Investigation of the Volume of Food Waste in Qaem and Imam Reza Hospitals in Mashhad, Iran

Objective: Food waste is a progressive concern and is contributed to reduce energy and protein intake. The aim of this study is to investigate the amount of food waste in different wards of Qaem and Imam Reza hospitals of Mashhad. Design and subjects: This cross-sectional study was performed during one week in the Imam Reza and Qaem hospitals. The study population consisted  of 425 patients in some wards of two hospitals. We selected participants non-randomly from patients who are hospitalized in two hospitals. The rate of food waste was measured just in lunch meal by using the food residual observational check list. All statistical analyses were done through SPSS version 16. Descriptive statistic was used to define baseline characteristics. Independent sample T-test was used for comparison of food waste between main course and appetizer, crosstab and chi-square test for comparing the main course and appetizer waste based on sex, hospitals and wards and ANOVA used for comparison of age between different degrees of food waste. Results: In this study 13.9% of the patients left their food in plate entirely. Food wastage in appetizer was significantly higher than main course (P < 0.001). Also less patients in Qaem hospital than Imam Reza left all of their food (27.84 vs 22%) (p=0.003). Food wastage in the Heart ward was significantly higher than other wards (P=0.006). Conclusion: Food waste vary by the different hospitals and wards, so in order to decrease the food waste, serving meals based on the wards and patient requirements is a good solution

Nutritional requirements and actual dietary intake of adult burn patients

Background: Nutritional support of the burn patient is essential to optimize, host immune defenses and to promote prompt wound healing. Furthermore, the increased needs in calorie requirement of burned patients, the composition of proteins, carbohydrates and fats in their diet is important. The purpose of this study was to evaluate energy, macronutrient and micronutrient intake and comparing with Reference Daily Intake (RDI) in adult burn patients. Methods: Sixty thermally injured patients who were hospitalized in a burn care Imam Reza hospital in Mashhad, Iran, were included in this cross-sectional study. Information about actual intake was collected by ‘nutrient intake analysis (NIA) through direct observation. Individual nutritional intakes were assessed with the use of nutritionist 4 software and Data was analyzed by SPSS version 18. Results: The mean of energy, carbohydrate and protein intake was significantly lower than the mean total energy requirement and carbohydrate and protein RDA (