University of the Immaculate Conception

Research and Publication Center

Research Agenda for Nutrition & Dietetics

(2016-2018)

Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics (BSND) is a discipline whose program is designed
to prepare students the needed knowledge and skills on its three area of specialization which is
the Hospital Nutrition, Community (Public Health) Nutrition and Food Service. Various
responsibilities accorded to a licensed nutritionist such as the assessment of the nutritional needs,
individual counselling, preparing and administering budget for foods to name few. The
university, in response to the dynamic world is consistently striving to conduct researches with
priorities on areas such as: public health nutrition, food technology, clinical nutrition therapy,
food service management, technology and other nutrition concerns.

1. Public Health Nutrition- The Nutrition and Dietetics profession’s one area of concern is the
public health nutrition whose area of concentration is emphasizing the application of food and
nutrition knowledge, policy, and research to the improvement of health of populations. Thus,
there is always a need to study on the:

a. Nutrition Education Information, Education and Communication (IEC)

Materials
b. Case Studies in Public Health Nutrition
c. Nutritional Behavior
d. Evaluation of Nutrition Programs and Services
e. Capacity building among the public health workers
f. Nutritional Assessment

2. Food Technology is a branch of food science that deals with the production processes that
make foods. A nutritionist is not only concern with the nutrition of the food takers but must also
know the application of food science to the selection, preservation, processing, packaging,
distribution and use of safe foods. Thus, included in the proposed agenda of the program is:

a. Product Development
b. Food Preservation in Organic
c. Functional Food
d. Development of Food Fortificants
e. Emergency Feeding

3. Clinical Nutrition Therapy is nutrition of patients in health care. It incorporates primarily the
scientific fields of nutrition and dietetics. Many who are in the health care facilities still needs
nutrition to keep them a healthy energy balance as well as get the proper nutrients they need.
This area seeks also to provide proper diet to patients in the health care facilities through?

a. Nutrition Care Process

b. Compliance of Nutrition Counseling
c. Case Studies of Patients

4. Food Service Management- This area focuses on menu planning operations, revenue
management, human resources, training, marketing and customer service. This agenda also
identifies the need to impose proper sanitation in food preparation as well as student’s
performance in the academe. Thus, the following themes are part of the agenda.

a. Food Safety
b. Halal Foods
c. Assessment of Food Wastage in the hospital
a. Board Exam Performance
b. Curriculum Development
c. Effectiveness of the Curriculum
d. Continuing Profession Education/ Development

5. Technology- The nutrition and dietetics profession is also concerned on the processing and
storing of information. In today’s generation, knowledge in nutrition as well as awareness on it
can be very well observed with the aid of technology thus the program wanted to develop:

a. Development of Nutrition Applications

6. Other Nutrition Concerns- One of the mission statements of the university is to exercise
leadership in the pursuit of excellence in instruction, research and community service thus we do
not focus only on the academic side of the students but also to their corporate social
responsibility. In line with this the program wanted to come up with a study that involves:

a. Indigenous Foods
b. Corporate Wellness
c. Fitness Nutrition
 Research Agenda for Hotel and Restaurant Management

The goal of every Restaurateur is to be able to run and manage the business through the
application of different principles. Leadership for one is the basic qualities that every HRM
graduates should possess, leadership in a way that they possess a practical skills encompassing to
lead or guide an individual or group of organization. The University on its quest for excellence is
striving to address various concerns in relation to the Hotel and Restaurant Management that
encompasses various areas such as infrastructure, green practices, human resource management
and customer management.

1. Infrastructure. The Hotel and Restaurant Management Professions is not only concerned on
the way the food is to be presented and the hospitable way of accommodating its clients, they
are also concerned on the green practices on hotels and restaurant infrastructure as their way
of protecting the environment.

a. The Impact of Green Practices to Infrastructure Development in Sustainability

2. Human Resource Management- is the term used to describe formal systems devised for
the management of people within an organization. The responsibilities of a human resource
manager fall into three major areas: staffing, employee compensation and benefits, and
defining/designing work. Employees are considered to be the backbone of the industry. Richard
Branson once said that Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your
employees, they will take care of the clients. Human Resource is one of the areas that need to be
addressed in whatever industry it may be, so much more with the hospitality industry due to their
line of duties.

a. Addressing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

b. Soft Skills Development of Industry Practitioners
c. Implications of Technological Advancement to the Human Workforce
d. Employees Job Mismatch

3. Customer Management- is an approach to managing a company's interaction with current and

potential future customers which tries to analyze data about customers' history with a company,
to improve business relationships with customers, specifically focusing on customer retention.
After the employees comes the customer. A client that goes home happy will likely say
something good about your company to others. As a future hoteliers and restaurateurs, one of the
thrusts of the program is to ensure that the students will be equipped with knowledge on proper
customer management

a. Impact of Social media to the Industry

b. Adaptability of Employees to Different Cultures and Nationality of Customers
c. Customer Engagement Sustainability

4. Food- Food preparation and food presentation is one of the cores of Hotel and restaurant
Management. How the food will be cooked and presented as well as the different innovations
one will introduce becomes a challenge to every restaurateur. In addition to that, economically
we are also challenged due to the fact that there are some commodities that the country has been
experiencing food shortage, rice for one which is a staple food for Filipinos has been
experiencing such phenomenon.

a. Product Development on Creating Local Cookbook

b. Fusion Foods of Ethnic Origin
c. Government Support on Locally Produced Food Products
d. Restaurant Food Waste Management
e. Food Waste: A Restaurant Challenge