Utilization and Application to Increase Egg Dishes in Communal Food Service in Accordance to Dietician’s Awareness

Purpose This study aims to provide important methods to increase egg usage eggs in communal food services, based on the knowledge and awareness of the dietician. Methods A survey on 200 dieticians in various aspects, such as egg purchase, utility, importance of egg dishes and allergy awareness was conducted. Results Dieticians’ highest consideration in purchasing eggs were cost (41.5%) and food safety certification (41.0%); the 88.6% of purchases were general egg. The most inconvenient issues in the purchase were inability to confirm freshness (42.0%), frequent breakage (23.5%) and inconvenience in shell disposal (18.5%). During the process of cooking, cracking egg shells (49.5%) and disposal of shells (14.0%) were marked as the major inconveniences. When questioned on intention to purchase liquid and powder eggs to overcome the shell disposal inconvenience, 64% answered no, with distrust in food safety (44.5%) being the major concern. The frequency of using eggs as the main ingredient was 1~2 times per week, with 49.0%. Food service customers favored rolled omelet (36.7%) and steamed egg (20.6%), and the most used utensil was the frying pan (56.5%). When important factors in egg dishes, namely diverse menu, taste, nutrition, consumer satisfaction and allergic reaction were surveyed, most answered that all 5 factors were important. Conclusion For increasing egg dish inclusions in communal food service, the safety assurance, increase in liquid and processed egg use, and supply of cooking utilities are necessary.This work was carried out with the support of Egg Board and WISET-2016-162ho as their research and investigation project