Application of Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms for Planning Healthy and Balanced School Lunches

Juan-Manuel Ramos-Pérez, Gara Miranda, Eduardo Segredo, Coromoto León and Casiano Rodríguez-León
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Juan-Manuel Ramos-Pérez: Departamento de Ingeniería Informática y de Sistemas, Universidad de La Laguna, Apdo. 456, 38200 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Spain
Gara Miranda: Departamento de Ingeniería Informática y de Sistemas, Universidad de La Laguna, Apdo. 456, 38200 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Spain
Eduardo Segredo: Departamento de Ingeniería Informática y de Sistemas, Universidad de La Laguna, Apdo. 456, 38200 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Spain
Coromoto León: Departamento de Ingeniería Informática y de Sistemas, Universidad de La Laguna, Apdo. 456, 38200 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Spain
Casiano Rodríguez-León: Departamento de Ingeniería Informática y de Sistemas, Universidad de La Laguna, Apdo. 456, 38200 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Spain

Mathematics, 2020, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-24

Abstract: A multi-objective formulation of the Menu Planning Problem, which is termed the Multi-objective Menu Planning Problem, is presented herein. Menu planning is of great interest in the health field due to the importance of proper nutrition in today’s society, and particularly, in school canteens. In addition to considering the cost of the meal plan as the classic objective to be minimized, we also introduce a second objective aimed at minimizing the degree of repetition of courses and food groups that a particular meal plan consists of. The motivation behind this particular multi-objective formulation is to offer a meal plan that is not only affordable but also varied and balanced from a nutritional standpoint. The plan is designed for a given number of days and ensures that the specific nutritional requirements of school-age children are satisfied. The main goal of the current work is to demonstrate the multi-objective nature of the said formulation, through a comprehensive experimental assessment carried out over a set of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms applied to different instances. At the same time, we are also interested in validating the multi-objective formulation by performing quantitative and qualitative analyses of the solutions attained when solving it. Computational results show the multi-objective nature of the said formulation, as well as that it allows suitable meal plans to be obtained.

Keywords: menu planning; multi-objective optimization; multi-criteria decision making; evolutionary computation; health and nutrition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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