SCHEDULING WEEKLY MENUS IN A HOSPITAL WITH INTEGER PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES

Abstract

Scheduling food services in health centres is a complex issue involving several factors. In this work we present an integer programming model for planning a weekly menu of meals for a hospital in Argentina. Lunches and dinners must be planned, and each meal involves a starter, a main course, a side dish, and a dessert. The goal is to propose a weekly menu that minimizes the total cost while fulfilling requirements of healthy food habits, variety, and local gastronomy. Our results show improvements in costs between 21% and 25% compared to existing manually-designed plans.