Effectiveness of a Multi-Strategy Behavioral Intervention to Increase Vegetable Sales in Primary School Canteens: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Children’s vegetable intake remains inadequate and school canteens may provide opportunities to address this public health concern. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of an 8-week multi-strategy behavioral intervention that included vegetable provisioning and online menu architecture on vegetable sales in primary school canteens. A randomized controlled trial was undertaken in 16 Australian primary schools (n = 4302 students). The control arm kept their regular canteen menu. The primary outcome was vegetable sales measured by assessing vegetable content (in grams) from all menu items and using canteen sales (ordered online and over-the-counter) to calculate vegetable sales (in grams/week) at baseline (3 weeks) and during intervention implementation (8 weeks). Secondary outcomes were vegetable sales in subcategories, intervention acceptability among canteen managers and vegetable waste (four schools). Linear mixed model analysis showed that from baseline to follow-up, the intervention group had significantly higher weekly vegetable sales overall compared with the control group (2707 g/week, 95% CI 1276 to 4137 g/week; p < 0.001), with increased vegetable sales in the subcategories of burgers, hot foods and snacks, but not in sandwiches and pasta/rice dishes. The intervention did not lead to more vegetable waste, nor to a decrease in canteen revenue. The canteen managers found the intervention easy to implement and felt children responded favorably to three of the seven strategies. In conclusion, a multi-strategy behavioral canteen intervention increased vegetable sales amongst primary school students.

Working together to increase Australian children’s liking of vegetables: a position statement by the Vegetable Intake Strategic Alliance (VISA)

“…In Australia, challenges to canteen supply and food brought from home are similar, with an absence of vegetables in both ( 36 ) . Trials undertaken, as part of the larger project in which the current work was located, succeeded in increasing vegetable sales in school canteens ( 37 ) . Opportunities in ECEC across OECD countries may be universal.…”

Vegetable sales data mining: association rule analysis

“…As a result, it is necessary to collect data on food sales from other supermarkets to inform pricing in order to gain an advantage over competing merchants [5][6].…”

comedor escolar como escenario de aprendizaje: una revisión sistemática

“…Para otros autores, la estrategia se relaciona con la participación de diferentes actores como: el personal encargado del comedor escolar, el maestro, los estudiantes (Benn & Carlsson, 2014;Derqui et al,2018;vidal-Mones et al, 2022), y los padres de familia, quienes desde la infancia influyen directamente en el rechazo o aceptación de los alimentos (Donadini et al, 2022;Pancino et al, 2021). Así mismo es el personal de la cocina y los proveedores de los alimentos, quienes deben brindar de manera atractiva el alimento, de ofrecer una variedad de alimentos acorde a las necesidades y preferencias de los estudiantes según la edad y las necesidades y particularidades de cada escuela (Poelman et al, 2022).…”

“…Si bien la alimentación escolar ha arrojado resultados exitosos, problemáticas sociales, económicas, culturales y ambientales, ha llevado a los investigadores a explorar el impacto del comer en la escuela no solo desde lo nutricional, sino del aprendizaje y en el escenario donde se desarrolla esta práctica, problemáticas tales como: el desperdicio alimentario, el cual es ignorado por la sociedad y desconocido su alcance, las cuales deben ser abordados en la escuela, no solo a partir de un conocimiento teórico en el aula, sino en el espacio físico en el cual se ofrece, identificando la relación de hábitos, comportamientos, prácticas en función de las percepciones, gustos, preferencias, tradiciones, aprendizaje social e incluso aspectos sociodemográficas (Burton et al, 2022;Donadini et al, 2022;Poelman et al, 2022;Sundin et al, 2023;Tóth et al, 2023), y es precisamente la falta de escenarios saludables, de prácticas de consumo responsable tanto en los hogares como en la escuela que llevan a estudiar la alimentación y el comedor escolar como una experiencia para el aprendizaje.…”