Can Latino food trucks (loncheras) serve healthy meals? A feasibility study.

OBJECTIVE
To conduct a pilot study to assess the feasibility of modifying food truck meals to meet the My Plate guidelines as well as the acceptability of healthier meals among consumers.

DESIGN
We recruited the owners of Latino food trucks (loncheras) in 2013-2014 and offered an incentive for participation, assistance with marketing and training by a bilingual dietitian. We surveyed customers and we audited purchases to estimate sales of the modified meals.

SETTING
City of Los Angeles, CA, USA.

SUBJECTS
Owners or operators of Latino food trucks (loncheras) and their customers.

RESULTS
We enrolled twenty-two lonchera owners and eleven completed the intervention, offering more than fifty new menu items meeting meal guidelines. Sales of the meals comprised 2 % of audited orders. Customers rated the meals highly; 97 % said they would recommend and buy them again and 75 % of participants who completed the intervention intended to continue offering the healthier meals. However, adherence to guidelines drifted after several months of operation and participant burden was cited as a reason for dropout among three of eleven lonchera owners who dropped out.

CONCLUSIONS
Lonchera owners/operators who participated reported minimal difficulty in modifying menu items. Given the difficulty in enrolment, expanding this programme and ensuring adherence would likely need to be accomplished through regulatory requirements, monitoring and feedback, similar to the methods used to achieve compliance with sanitary standards. A companion marketing campaign would be helpful to increase consumer demand.