engleski

Assessment of lunch plate waste and meal acceptance among elementary school children

Objective: School meals contribute to the daily energy and nutrient intake of children. Plate waste in schools does not only represent a loss of resources and money, but may also lead to the child’s dietary intake being inadequate. The objective of the study was to assess lunch plate waste and meal acceptance among school children, while identifying reasons of food waste. Methods: The lunch plate waste assessment was conducted among 137 elementary school children. Three randomly chosen portions of the lunch meal were weighted before serving, while after the meal each plate’s leftovers were weighted separately. Meal acceptance was assessed with the Taste and Rate method, and the reasons for food waste were determined with a short questionnaire. Results: On average, 41% of bread, 27% of leek stew, 23% of meat and 7% of pudding was wasted. On a scale from 1 (“I didn’t like it at all”) to 5 (“I liked it a lot”), the majority of children (69%) graded the stew with high grades, with an average of 4.0 ± 1.2. Among children who did not finish the stew the most common reasons were that they disliked the taste (36%), the portion size was too large (36%) or they did not eat that meal at home (22%). Conclusion: This study confirms previous findings that food preferences are a good predictor of food consumption, with family habits also influencing school meal acceptance through dietary habits and food exposure. School meals should be revised and adjusted in order to minimize plate waste and meet the dietary needs of schoolchildren.

plate waste, elementary school, lunch, preferences

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