Fruit and vegetable availability among ten European countries:how does it compare with the ‘five-a-day’ recommendation?

Abstract

Recasting the role of fruit and vegetables (F&V) in the diet, and planning national and international campaigns to enhance their consumption are major public health service objectives. The present study seeks to describe F&V availability patterns in ten European countries and examine compliance with current recommendations. The mean and median F&V availability (g/person per d) was estimated based on household budget survey data retrieved from the Data Food Networking (DAFNE) databank. Low F&V consumers were identified based on WHO international recommendations (minimum combined F&V intake of about 400 g/person per d) and current conservative guidelines of a minimum daily intake of three portions of vegetables and two portions of fruit. Considerable disparities in F&V availability were found among the surveyed European populations. Only in Mediterranean countries did the mean daily population intake clearly exceed combined F&V recommendations. Dietary patterns were positively skewed in all populations studied, on account of the presence of exceptionally high values among segments of the populations. Moreover, the correlation was unexpectedly weak between the proportion of low fruit and low vegetable consumers (Spearman's correlation coefficient +0·18). More than 50 % of the households in the surveyed populations are likely to consume less than the recommended daily vegetable intake of three portions, and this applies even to the two Mediterranean populations. The efficiency of F&V promoting strategies may be enhanced if F&V are addressed separately; furthermore, interventions that would specifically focus on vegetables are probably needed.

Health advertising to promote fruit and vegetable intake: Application of health-related motive segmentation

“…However, this is unlikely, and surely we must take into account some overestimation of the reported behavior, as self-reported measures concerning 'healthy' products (e.g., F&V) -due to a social desirability tendency -are considered to be sensible for 'overreporting', whereas self-reported measures concerning 'unhealthy' products (e.g., fats and sugars) suffer from 'underreporting' (Westerterp & Goris, 2002). Other measures of F&V consumption in Belgium mention lower average values than those that were obtained in our study, with much more people being not in accordance with the recommended levels (Naska et al, 2000;Verbeke & Pieniak, 2006). Another explanation for the high reported levels of F&V intake may be that subjects who decided to participate in our study are more health conscious and/or more involved with F&V consumption, and therefore more likely to eat greater amounts of F&V than the general population of consumers.…”

“…The World Health Organization (WHO, 1990) recommends a daily intake of at least 400 g of F&V, which is equivalent to about five 80 g portions of F&V per day. Nevertheless, consumption statistics show that the consumption levels of fresh F&V remain substantially below this recommended level in many countries (Naska et al, 2000;Verbeke & Pieniak, 2006).…”

Fruits and vegetables availability for human consumption in Latin American and Caribbean countries: Patterns and determinants

“…This trend was in sharp contrast to the trend observed in Africa (Ruel et al, 2004) but similar to the patterns observed in Europe (Naska et al, 2000;Yngve et al, 2005). 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Availability/c/y in kg.…”

Pulsed electric fields–processed orange juice consumption increases plasma vitamin C and decreases F2-isoprostanes in healthy humans

“…Fruits and vegetables are the main sources of vitamin C, but 25% of women and about 33% of men in US eat less than 2.5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily to provide about 80 mg/day of vitamin C [22,23]. Data retrieved from the Data Food Networking (DAFNE) databank concluded that, on average, more than 64% of the households are likely to consume less than the recommended daily fruit and vegetable intake of five servings per day [24].…”