João Lima

How do university workers eat at the workplace

Purpose Food consumed at work can be brought from home or taken in private or university restaurants. Knowing the contribution of food consumption in the workplace allows for the identification of bad practices to modulate food availability in the work environment and raise consumer awareness for a more balanced food intake. This paper aims to characterize food consumption and to determine the contribution of food consumption at the workplace to daily food intake of employees of the University of Porto (UP). Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional observational study was conducted. The project was approved by Ethical Commission of the UP. The principles of Helsinquia Declaration were respected and the workers under examine accept to participate in the study, through an inform consent. Data were obtained through the application of a self-administrated questionnaire and through the application of a questionnaire including a 24 h recall. There were assessed 513 individuals randomly selected, and the majority of them were women. Findings In total, 92.8 per cent of them preferred to have meals at the workplace that contributed to about 39.6 per cent of the daily energy intake. Reported food consumption at the workplace contributed about 42.6 per cent of carbohydrates, 39.4 per cent of total fat and 36.8 per cent of proteins for daily intake. A low intake of water (39.2 per cent of whole ingestion) and a huge amount and contribution of the workplace (48.4 per cent) to daily sugar intake was observed. Higher nutritional intake was observed for women (p < 0.05). The energy contribution of meals at the workplace is in accordance with recommendations, except for breakfast, that is below. Originality/value This work allows to characterize food habits of university employees at the workplace and the identification of the contribution of meals eaten at the workplace for daily energy and nutritional intake. These data allow to modulate food availability in the work environment and raise consumer awareness for a more balanced food intake.

Perceptions towards a healthy diet among a sample of university people in Portugal

A healthy diet has been recognized as one of the most important factors associated with maintaining human health and helping in preventing the development of some chronic diseases. Therefore, this paper aims to study the perceptions of a sample of university people regarding a healthy diet.,It was undertaken a descriptive cross-sectional study on a non-probabilistic sample of 382 participants. The data were collected among a sample of Portuguese university people and measured whether people’s perceptions were compliant with a healthy diet.,The results revealed that the participants’ perceptions were, in general, compliant with a healthy diet (scores between 0.5 and 1.5, on a scale from −2 to +2). However, significant differences were found between age groups (p = 0.004), with a higher average score for young adults, and also between groups with different levels of education (p = 0.025), with a higher score for university degree. The variable chronic diseases also showed significant differences (p = 0.017), so that people who did not have any chronic diseases obtained a higher score.,This study is considered important because it provides evidences about the relation between nutrition knowledge and the perceptions towards a healthy diet. The study allowed concluding that the participants were aware about some nutritional aspects of their diets and, therefore, their perceptions were compliant with a healthy diet. This finding is very relevant because it could be a support for health policy initiatives directed at promoting healthy eating behaviours.

Solid phase microextraction method for characterizing the organic fraction of an industrial brine stream

ABSTRACT The manufacturing process of DOW Chemical Company in Portugal produces a brine stream containing organic contaminants. For recovering the sodium chloride by-product, it is necessary to fully characterize this brine stream. With this purpose, a direct immersion-solid phase microextraction-gas chromatograph (SPME-GC) analytical method was successfully optimized and implemented, being possible to quantify accurately, with reproducibility, the organic fraction at ppb levels. The effects of salt content, extraction time, temperature, and pH were investigated, and the SPME experimental conditions optimized. For the poly(dimethylsyloxane-co-divinylbenzene) fiber utilized, the resulting parameters were: 25% (wt.) of NaCl, 30 min, 20°C, and pH 11. The fiber desorption was performed at 250°C for 15 min. The calibration curves of the representative organics of the brine (benzenamine, cyclohexanamine, 2-methylbenzenamine, N–cyclohexylcyclohexanamine, cyclohexyl alcohol, nitrobenzene, cyclohexanone, and 4-phe...