From among the sources on school catering, the study chose menus as the subject of
its analysis, focusing on menus in several time periods, including the most recent
menus available on the Internet for April 2022. The investigation carried out in the
framework of NKFIH research No.128925, called The social embeddedness of children’s
public catering. Issues and opportunities, also chose this topic in light of the impact
of the 2020–2021 coronavirus pandemic, taking into consideration the framework and
impact of the development of diets, raw materials, quantities, kitchen technologies,
and flavoring as set out by the 2011 guidelines and then the 2014 legislation. In addition
to the menus available on the Internet, it was also possible to get a glimpse of the
organizational operation of school catering on the example of the settlement of Alsónémedi.
In the case of two schools in Budapest, I analyzed an eight-week menu from 2013 consisting
of three meals a day, and for the 2022–2023 school year, a menu also consismeals a
day (breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack), reviewing 154 days for the main meals and
39 days for the two snacks. The experiences indicate the most important processes
defined in the legislation that affect healthy nutrition, whereas, in the case of other
menus available on the Internet but not included in the analysis at this time, the
information primarily aimed at parents – which could help in expanding and planning
a variety of meals at home – is not comprehensive, and often minimal. At the same
time, my most recent and mainly rural experiences show that printed menus, at least
for the given calendar week, can be found at public catering locations and/or schools
in places accessible to parents. The purpose of this analysis did not cover the monitoring
of daily deviations from the menu that became necessary in practice or the increase
in food prices in the most recent period. The personal opinions of those involved
in public catering on designing the menus could be the subject of a subsequent analysis.