Children's Nutrition Action Plan - The Food Commission

• In one of the home-based studies with ‘fussy eaters’ (aged 5-6 years), children’s consumption of
targeted fruit rose from 4% to 100%, and of targeted vegetables from 1% to 83%. Targeted fruit
consumption was still at 100%, and vegetable consumption at 58%, when the children were
observed again six months later.
• In day-care nursery settings results were equally impressive. In one study, for example, lunchtime
vegetable consumption rose from 20% to 89% and, in the case of fruit, from an initial 17% to
76% fifteen months later.
• In primary-school settings, the effects on children’s diets were similarly strong and long lasting.
Even when popular sweet and savoury snacks were presented alongside the fruit and vegetables,
fruit consumption of 5-6 year olds more than doubled from an initial level of 28% to 59% six
months later, while vegetable consumption rose four-fold, from 8% to 32%.
• Successive studies demonstrated that these positive effects were not limited to foods experienced
during the programme, but spread to a wide range of other fruit and vegetables.
• Similarly, the positive effects were found to be general across contexts. For example, in the case
of the school studies, it was found that the effects extended beyond the school context into the
home environment and, in the nursery setting, from snack-time to lunchtime.
HEALTH EA TING AT S C HOOL PRO JEC T
A new large-scale project (begun in January, 1999) aims to develop the learning programme as a selfcontained
whole-school package that can be administered autonomously by primary schools
themselves across the full age range of their pupils. The project is funded by the Horticultural
Development Council, the Fresh Produce Consortium, ASDA, the Co-operative Wholesale Society,
Safeway, Sainsbury’s, Somerfield, T esco and Birds Eye Wall’s and is monitored by a Steering
Committee that includes representatives from the Departments of Health and Education, the Ministry
for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Food Standards Agency.
New procedures and materials, including videos and educational materials, have been developed and
tested in primary schools in Harwell (Oxfordshire), Bangor (Gwynedd), Salford (Manchester),
Brixton (Lambeth) and Stockwell (Lambeth); over 1,00 children aged 4-11 have participated. The
Stockwell school acted as a control school in which fruit and vegetable consumption without the
learning programme was measured. In all schools children were presented with fruit and vegetables at
lunchtime and fruit and/or vegetables at ‘snack-time’ (immediately prior to morning break). The
learning programme was then introduced in those schools selected for the intervention, and in all of
them this resulted in very significant increases in pupils’ fruit and vegetable consumption. For
instance, in Harwell, at snack-time it rose from 47% to 83% for fruit and from 37% to 77% for
vegetables, and at lunchtime, from 46% to 82% for fruit and from 29% to 84% for vegetables. Some
of the largest percentage increases were seen in the most socially deprived areas. For example, in
Salford, lunchtime consumption of fruit increased by 150% (to 38g) and of vegetables by 315% (to
33g). Similarly, in the Bangor and Brixton schools there were substantial increases in consumption,
particularly at lunchtime. On the other hand, in the Stockwell control school, where the learning
programme was not introduced, no increases in fruit and vegetable consumption occurred either at
snack-time or lunchtime.
Parents responded very positively to the programme. Almost all those who completed a postintervention
questionnaire said they believed their children had benefited from taking part in it. Over
80% reported that their child had started to eat more fruit and vegetables at home and most of these
also said that their child had asked them to buy additional fruits and vegetables. Teachers were
equally enthusiastic, not only because of the programmes’ beneficial effects on pupils’ diets, but also
because it boosted pupils’ interest in related aspects of the curriculum and increased school
attendance. An important feature of the programme is the provision of a Food Dude Educational
Materials pack designed to assist teachers to achieve national curriculum targets in English,
mathematics and science, drawing upon the enthusiasm generated by the programme. (For additional
The Children’s Nutrition Action Plan, published by The Food Commission
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