Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jul 19:67.
doi: 10.29219/fnr.v67.9405. eCollection 2023.

High availability of vegetables and fruit through government-funded school lunch is not reflected in 4th grade pupils' intake

Cecilia Olsson  1 , Agneta Hörnell  1 , Maria Waling  1
Affiliations

High availability of vegetables and fruit through government-funded school lunch is not reflected in 4th grade pupils' intake

Cecilia Olsson et al. Food Nutr Res. .

Abstract

Background: An increased intake of vegetable and fruit (VF) through school meals can contribute to the prevention of non-communicable diseases.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate what types of VF 4th grade pupils (10-11 years old) choose, how much they eat when they are given the opportunity to serve themselves from the daily vegetable buffet available at lunch, and whether this varies with socioeconomic background and gender.

Design: A cross-sectional study design was used where pupils' VF intake was measured during 5 days with a photographic method. In total, 196 pupils from nine public schools participated.

Results: The results show that pupils on average ate less than one type of VF per day from the vegetable buffet. Girls, pupils with a higher socio-economic status (SES) and those with a more frequent VF intake at home, ate more types of VF per day from the vegetable buffet than their counterparts. The median intake of VF from the vegetable buffet was generally low, 20.4 g/day. The intake was two thirds higher for pupils with higher SES in comparison with pupils with lower SES; 25 g/day versus14 g/day (P = 0.001). No gender differences in grams per day of VF were identified (P = 0.123).

Discussion: This study indicates that a well-stocked vegetable buffet as part of government-funded school lunch does not automatically contribute substantially to the recommended daily intake of VF among a sample of 4th grade pupils in a high-income country like Sweden.

Conclusions: The results of the study can be interpreted as a missed opportunity to increase the intentional consumption of VF among pupils in a way that would have implications for public health as well as attenuating differences between socioeconomic groups.

Keywords: dietary intake; fruit; pupils; school lunch; vegetables.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest. The ProMeal-study was funded by NordForsk (grant number 54761).

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Number of serving days of VF during 45 school days representing 5 days respectively at nine schools. Bars illustrating fruits are marked in dark grey.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Proportion of pupils (n = 196) who ate different VF when it was served in the vegetable buffet. Bars illustrate the proportion of pupils who ate different VF on at least 1 day during the 5 study days when it was available in the vegetable buffet (light grey bar = vegetables; dark grey = fruit). The black line illustrates the proportion of pupils who were served the different VF on at least 1 day during the 5 study days.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Pupils´ median daily intake of separate VF served in the vegetable buffet. The boxes are limited to the 12 components where pupils had the highest median intake. The vertical black bold line denotes the median value (50th percentile) while the box contains the 25th and 75th percentiles. ‘o’ depicts outliers, and ‘*’ depicts extreme values.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Miller V, Mente A, Dehghan M, Rangarajan S, Zhang X, Swaminathan S, et al. . Fruit, vegetable, and legume intake, and cardiovascular disease and deaths in 18 countries (PURE): a prospective cohort study. Lancet 2017; 390(10107): 2037–49. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32253-5 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Aune D, Giovannucci E, Boffetta P, Fadnes LT, Keum N, Norat T, et al. . Fruit and vegetable intake and the risk of cardiovascular disease, total cancer and all-cause mortality-a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies. Int J Epidemiol 2017; 46(3): 1029–56. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyw319 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Willett W, Rockström J, Loken B, Springmann M, Lang T, Vermeulen S, et al. . Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. Lancet 2019; 393(10170): 447–92. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31788-4 - DOI - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization . Diet, nutrition, and the prevention of chronic diseases: report of a joint WHO/FAO expert consultation. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2003. WHO Technical Report Series; 916. Available from: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/42665/WHO_TRS_916.pdf;js... [cited 9 February 2023].
    1. Diethelm K, Jankovic N, Moreno LA, Huybrechts I, De Henauw S, De Vriendt T, et al. . Food intake of European adolescents in the light of different food-based dietary guidelines: results of the HELENA (Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence) Study. Public Health Nutr 2012; 15(3): 386–98. doi: 10.1017/S1368980011001935 - DOI - PubMed