ABSTRACT
It is widely known that school lunches in the U.S. possess a deficiency in nutritional content, contributing to possible health concerns including, but not limited to, adolescent obesity, nutritional deficiency, food poisoning, and others. Addressing the issue of nutritional deficiency in school food is imperative to society. However, this issue remains unexplored in academic research. In this research, mathematical models are used to study how to improve the nutritional level in school lunches. We examine if investing in improving food nutrition is attractive for producers and what optimal nutrition level the producers should add. Through mathematical models, we drive the optimal nutrition level the producers can provide for schools while allowing the producers to earn higher profit. The results suggest that when the producers invest in enhancing school lunch nutrition, it is beneficial for them to do so. However, the optimal nutrition level and corresponding price must be set so that all parties can benefit. Furthermore, we also show that the market valuation of product nutrition and the cost-effectiveness of nutrition improvement significantly impact the producer's motivation to invest in nutrition improvement.
Keywords
Nutrition improvement; Mathematical model; Price; Profit; Optimization