Resumo

PEREIRA, Nuno  e  AVILA, Helena. The New Technologies in Contract Catering Development. Acta Port Nutr [online]. 2015, n.2, pp.14-20. ISSN 2183-5985.

In the last two decades of the last century, the prospect of new businesses created an increasing demand for more and better technologies, which allowed to deal with rising competition and customer expectations, and with the need for companies to adapt to new social and health related contexts. This paper intended to review the technologies developed and used in the contract catering business, as well as the ways in which these developments led to changes in the field. The literature review was based on scientific references, institutional links and related books, through the use of key expressions, infra referred. The contract catering covers a wide range of services related to food management, involving the preparation and service of meals for people who work, study, temporarily stay or reside in public or private organizations and from the third sector. The concern with the improvement of food preservation’s procedures promoted multiples technological developments. Also, the need to feed faster and more efficiently a growing number of people, supported the developments of meal production systems which allowed these purposes to be achieved, such as the cook-serve systems, cook-hot-hold (cook- warm-hold), the cook-freeze and cook-chill, as well as other methods of producing safe food, such as Steamplicity, Sous Vide, Pasteurization, Hurdle technology and Hot fill. In recent years contract catering developed mainly in what concerns computer management systems (information technology applications). The industry began to use “online” solutions that enable integrated and cross operations within the entire organization, from accounting and financial area to the management of purchases, human resources, quality and all operational activity. A plethora of new technological advances, including computer and logistics applications now integrate and support the food sector, both at operational and at administrative management level. New technologies across the food sector and contract catering, are presented as major factors of development, and as such, should be privileged, through a conscious use.

Palavras-chave : Contract catering innovation; Catering innovation; Contract catering; Catering technology; Food technology.

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