Current state of meal portion sizes and factors influencing them in educational and childcare facilities

教育・保育施設における給食提供サイズの現状と影響要因に関する研究

Current state of meal portion sizes and factors influencing them in educational and childcare facilities

Degree Grantors Yamaguchi Prefectural University

School lunches during early childhood play an important role in supporting the development of physical functions, including chewing ability, and fostering healthy eating habits and social skills. Simultaneously, foods that are difficult to chew can increase the risk of asphyxiation and choking; therefore, when determining portion sizes, it is necessary to balance the varying demands of promoting development while ensuring safety. Furthermore, portion size is closely related to the factors involved in meal service management, such as staffing and time constraints in food preparation. Focusing on food size as a common element underlying these issues, this study examines the actual conditions of meal portion sizes and their relationships with factors related to growth and development, safety, and meal service operations.
In Chapter 2, age-specific portion sizes provided in facilities were quantitatively assessed through menu analysis and direct measurement of food size, and their distributions and inter-facility differences were clarified. The results showed differences in size between meals for 2-year-olds and those for children aged ≥ 3 years, indicating that age- appropriate adjustments were made in some facilities. However, even within the same age category, the portion sizes differed across facilities. In particular, dishes for which the number of items per serving was predetermined showed large differences in size, whereas dishes containing multiple ingredients showed smaller differences.
In Chapter 3, a questionnaire survey of childcare and educational facilities was conducted to identify portion weights and sizes by age group, and to examine the factors associated with their determination. Portion sizes varied across facilities, revealing that approaches to treating children of the same age differed depending on the facility Furthermore, menu planners’ experience, frequency of meal rounds, use of outsourced food service providers, and collaboration with childcare staff were associated with portion size. Particularly, collaboration with childcare staff appeared to help prevent meals from being served in excessively small portion sizes. These findings suggest that portion sizes may be determined in practice regarding the experience of menu planners, observation of children’s eating behaviors, and organizational arrangements.
Chapter 4 integrates and discusses these findings from the perspectives of chewing development, safety, and meal service management. In particular, meal rounds provide valuable opportunities to confirm the ease of eating and safety in actual mealtime settings, and to feed this information back into menu planning and portion size adjustments. Facilities that conducted daily meal rounds provided slightly larger portion sizes, suggesting that the sizes were appropriately adjusted to promote the chewing function while maintaining safety. Therefore, the effective use of existing meal-round practices may contribute to the optimization of portion sizes.
Overall, meal portion sizes were associated with multiple factors, and on-site decisions appeared to be made according to local circumstances. However, without sufficiently standardized guidelines or benchmarks, these differences in judgment may contribute to variations in portion sizes across facilities. The findings of this study are expected to contribute to improving meal provision practices that support children’s growth and development in childcare and educational facilities while enhancing safety considerations.

Creators Terada Aki