engleski

Aggregate selective vegetable plate waste in 7 primary schools in Zagreb municipal and correlation between vegetable plate waste and food preferences

Recent evidence has shown that inadequate fruit and vegetable (FV) intake in school children might be associated with higher risk of non-communicable diseases. Early intervention can increase the FV intake in children and reduce these risks. The aims of this study were: (1) to determine the amount of plate waste (PW) in schools, with special emphasis on vegetable intake, and (2) to determine the possible correlation between PW and food preferences in primary school children. Subjects and methods: The study includes 720 children aged 7 to 10, of which 48% were boys and 52% are girls, from 7 primary schools in Zagreb municipal. The data were collected from December 2017 until March 2018, which represents autumn/winter school menus, for 5 consecutive days in each primary school. The aggregate selective PW method was used to collect the amount of PW from lunch meals which include vegetables (soups, stews, salad or side dishes). Food preferences were assessed after tasting, using a five-point ‘faces’ scale (scores 1 to 5 ; 5 being the most preferable). Also, if the children didn’t finish the meal they were offered to choose the reasons why. Results: All of the schools have a daily lunch offer of at least one vegetable item or a complete meal comprising vegetables (soups, stews, salads or side dishes). The results show that the average amount of PW per day is 5.52 kg, 0.90 kg and 2.14 kg for stews and soups, salads and side dishes, respectively. According to the serving size the average PW for stews and soups was 44% per plate (118.6 g), for salads was 45% per plate (65.47 g), and for side dishes was 60% per plate (128.41 g). The average score for stews and soups was 3.8 ± 1.4, for salads was 3.5 ± 1.4 and for side dishes was 3.7 ± 1.5. There is a week negative correlation between PW and food preference rate (p=0.038, r=-0.337). The most common answers of why they didn’t eat the whole meal were: “I didn’t like the taste of the food”, “I cannot eat that much food”, “I don’t eat that food at home”. Conclusion: The preliminary results indicate that the large amount of PW originates from vegetable dishes, and there is a weak correlation with food preferences in primary school children. Hence, apart from food preferences there are other factors that affect PW and vegetable intake. These factors should be estimated in the future and could contribute to establishing the various effective strategies that will encourage lower PW and increased vegetable intake in Croatian primary school children. This project is funded by the European Commission - Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme “Strength2Food” under grant agreement No. 678024.

aggregate plate waste

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