engleski

Does school menus in Zagreb municipality offer enough fruits and vegetables?

Introduction: Adequate consumption of fruit and vegetables (FV) can have a positive effect on health and World Health Organization (WHO) recommends to eat at least 400 g of FV to achieve this. In Croatian schools, children from 1st to 4th grade can stay up to 8 hours in school, therefore, school menus should offer an adequate amount of FV to help children reach the recommendation throughout the day. The aims of this study were: (1) to evaluate whether school menus follow the recommendation for the daily amount of FV, (2) to estimate which meals contain the most FV, and (3) to determine which FV are most commonly offered in school menus. Methods: Quantity and frequency of FV was estimated in annual schools’ menus from 14 primary schools in Zagreb municipality. Menus were obtained from the school staff while standard quantities of ingredients were obtained from direct conversation with the schools’ chefs. Estimation of served FV includes all fresh, frozen and canned FV except potatoes, dried legumes and nuts. The WHO recommendation of 400 g of FV per day per child was proportionally adjusted according to number and meal type, as served according to recommendations from Croatian national nutritional guidelines for elementary school students. For analysis of frequency firstly FV were grouped as fresh/frozen and canned FV. Fresh/frozen FV were further divided into categories according to national guidelines. Results: School menus offer on average 62% of the recommended amount of FV daily. However, there was a great variability between schools. Only one school offered more than 100% of the recommendation while other schools offered between 33% and 89%. The FV was served within 97% of lunches, 54% of breakfast and 27% of snacks. Annually school menus offered 97% fresh/frozen fruits and 82% fresh/frozen vegetables. The most two frequently-served categories of vegetables were bulbous (40%) and root (25%) vegetables. The two most frequently-served categories of fruits were pome (47%) and tropical (23%) fruits. Conclusion: School menus do not meet the recommendation for daily serving quantities of FV. It is necessary to increase the availability and diversity of FV in school menus. This research was funded by the European Commission – Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme project “Strength2Food” under grand agreement No. 678024.

fruits ; vegetables ; school menus ; frequency

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