safety net interventions providing educational and health benefits to vulnerable children in developing countries. This study assessed the impact of Osun Elementary School Feeding and Health Programme (O-MEALS) on the enrolment and retention of rural primary schools in Osun State. Multi stage sampling technique was used to select 188 respondents while data was collected through interview schedule. Percentages, Chi-square, PPMC and T-test were used for data analysis. Findings revealed that over half (51.6%) of the respondents were male, aged 9.38 ± 1.84 years and majority (83.0%) had a family size of 6-10 people. Food incentives (=1.25), health challenge (=0.69), and peer influence (=0.67) were major factors affecting school attendance. More than half (53.2%) of the respondents had unfavourable perception towards the school feeding programme. Results showed a significant difference between pupils’ enrolment (t = 5.332, p = 0.006) and retention rate (t = 58.386, p = 0.000) before and after the commencement of O-MEALS. Furthermore, pupils’ enrolment and retention (r = 0.993, p = 0.001) after the commencement of O-MEALS was significantly related. Food incentive was a major factor affecting school attendance, which fostered an improvement in the poor enrolment and retention previously experienced. Since a good number of the pupils possessed unfavourably perception towards the school feeding programme, it was recommended that effective monitoring be established to checkmate food vendors’ activities in delivering quality and satisfactory services. Likewise, the Government’s policies on school restructuring and levy, which had proved counterproductive, should be reviewed.