Desperdício de alimentos e a alimentação escolar: representações sociais dos manipuladores de alimentos

Abstract

The objective was to identify the social representations of food handlers from public municipal educational units about the use of food. Qualitative exploratory cross-sectional study. Data collected through a semi-structured questionnaire. The free word evocation test was used, with the inducing term "Food use", with hierarchization of evocations and justification of the importance attributed to the first word listed, by the collective subject discourse technique. Five central elements were listed, with emphasis on "Hygienization", 17 intermediate ones among which the representational component of interest of the study, "Waste" and related words were identified; and six peripheral ones, with "Health" being the most readily evoked word. It was found that effective educational actions on the theme "waste" in the school feeding scenario should be applied, in order to place this theme as close as possible to the universe of appropriation of food handlers, so that the reduction of food waste becomes a frequent care in the routine of these workers.