Analysis of School Canteen Nurients

A. Characteristics of the dishes provided
i. List of dishes provided during lunch hours

1.    Fried flat noodles with sliced beef (Pic. 1) (Simple Recipes, 2009)

2.    Steamed rice with stir-fired egg and shrimp (Pic. 2) (Down Kitchen, n.d.)

3.    Baked pork chop with rice (Pic. 3) (Cookeryfamily, n.d.)

The nutrient content of above recipes is come from Recipe Analyzer of eaTracker in 2012.
ii. Define/describe nutritionally balanced meal 
According to student health service (2011), a balanced meal should include suitable portion of different kind of food to provide sufficient amount of nutrients and energy for growth and normal body functions. The Food Pyramid (Pic. 4) is the representation of a right portion. From the bottom to the top, food should service in a descending portion. From bottom are grains, fruits and vegetable, meat and dairy product. For lunch, we assume that should just provide one-third of daily energy and nutrient need. A balance meal can provide just adequate carbohydrate, protein, fat, fiber, wide range of vitamins and minerals. (British Liver Trust, 2011)
iii. Assess the nutrition quality of the dishes

The assessment is based on the US FDA Reference Values for Nutrient Labeling for a 2000 Kcal intake. It is suitable for adult and children above 4 years old. (USFDA, 2001)
For dish (1), it can provide wide range of vitamins and minerals. For example, beef provides sufficient amount of iron. However, the amount of calcium is two-third less than normal and the dietary fiber intake is little less than the normal. The dish outweighs the macronutrient intake for a meal which making the dish is more than half of daily calories intake, because the process in production of flat noodle including a lot of oil. The amount of protein nearly outweigh 4 times due to large amount of beef in dish. The heavy seasoning makes the amount of sodium is also extremely high, almost outweigh 5 times.
For dish (2), it can provide wide range of vitamins and minerals. However, some nutrient is still too little, such as potassium, fiber and calcium. Dietary fiber is the most insufficient due to nearly no vegetable inside the recipe. The shrimp and egg provide too much protein and cholesterol, nearly 3 times and 5.5 times of normal respectively. It making the dish is high in calories, fat and protein.
For(3), despite it also can provide wide range of vitamins and minerals, some of them nearly less than half of normal intake, such as fiber, calcium and iron. This dish provides too much energy, double of normal intake. The supply of carbohydrate, fat and protein are at least half more than the normal because of the pork chop and fried rice. The pork and egg also makes the cholesterol three times more than normal. Moreover, the seasoning and tomato sauce make double intake of sodium.

B. Hygienic condition of the canteen

Although the canteen looks clean and tidy, the risk of getting cross contamination among the food and tools is high.
Canteen has a trolley for storage of tableware. (Pic. 5) Every student can get them with bare hands which allow bacteria transfer from students’ hands to the rest of tableware. And the staff will not replace the tableware with a whole new packet. They just add the clean tableware above the old one. Therefore the clean one is contaminated by the old one.
After you have finished your meal, the tray will be retrieved in a corner. (Pic. 6) Staff cleans the tray with the same wet towel without washing and tray is put next to the rubbish bin. Then they put tray back to origin for the students to occupy. The bacteria can be transfer from the bin to tray.
During the preparation of food, the staff uses the same tong to garb different foods. (Pic. 7) If one of the foods is getting problem, it is easy to spread to other foods.
The last thing is about the personal hygiene of the staff, they are not always wear mask and gloves. Even they do wear a mask but they wear in a wrong way, like on their jaw or discover their nose.