Encouraging consumption of fruit and vegetables by young people through school-based interventions

The Nutrition Division of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) held a seminar in November 2001 to discuss results from research projects related to encouraging good diets and identifying needs to ensure an integrated approach within schools. The principle aim of the seminar was to discuss the results from school-based interventions designed to increase fruit and vegetable consumption by young people and, in particular, to disseminate results from four FSA-commissioned interventions to interested parties. Six presentations on a range of school-based interventions were given in the morning; four discussion workshops, arranged such that participants provided a mixture of perspectives in each group, were held in the afternoon. Participants identified common issues of interest and concern as a result of discussing topics related to school-based nutrition, namely: What works to encourage fruit and vegetable consumption? What doesn't work? What impedes progress? and Where do we go from here? A general feeling was that there is a lot of activity in this area but it needs to be more coordinated. Successful aspects and learning experiences from each of the initiatives could be encompassed into a single intervention. The FSA will be discussing with colleagues in the Department for Education and Skills and the Department of Health how to build further on the experiences gained from the projects.