Dataset Information

Environmental and nutrition impact of achieving new School Food Plan recommendations in the primary school meals sector in England.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

The aim of this modelling study was to estimate the expected changes in the nutritional quality and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) of primary school meals due to the adoption of new mandatory food-based standards for school meals.

Setting

Nationally representative random sample of 136 primary schools in England was selected for the Primary School Food Survey (PSFS) with 50% response rate.

Participants

A sample of 6690 primary students from PSFS who consumed school meals.

Outcome measures

Primary School Food Plan (SFP) nutritional impact was assessed using both macronutrient and micronutrient quality. The environmental impact was measured by GHGEs.

Methods

The scenario tested was one in which every meal served in schools met more than half of the food-based standards mentioned in the SFP (SFP scenario). We used findings from a systematic review to assign GHGE values for each food item in the data set. The GHGE value and nutritional quality of SFP scenario meals was compared with the average primary school meal in the total PSFS data set (pre-SFP scenario). Prior to introduction of the SFP (pre-SFP scenario), the primary school meals had mandatory nutrient-based guidelines.

Results

The percentage of meals that met the protein standard increased in the SFP scenario and the proportion of meals that met the standards for important micronutrients (eg, iron, calcium, vitamin A and C) also increased. However, the SFP scenario did not improve the salt, saturated fat and free sugar levels. The mean GHGE value of meals which met the SFP standards was 0.79 (95% CI 0.77 to 0.81) kgCO₂e compared with a mean value of 0.72 (0.71 to 0.74) kgCO₂e for all meals. Adopting the SFP would increase the total emissions associated with primary school meals by 22?000?000?kgCO₂e per year.

Conclusions

The universal adoption of the new food-based standards, without reformulation would result in an increase in the GHGEs of school meals and improve some aspects of the nutritional quality, but it would not improve the average salt, sugar and saturated fat content levels.

SUBMITTER: Wickramasinghe K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5691295 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Environmental and nutrition impact of achieving new School Food Plan recommendations in the primary school meals sector in England.

Wickramasinghe Kremlin K Rayner Mike M Goldacre Michael M Townsend Nick N Scarborough Peter P

BMJ open 20170405 4

<h4>Objectives</h4>The aim of this modelling study was to estimate the expected changes in the nutritional quality and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) of primary school meals due to the adoption of new mandatory food-based standards for school meals.<h4>Setting</h4>Nationally representative random sample of 136 primary schools in England was selected for the Primary School Food Survey (PSFS) with 50% response rate.<h4>Participants</h4>A sample of 6690 primary students from PSFS who consumed sch ...[more]

PMID: 28381419

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Project description:To achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger, multi-sectoral strategies to improve nutrition are necessary. Building towards this goal, the food and agriculture sector must be considered when designing nutritional interventions. Nevertheless, most frameworks designed to guide nutritional interventions do not adequately capture opportunities for integrating nutrition interventions within the food and agriculture sector. This paper aims to highlight how deeply connected the food and agriculture sector is to underlying causes of malnutrition and identify opportunities to better integrate the food and agriculture sector and nutrition in low and middle income countries. In particular, this paper: (1) expands on the UNICEF conceptual framework for undernutrition to integrate the food and agriculture sector and nutrition outcomes, (2) identifies how nutritional outcomes and agriculture are linked in six important ways by defining evidence-based food and agriculture system components within these pathways: as a source of food, as a source of income, through food prices, women's empowerment, women's utilization of time, and women's health and nutritional status, and (3) shows that the food and agriculture sector facilitates interventions through production, processing and consumption, as well as through farmer practices and behavior. Current frameworks used to guide nutrition interventions are designed from a health sector paradigm, leaving agricultural aspects not sufficiently leveraged. This paper concludes by proposing intervention opportunities to rectify the missed opportunities generated by this approach. Program design should consider the ways that the food and agriculture sector is linked to other critical sectors to comprehensively address malnutrition. This framework is designed to help the user to begin to identify intervention sites that may be considered when planning and implementing multi-sectoral nutrition programs.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12571-022-01262-3.

Project description:ObjectivesChanges in public sector service spending may influence food consumption. We make use of changing local authority (LA) expenditure in England to assess impacts on food purchasing. We examine total LA service spending and explore two potential pathways: highways and transport spending which may affect access to food; and housing service expenditure which may affect household resources available to purchase foods.DesignLongitudinal panel survey at the LA level (2008-2015) using fixed effects linear regression.Setting324 LAs in England.Main exposureExpenditure per capita on total LA services, highways and transport services, and housing services.Main outcome measuresLA area estimates of purchasing of fresh fruits and vegetables, high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) foods, and takeaways at home, expressed as a percentage of total food and drink expenditure.ResultsTotal LA service spending decreased by 17% on average between 2008 and 2015. A 10% decrease in total LA spending was associated with a 0.071 percentage point decrease in HFSS (95% CI -0.093 to -0.050) and a 0.015 percentage point increase in takeaways (95% CI 0.006 to 0.024). A 10% decrease in highways and transport expenditure was associated with a 0.006 percentage point decrease in fruit and vegetable purchasing (95% CI -0.009 to -0.002) and a 0.006 percentage point increase in takeaway purchasing (95% CI 0.001 to 0.010). These associations were seen in urban areas only when analyses were stratified by rural/urban area status. A 0.006 percentage point decrease in HFSS purchasing was also seen with a 10% decrease in housing expenditure (95% CI -0.010 to -0.002).ConclusionChanges in LA spending may have impacts on food purchasing which are evident at the area level. This suggests that in addition to more prominent impacts such as foodbank use, austerity measures may have mixed impacts on food purchasing behaviours among the wider population. Individual-level research is needed to further elucidate these relationships.

Dataset Information

Environmental and nutrition impact of achieving new School Food Plan recommendations in the primary school meals sector in England.

Objectives

Setting

Participants

Outcome measures

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Environmental and nutrition impact of achieving new School Food Plan recommendations in the primary school meals sector in England.

Similar Datasets

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