//returns the food items for the user identified by uid
        public List <BFoodItem> getFoodList(long uid)
        {
            FoodItemAccess   fia        = new FoodItemAccess();
            List <FoodItem>  food_list  = fia.get_food_list(uid);
            List <BFoodItem> bfood_list = new List <BFoodItem>();

            foreach (FoodItem fi in food_list)
            {
                bfood_list.Add(convert_to_bfi(fi));
            }
            return(bfood_list);
        }