Angela C. Dufour

Ensuring food safety and infection control in large‐scale foodservice operations is critical to protecting health in mass feeding environments, including athletes' dining halls and institutional dining settings. Athletes at major competitions are at risk of illness in overcrowded dining areas, especially where foodservice safety standards are inconsistent. Objectives: This study aimed to (1) develop and pilot‐test a Foodservice Provision Audit Tool for Sport (FPAT‐S) at two major sport competitions to evaluate compliance with infection control and food safety measures, and (2) determine its inter‐rater reliability. Methods: The FPAT‐S was tested by health professionals during the 2022 Canada Summer ( n = 12) and 2023 Winter Games ( n = 9). The tool included 19 questions with binary, multiple‐choice, and Likert scale responses. Compliance trends over time and inter‐rater reliability were analyzed. Results: Hand sanitizer availability exceeded 75% compliance and improved over time, whereas staff sanitation compliance declined by the end of both events. Physical distancing compliance remained below 50% throughout. Binary response questions showed moderate agreement (κ = 0.471, p = 0.028) between auditors compared to scale and multiple‐choice questions during the Summer phase, while agreement was lower and non‐significant for scale and multiple‐choice responses in both phases. Auditor variability was attributed to subjectivity and audit timing. Conclusion: The FPAT‐S provides a structured approach to assessing food safety and infection control in mass foodservice settings. With refinement, it can support dietitians and foodservice managers in maintaining compliance across a range of institutional and commercial operations, beyond sporting events, and inform future public health infection control strategies.

Aim: In 2021, infection control guidelines, including those specific to feeding environments, were introduced by the International Olympic and Paralympic Committees to reduce virus transmission at the Tokyo 2020 Summer and Beijing 2022 Winter games. This observational cross‐sectional study aimed to investigate caterers' compliance to these guidelines which included measures for personal hygiene, sanitisation, and physical distancing at these events.Methods: Expert sport dietitians attending Tokyo (n = 15) and Beijing (n = 7) games were surveyed to rate 11 COVID‐19 countermeasures as fully (100%), partially or non‐compliant at nine dining locations across both events. Descriptive analysis of each countermeasure based on observed compliance and location was conducted and reported as a proportion of the total responses. To better understand participant perspectives of the factors influencing compliance, open responses were systematically coded into themes and sub‐themes by researchers through content analysis. Themes generated from participant comments were categorised based on their relevance to specific countermeasures and locations to identify commonalities and disparities in participant experiences, perceptions, and observations.Results: All main dining halls at both events were observed as 100% compliant to countermeasures on more occasions compared with Tokyo's venues and satellite villages. However, Beijing's three main dining halls, showed a greater compliance compared with Tokyo's main dining hall, likely due to overcrowding in Tokyo. Comments suggested that smaller dining spaces, with overcrowding, may have contributed to reduced compliance to physical distancing measures. Food safety concerns were raised about gastrointestinal distress in Beijing due to food cross‐contamination.Conclusion: Findings suggest that the food service environment may influence caterers' abilities to comply with foodservice safety and infection control guidelines. In the post‐pandemic era, enhanced quality control and standardised risk mitigation strategies are needed to improve athletes' health at international sporting events.

Over the past 2 years, the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a pronounced impact on the foodservice sector, including compliance to new food provision guidelines. International sporting events’ over-crowded communal eating areas are considered to be high-risk areas for contracting infectious disease. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions, level of preparedness and perceived challenges of key stakeholders when providing food at major athletic competition events during a global pandemic. A qualitative methodology was employed using semi-structure interviews and data was analyzed using interpretive phenomenology. Inductive thematic analysis identified six major themes of COVID-19′s impact on foodservice systems. Adapting foodservice models to pandemic planning is pre-determined and dictated by settings and environments. There were common heightened concerns over sustainability practices, increase in waste management, costs and negative impact on social dining experience, which were all perceived to be impacted by the changes relevant to COVID-19. There was a renewed attention to improving food safety and quality control measures. The outcomes of this study suggest that International organizing committees of major competitions must now be tasked with updated guidelines, including supporting adequate budgets and communication, if stakeholders are to adapt their operations to control the spread of viruses, such as COVID-19, within all foodservice operations at major competitions. Attention should be directed to determine whether food provision changes continue to be recommended and how this will impact foodservice delivery, sustainability and the social dining experience at future sporting events.