Background Food away from home (FAFH) in the US is associated with adverse health outcomes, and food dollars spent on FAFH continues to increase. FAFH studies have typically focused on restaurants and carryout establishments, but mobile food vendors – popularly known in the US as food trucks – have become more numerous and are an understudied segment of FAFH. The objective of this study was to assess mobile food vendors, their attitudes toward health and nutrition, and the foods they serve. Methods This was a cross-sectional study of 41 mobile food vendors in Michigan, US. The survey contained questions about food and nutrition attitudes, such as barriers to putting healthy items on menus and perceived agreement with healthy food preparation practices. Participants were classified into a healthy and a less healthy attitude group based on whether they believed healthy menu items could be successful or not. In addition, participant menus were collected and analyzed according to whether menu items were healthy, moderately healthy, or unhealthy. Descriptive, univariate, and bivariate analyses were conducted. Results Two-thirds of the participants felt that healthy menu items could be successful, and yet taste and value were the most important menu item success factors, each rated as important by 100% of the participants. Low consumer demand was the biggest barrier to putting healthy items on the menu (76%) whereas lack of chef interest (29%) and need for special training (24%) were the smallest. 72% of the vendors offered at least one healthy menu item, but only 20% of all reviewed menu items were healthy overall. There was no difference in the proportion of menu items that were healthy when comparing those with healthy attitudes (23% of menu items healthy) to those less healthy attitudes (17% of menu items healthy, p = 0.349). Conclusions Mobile food vendors had positive views about putting healthy items on menus. However, a low proportion of menu items were classified as healthy. This suggests that mobile food vendors are promising potential public health partners in improving the health profile of FAFH, but that education of vendors is needed to ensure the success of healthier items. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-019-7075-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background (Background, Rationale, Prior Research, and/or Theory): The ways in which food is presented can influence the amount of food selected and consumed as well as how accurately those meals are perceived and recalled. Hence, if the method of food recall is modified through the use of incrementally changing plate sizes for participants to draw their meals on, they may align their food sizes to fit the plate rather than accurately reporting portion sizes. Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the association between plate size and meal recall through drawn food representations over a 10-week period. Study Design, Setting, Participants, Intervention: Using a longitudinal design, we had 293 undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory Nutrition lecture course draw their last night's meal for 10 weeks on either a 10.5" diameter plate, an 8.5" diameter plate, or a 10.5" diameter plate that was reduced in size by .2 inches every week. One hundred ninety-five students who completed >60% of their meal recalls, including the first and final weeks, were included for analysis. Outcome Measures and Analysis: One-way and twoway ANOVA as well as independent samples t-tests were used to compare total area, % of plate coverage, individual food group food portion size across Large, Small, and Incrementally-changing plates. Results: Participants provided with 10.5" diameter plates generally drew significantly more food on them than participants with 8.5" diameter plates (P = < .001). Participants provided with incrementally shrinking plates drew meal sizes similar to the large plates at week 1 and drew meal sizes similar to small plates by week 10. Conclusions and Implications: These findings suggest that people's conceptualization of previous meal consumption may be influenced by the size of the plate on which they draw upon, suggesting that the external environment can modify participant drawn recall of their meal sizes. Funding: None.

Objectives Food trucks have become very popular away from home food venues. Given their mobility and low overhead, food trucks are potential public health partners in delivering healthy options. However, there is lack of research about healthfulness of their offerings. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the healthfulness of food truck menu items. Methods This study was cross-sectional. Menus from all food trucks (n = 78) in the Detroit area were collected, including a total of 725 menu items. Nutritionist Pro was used to ascertain kilocalorie and nutrient content. Items were classified as healthy if less than 600 kilocalories, saturated fat &lt;=10% of kilocalories, and at least 10% the Daily Value of at least one of calcium, iron, protein, fiber, vitamin D, or potassium. Descriptive statistics and chi-square test results were calculated. Results A total of 178 items (24.6%) were classified as healthy. Most of the healthy items were entrée items (72.5%), but appetizer items were more likely (P = 0.005) and dessert items less likely (P &lt; .001) to be classified as healthy. Among 78 food trucks, there was wide variation in % of items deemed as healthy (range: 0–100%), with 55 (70.5%) offering at least one healthy item. Conclusions Findings of this novel study indicate that while food truck food is generally unhealthy, there is often at least one healthy item on a menu. Food trucks with higher percentages of healthy items likely have a more positive attitude toward healthy food preparation and may be more amenable to partnering on multi-level nutrition interventions involving food environment modification at venues like schools, worksites, community centers, and summer feeding programs. Funding Sources Oakland University School of Health Sciences Research Award.