Analysis of the providing nutritional and health information in commercial restaurants in the municipality of Campinas, SP., Brazil.

Resumo: A maior preocupacao do consumidor com qualidade dos alimentos torna-o mais atento e exigente quanto aos seus diferentes atributos, em especial, a qualidade nutricional. E importante destacar que a alimentacao fora do lar tem crescido, especialmente nas grandes cidades. Neste sentido, em 1996, a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulamentou a rotulagem nutricional em cardapios de restaurantes dos Estados Unidos. No Brasil, esse tipo de regulamentacao nao existe, porem, algumas iniciativas individuais por parte de alguns proprietarios de restaurantes estao surgindo, gerando a necessidade de apoio governamental. A presente pesquisa tem como objetivos a identificacao e caracterizacao, em amostra de restaurantes comerciais, das iniciativas de provimento de informacao nutricional e/ou de saude, avaliacao dos beneficios e obstaculos observados pelos gerentes para disponibilizar esse tipo de informacao e avaliacao do grau de interesse, em adotar futuramente essa medida, pelos gerentes que ainda nao a empregam, assim como suas expectativas quanto aos beneficios e obstaculos decorrentes do oferecimento de informacao nutricional e/ou de saúde em seus estabelecimentos. A pesquisa foi realizada no municipio de Campinas - SP, entre outubro e dezembro de 2005. Do total de 107 restaurantes fast food e 507 restaurantes full service, divididos segundo as cinco regioes de Campinas, foram entrevistados, com base em amostragem aleatoria estratificada, 20 e 94 gerentes de cada tipo de estabelecimento, respectivamente. Apos a coleta das informacoes, foi construido um banco de dados utilizando o software Excel. As analises estatisticas envolveram o teste do qui-quadrado, o teste t de Student e o teste ANOVA, seguido do teste de medias de LSD (Least Square Difference). Os softwares estatisticos utilizados para a elaboracao das analises foram o XLSTAT versao 2006.06 e o MINITAB versao 14.2. Entre os principais resultados destaca-se que em 25,4% dos restaurantes se disponibiliza informacao nutricional e/ou de saude. A frequencia de oferecimento dessas informacoes e significativamente maior entre as redes de fast food do que entre os restaurantes full service. Na opiniao dos gerentes, em relacao ao grau de importancia dos beneficios e obstaculos decorrentes do oferecimento de informação nutricional e/ou de saude, o fator "aumentar o faturamento" apresentou-se como o beneficio menos importante e o fator "falta de receitas que detalhem os ingredientes e as respectivas quantidades", como um dos obstaculos mais importantes. Para os gerentes que nao aplicam a informacao nutricional e/ou de saude em seus estabelecimentos, o fator "melhorar a imagem do servico de alimentacao" e o beneficio esperado de maior importancia e, entre os obstaculos, o fator "aumento do custo de operacionalizacao" e a preocupacao maior entre eles. Ha necessidade de se conceber a regulamentacao das informacoes nutricionais e de saude pelo poder publico levando-se em conta caracteristicas especificas dos servicos de alimentacao. Ja que o aumento de custo e relatado como um dos obstaculos mais importantes na manutencao da informacao nutricional e/ou de saude em restaurantes, incentivos deveriam ser criados pelas autoridades publicas com vistas a encorajar os proprietarios desses estabelecimentos a adotarem tal politica.Abstract: The greater concern about food quality has made consumers more attentive and demanding with respect to the various food attributes, especially the nutritional quality. It is important to emphasize that eating out of home has increased, especially in the larger cities. Thus, in 1996, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulated nutritional labeling in U.S. restaurant menus. In Brazil, this type of regulation does not exist, however, some individual initiatives on the part of some restaurants? owners is appearing, generating the necessity of governmental support. The present survey has as objectives the identification and characterization, in sample of commercial restaurants, from the provision initiatives of nutritional information and/or health, evaluation of benefits and obstacles observed by managers to make available this type of information and evaluation of the interest level, by adopting it in the future, for those managers who do not follow it, as well as their expectation in relation to the benefits and obstacles decurrently from the nutritional information and/or health offered in the. The survey was carried out in the municipality of Campinas, S.P., Brazil, between October and December of 2005. From a total of 107 fast food restaurants and 507 full service restaurants, divided according to the five regions in Campinas, on the basis of stratified random sampling, twenty and ninety-four managers from each type of establishment, respectively, were interviewed. After collecting the information, a data bank was constructed using the Excel software. The statistical analyses involved the chi-square test, Student t-test and ANOVA, followed by the LSD means test (Least Square Difference). The statistical softwares used for the elaboration of the analyses were the XLSTAT version 2006.06 and MINITAB version 14.2. It is highlighted among the main results that in 25,4% of the restaurants nutritional information and/or health is made available. The frequency of offering such information was significantly higher amongst the fast food chains than amongst the full service restaurants. In the opinion of managers, in relation to the level of importance of benefits and obstacles decurrently from the nutritional information and/or health offered, the factor "increase the revenues" was presented as the benefit less important and the factor "lack of recipes that details the ingredients and the respective amounts", as one of the obstacles most important. For the who do not apply the nutritional information and/or health in the establishments, the factor "improve the image of the catering service" is the benefit of higher importance expected and, among the obstacles, the factor "increase the operational cost" is the greatest concern among them. There is a need for the public authorities to conceive regulation of the policy of providing nutritional and health information, taking into consideration the specific characteristics of the catering services. Since the cost increase is stated to be as one of the obstacles most important in the maintenance of the nutritional information and/or health in restaurants, incentives should be created by public authorities with sights to encourage the owners of these establishments to adopt such a policy