Popular Restaurants as strategies to fight hunger and to promote Food and Nutrition Security: an integrative review of scientific publications in the period 2011-2021

Restaurantes Populares como estratégias de combate à fome e de promoção da Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional: uma revisão integrativa de publicações científicas no período de 2011-2021

ABSTRACT

Objective

Evaluate the contribution of Popular Restaurants in promoting Food and Nutrition Security and fighting hunger.

Methods

This is an integrative review with searches performed in Scopus, Virtual Health Library, Directory of Open Access Journals, Scientific Electronic Library Online, Web of Science, PubMed and Google Scholar databases. The capture of studies was limited to the period from 2011 to 2021. The articles were categorized according to the focus of the evaluation carried out, conceptualization and thematic analysis procedures, and aggregated into five categories of analysis: 1) users’ profile; 2) food handlers; 3) leftovers, food loss and waste; 4) physical-functional structure; and 5) promotion of the human right to adequate food.

Results

35 articles were included. There was a predominance of a quantitative approach and, among the focus of the studies, the most recurrent was related to the “users’ profile” (54%), followed by the categories: “food handlers” (14%), “Leftovers, food loss and waste” (14%), “promotion of the Human Right to Adequate Food” (12%), and “physical-functional structure (6%). 88.5% of the studies discuss the equipment in a sectored way, evaluating specific items of the equipment and/or the population served. Only four studies discussed Popular Restaurants as promoters of the Human Right to Adequate Food.

Conclusion

There was a scarcity of the analyzed literature, attesting to the existing gap in the role of Popular Restaurants in the promotion of Food and Nutrition Security. It is recommended to carry out evaluative studies that can contribute to the qualification and expansion of Popular Restaurants as instruments to promote the Human Right to Adequate Food and fight hunger.

Keywords
Food security; Human right to adequate food; Public policy